![]() ![]() Stanley recounts the provenance of this picture that had been viewed by a number of military officers, possibly including Sir Douglas Haig, the commander-in-chief of British Empire armies in France, before it settled in the archives. For surely these boys look like typical Anzacs given to larrikin pranks-innocents abroad. The photo of some grinning Australian soldiers in slouch hats that graces the cover of Peter Stanley's book Bad Characters not only provides an apt departure point for his story of 'indiscipline' in the first AIF, but also suggests the challenge he faces in rendering the 'dark side' of the story of Australians at war. ![]() Peter Stanley, Bad Characters: sex, crime, mutiny, murder and the Australian Imperial Force, Pier 9, Sydney, 2010, 288 pages ISBN 978 1 74196 480 6. ![]()
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