Writing the National Library of Australia's Great War Book

Professor Peter Stanley uncovered a treasure trove of WWI material in the Library's collection for his new book The Crying Years.
How does a book begin? I can pinpoint the exact moment when the idea for what became The Crying Years popped into my head. Almost five years ago, National Library of Australia pictures curator Nicky Mackay-Sim presented a talk to the Canberra Great War Study Group—otherwise known as The Estaminet.
The Estaminet at that time was a group of Great War researchers, small enough to fit into its then regular meeting place, the tiny ‘Chapel' at the National Museum of Australia, where I was working. Nicky brought along and discussed images from the Library's pictures collection, photographs that hardly any of us—Great War specialists—had seen before. Even before she had finished speaking, I realised that here was a rich and almost entirely unknown visual resource. Soon, I was talking to the Library's publisher, Susan Hall. What about a book exposing and interpreting the Library's photographs of the Great War?

Further information: http://www.nla.gov.au/blogs/behind-the-scenes/2017/08/15/writing-the-nlas-great-war-book