Our Corner of the Somme: Australia at Villers-Bretonneux tells the fascinating century-long story of French-Australian relations through previously unexplored and untranslated French primary materials, and renews our understanding of Australian war commemoration. It explores how the French remember ANZAC, and how Australia has remembered its Anzacs in France.

Our Corner of the Somme documents Australians’ interactions with local French people and French institutions on the former Western Front through their commemoration of Australia’s participation in the First World War. These commemorations, sometimes large and political and sometimes personal and moving, hold a significant place in Australian history.

Join us for a special ANZAC event with the book’s author Romain Fathi in conversation with Frank Bongiorno. 

Tickets: $15 (includes a complimentary glass of house wine or juice)

Romain Fathi (PhD) is Lecturer in Australian History at Flinders University and a chercheur associé at the Centre d’Histoire de Sciences Po, Paris. He has taught and researched at Sciences Po in France, Yale in the United States, and the University of Queensland in Australia. His primary research interests focus on the First World War, war commemorations and Australian identity.

Frank Bongiorno is Professor of History at the Australian National University. His books include The People’s Party: Victorian Labor and the Radical Tradition 1875-1914, The Sex Lives of Australians: A History, and The Eighties: The Decade that Transformed Australia.