Richard Fidler

What did he have to say about his father, though?

Mick had all the rebel qualities of his dad.

He was his father's biggest critic and Mick, who read the drafts of the book, says, yes, I suppose I am.

But he admitted that his perspective was his alone.

His brothers, for instance, would have different opinions of his father.

And by the time he'd finished reading drafts of the book, he told me that he'd had to change his opinion of his dad on quite a few issues.

Well, I guess it's an under-told part of the Anzac story.

The Anzac story is really important to Australians, but it's been presented almost exclusively, especially in its public form, as a secular narrative, as if the Anzacs weren't interested in religion.

And yet...

These soldiers were raised in the time when more Australians went to church than any period before or after.

So there's a significant number have a religious background.

And in my research, I found that up to a quarter of the soldiers were active in their faith.

Now, we've got one fifth of the Anzacs who are from the bush, one fifth of the Anzacs who were born in the UK, and more than a fifth who are religious.

But only one of those three elements makes it into the Anzac legend.

And I think it's worth asking.

I mean, we kind of treat the Anzac story now as a secular religion.

Many, many historians and commentators call it that.

But have we asked what was the spiritual nature of the Anzacs?

Since we're interested in treating them as a kind of a spiritual force, what was their spirituality?

Absolutely.