The Climate of Courage

The Climate of Courage is a 1954 novel by Australian writer Jon Cleary. It was his fifth published novel.[1] It is set during World War II and involves a group of Australian soldiers who have returned from service in the Middle East.

The Climate of Courage
First edition
AuthorJon Cleary
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
PublisherCollins
Publication date
1954

Premise

The novel falls into two parts: the soldiers on leave in Sydney, where they engage in various romantic entanglements and experience the famous submarine attack on Sydney, then taking part in a patrol during the New Guinea Campaign.[2]

Background

The book was based on Cleary's experiences in the army during World War Two, where he served in the Middle East and New Guinea. He said it took him ten years to write the book.[3] He admitted that he made some alternations to make the book more appealing to international audiences, as he felt it was more difficult for them to understand Australian culture:

It means, for one thing, using dialogue that is more universal than the parochial slang your characters would naturally use, or, when you do use slang (and an Australian writer has to, because Australians use so much slang in their everyday conversation), you have to make its meaning self evident. Again, an Australian writer has little opportunity for satire because the satire would be lost on the reader who didn’t know the background. He has to take chances on his humour (because the Australian sense of humour is more sardonic—you might even say more cruel—than is general elsewhere in the world). And when a writer has pride in his country, as I have, he must see that that pride is expressed in a way that won’t offend the pride of a reader in another country.[4]

Reception

The book was very popular, selling 28,000 copies in the UK during its first week of publication.[5][6]

Reviews were strong in London.[7]

Adaptation

The novel was adapted for Australian radio in 1956 with a cast that included John Meillon.[8]

gollark: Apparently a good percentage have some specific subject/verb/object word orders, and they all appear to run on treeoidal mechanisms.
gollark: Children apparently cost loads to raise *anyway*.
gollark: That's very expensive too.
gollark: Can you *buy* children under capitalism?
gollark: Evidently we must somehow obtain children for use by esoserver.

References
  1. "AUSTRALIAN AUTHOR RETURNS HOME". The West Australian. Western Australia. 21 October 1953. p. 18. Retrieved 18 April 2020 – via Trove.
  2. "Our Tradition Of Mateship". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 26 June 1954. p. 10. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
  3. Hetherington, John (31 December 1960). "Jon Cleary "Worth a Couple of Brigades to Authors"". The Age. p. 10.
  4. Cleary, Jon (29 May 1954). "An Australian Novel". ABC Weekly. p. 13.
  5. "Rush for Novel". The Barrier Miner. Broken Hill, NSW: National Library of Australia. 14 January 1954. p. 7. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
  6. "Jap. Harbor Attack Created In Book". The Advertiser. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 9 January 1954. p. 3. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
  7. "Jap. Harbor Attack Created In Book". The Advertiser (Adelaide). South Australia. 9 January 1954. p. 3. Retrieved 18 April 2020 – via Trove.
  8. "RADIO PLAYS for NEXT WEEK A. B. C. COMMERCIAL". ABC Weekly. 8 September 1956. p. 21.


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