Richard Fidler

What was he thinking he would do now that the war was over?

This was a great puzzle that he hadn't solved.

Even in 1914, he'd written to Dorry saying, I don't know how I will go after the war, after all this amongst men.

And he kind of thought drinking cups of tea with old ladies, hmm.

So when he returns to Australia in 1920, he actually takes up a soldier settlement farm.

He becomes a farmer.

Yes.

I detect there's a crisis of faith here, don't you?

Possibly, although there is no particular evidence for it.

I wonder if he is still searching for adventure.

In between the end of the war and becoming a farmer, he's desperately tried to join two world record flights, aviation flights from England and America.

He's just...

I think he's trying to find something that will be challenging.

I think so.

And it is the most disastrous failure of his life.

He has no instinct for farming.

He has no instinct for animals.

And of course, he's got no financial management skills.

No, 20 years at sea doesn't teach you much of that.

This is probably my favourite Dexter story.