13 August 2008
Author talk - Don Tate will be talking about his book, The War Within on Monday 18th August at Tamworth City Library.
Trust me, I'm no philosopher. But in my fiftieth year, I had cause to seriously reflect on my life. I'd reached a point where there's not a lot of light, or fight, left in a man. The darkness that followed me home from Vietnam had engulfed me completely.
At the age of nineteen, Don Tate volunteered for duty in the Vietnam War, intent on proving his worth as a man and escaping the burdens of a troubled family and grinding poverty on the semi-rural outskirts of
Brisbane.
This is his story of the trouble-strewn path to manhood in the shadow of his father a violent petty criminal, surviving horrific war injuries and years of hospitalisation, and struggling to find a place in a society that did not want to recognise his military service for his country and seemed intent on excluding him.
Ultimately, it's a story of one man's attempt to reconcile the vagaries of faith and circumstance as they are played out in life, and the love of a woman who stuck by him.
Don Tate's memoir is often confronting and at times deeply moving. His evocation of Australia in the fifties and sixties is raw and immediate, tinged with the great sense of irony. This is a raw, engaging, no-holds barred account of a troubled life. It is in spirit of powerful bestsellers such as Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt.
Don Tate was born in Brisbane, and raised in Caboolture, Inala and Cairns before the family purchased a couple of acres at Ellen Grove on the outskirts of Brisbane. The eldest of eight children, he joined the Australian Army, and volunteered to go to the Vietnam War where he fought as an infantryman. Badly wounded in action with the 9th Battalion in 1969, and repatriated to a Military Hospital in Brisbane, he met and married his wife, Carole.
Moving to New South Wales in 1974, Don taught English and History across a number of schools in the Illawarra. He captain-coached a number of local cricket clubs, played representative cricket, and in 2000 was one of the first recipients of the Australian Sports Award. Active in community affairs, and an outspoken advocate for war veterans, Don lives in Shellharbour, NSW. He and Carole have raised five children.
Admission is free.