Richard Fidler

now virtually forgotten.

And I put it down to probably that the Anzac legend has trouble fitting a devout clergyman into its narrative.

And yet there they were.

They were extremely popular with the troops, but not very popular with us who want to remember Anzac.

Absolutely.

They started reading the papers that he'd left behind, his letters, his diaries.

They realised that they'd actually lived with an extraordinary man and not known it.

Several of them visited Gallipoli and were deeply moved by that experience.

And their opinion of their father changed.

Geraldine writes, you know, I thought he was just dad.

Everybody's got a dad.

And she goes, he was this extraordinary man and yet deeply humble.

I never knew he was that great.

Once he read your book...

were you able to change his perspective on his father?

Yes, yes.

He told me, we spoke after he'd read the first drafts of the book, and he goes, I've had to change my opinion.

He became aware that his father was not this pathetic figure that he'd sometimes painted.

What do you think?

Yeah, absolutely.