A Distant Island by Nancy Cato
From the first page I had to read this. A story about a Novocastrian boy & an ex boxer to boot, who traveled all over the world. But he wanted to come back to the Australia of his past, "you know all those things that never can be the same."
This is the true story of a Dutch boy who was born in France and ended up a fair dinkum Aussie in Brisbane Australia. He was in France when the war started. He was twelve years old. He helped his father hide Jewish refugees in the mountains around Marseilles.
Having been denounced for his anti-Nazi activities, his father sent him and his two younger brothers away to the centre of France for security. There, in March 1943 at the age of sixteen, he joined the Maquis, the fighting force of the French Resistance. During his service in the Maquis he witnessed many German atrocities. He visited Oradour–sur-Glane only days after the Germans had executed every man woman and child in the town and sat fire to the place.
From there Edmund travelled to New Guinea and Timor, completed his officer training in Australia and worked for the zoo catching wild animals. Edmund then became a Barrister of the Supreme Court of Queensland and the High Court of Australia and settled in Brisbane.
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