‘Ross McMullin is one of Australia’s leading historians. This book shows his skills in so many different ways. He shows himself to be a sympathetic and skilled sports historian. He is also a skilled social historian dealing adeptly with the complexities of family, of community, of love, of boys growing to maturity, of all the arrangements of Australian society in the early years of the twentieth century. He also writes so well about battle, one of the hardest challenges a writer can face … Readers will appreciate the prodigious research [and] will marvel at McMullin’s skill as a writer … Life So Full of Promise is Australian history at its very best.’
Michael McKernan
‘Ross McMullin’s account of those who fought in World War I is a masterpiece of storytelling, weaving family, community, sporting and military history into a satisfying whole … The contrast in family background between Pockley and Callaway is stressed in a paragraph which offers an echo of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities… Life So Full of Promise is a magnificent testament to the sufferings of an age.’
Bernard Whimpress, The Newtown Review of Books
‘McMullin charts these three lives and deaths and their aftermath with extraordinary care and sensitivity. He reconstructs the social and political worlds that each inhabited through detailed descriptions of relationships, passions, and events … The reconstruction of their lives sheds light not just on their special qualities but on so many other aspects of Australian history, from rural development to private education, the role of professions, industrial conflict, politics, religion, and sport. [There are] important insights into the role of women in peacetime families and communities as well as during the war … Ross McMullin is to be commended on another impressive contribution to Australian social history.’
Raelene Frances, Australian Book Review
‘Ross McMullin’s Life So Full of Promise is an impressive achievement, and a moving portrait of a generation lost to war. A sequel to his acclaimed Farewell, Dear People, it is a prodigiously researched, multi-biography of those affected by the First World War. Through the stories of everyday people, McMullin constructs a fascinating social history of early 20th century Australia, as well as a moving account of the horrors of war. It contains a mass of detail, all of which is compellingly conveyed by McMullin’s lucid and engaging narrative style to very good effect. A major contribution to our understanding of Australia’s past.’
Jeff Popple, Canberra Weekly
‘This long-anticipated sequel to Ross McMullin’s award-winning book, Farewell, Dear People, has been well worth the wait. Meticulously researched and sensitively written, [it features] a tour de force family biographical study, a rare feat in biography genre … The tender love affair played out between Doch and his war bride, Margot, [is] sensitively told … Ross weaves these so personal letters, military despatches, contemporaries’ reminiscences, and Charles Bean’s account of Doch deftly together to make readers understand that this young Bendigonian was a prime example of a man “of remarkable attributes and lost future”.’
Michele Matthews, Pharos
‘What is wonderful about Life So Full of Promise is that Ross McMullin quietly, but with the surety of thorough research, builds a sense of intimacy and connectivity … It’s a peculiar feeling when your own family stories, received as passing remarks or oral fragments, are assembled into a coherent narrative set against nation-building forces … Ross McMullin integrates intimate family dynamics with the wider forces of nation-building that flowed over and through people who are so cleverly drawn that they become us all.’
Simon Pockley, Goodreads
‘This book is an important contribution to modern Australian history and a reminder of a time when the fledging nation was a more innocent — and perhaps a more idealistic — society.’
Michael Sexton, The Australian
‘Ross McMullin also has a flair for storytelling, and his narrative is of the highest standard … Life So Full of Promise is an excellent book, [suitable for] anyone with an interest in the Golden Age of cricket, certainly in relation to Australia. There is much on the way the game was played and organised in that era at all levels. Those with an interest in military history will enjoy the book as well … Those interested in social history will find the book an interesting read, as well as those with an interest in Australian history up to and including the Great War. For anyone with more than a passing interest in all of those subjects it is an essential purchase.’
Martin Chandler, Cricketweb
‘There has been an enormous amount of research done in bringing these stories to life, and yet McMullin writes with remarkable style and clarity. With a storyteller’s gift he takes the reader from the homes, schools, sporting clubs and workplaces of Australia to the frontlines in German New Guinea, Gallipoli and the Western Front and back again … Ross McMullin has done an admirable job of resurrecting these Australian lives recognising the contribution they had, and could have made.’
Jack Francis, Good Reading Magazine, starred review
‘Through the stories of everyday people, Ross McMullin’s social history constructs a fascinating picture of early 20th century Australia, especially during wartime … Not just our seniors, but history buffs in general will find insight and intrigue in A Life So Full of Promise.’
Sydney Observer
‘ Ross McMullin reveals an enlightening and an intensely moving social history … [combining] prodigious research and narrative flair.
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Rama Gaind, psnew.com.au
