Derek Drinkwater review of Garry Hills, Great at Heart: Gavin Merrick Long, Australia’s Official Second World War Historian

(NewSouth Publishing, 2025), 192 pp., PB $39.99, ISBN 9781761170201

The English man of letters Philip Hensher recently observed that, while literary giants such as Lawrence Durrell receive regular biographical attention, this is rarely the case with minor masters of fiction like Robert Liddell who awaits a biographer.¹ Hensher was hard-pressed to explain why; so, too, are those perplexed by the fact that only now has Gavin Long been accorded a full-dress biography.

Its author is an aficionado of Australian military history, and a long-time admirer of his subject. He has written this book to bring Gavin Long’s achievements before a wider public, the self-effacing Long having received far less attention as war correspondent and official historian of World War II than his more assertive mentor and friend, C. E. W. (Charles) Bean, Australia’s World War I official historian. Who was this modest man and what influences formed him? Why should readers be interested in his journalistic and scholarly work? What is his legacy and how well does this book answer these questions?

Born on 31 May 1901 in Foster, Victoria, the first of six children to a dedicated Church of England rector (later a bishop), and his resourceful wife, Long was educated at Trinity Grammar School, Kew, All Saints College, Bathurst, and the University of Sydney (BA, 1922; DipEd, 1925). He taught briefly at The King’s School, Parramatta, and worked for most of 1925 in London as a migration and settlement officer based at Australia House, before marrying, in September 1925, (Mary) Jocelyn Britten, a King’s School master’s daughter. They would have two children.

A talent for journalism of various stripes—reportage, feature writing, film, theatre, art and music criticism—led to his employment by several Melbourne and Sydney newspapers during the 1920s and 1930s. These included the Sydney Morning Herald (the Herald) where Long discovered his métier as its defence correspondent. For some years he had been in close touch with Charles Bean, who was impressed by his defence thinking and writing ability. Posted to the Herald’s London office in 1938, Long was appointed an Australian war correspondent with the British Expeditionary Force in France soon after World War II broke out in late 1939. Thereafter he reported on Australian military operations in Egypt, Libya and Greece (1940–41). Although passed over for the post of Australia’s official war correspondent (the job went to Kenneth Slessor), the high quality and objectivity of Long’s war reporting in the eyes of influential politicians, public service mandarins and military powerbrokers strengthened Bean’s advocacy in having him appointed World War II official historian (in 1943).²

The task, for which he was appointed OBE (1953), would occupy Long for two decades. The official history’s 22 volumes, written by a rich cast of 14 authors, was published between 1952 and 1977 (Long wrote three of the seven army volumes). In keeping with his credo that the official history’s purpose was to record human experience rather than to draw lessons from war, each volume contains a strong biographical focus as reflected in the inclusion of pen portraits of all who served in the conflict. Although ever grateful to Bean for his patronage, Long always remained his own man. He died on 10 October 1968, aged 67, having completed the final draft of two books: The Six Years War (1973), a single-volume account of World War II (part of his original brief as official historian); and MacArthur as Military Commander (1969).

Despite justified concerns about Long’s history based on later research—expressed interestingly by admirers³—his work has stood time’s test well.⁴ Hills does not shirk analysis of the lingering principal reservations about Long’s history (the scant attention given to the experiences of Australia’s POWs, for example).⁵ These criticisms notwithstanding, Long bequeathed to military historians and the Australian public through his general editorship of this ‘monumental, reliable and trustworthy achievement’ (p. 157) not only what Long termed ‘the Australian war history tradition’ but also the bridge whereby military history is written increasingly by non-specialists (such as Garry Hills) as well as the official historians.⁶

Hills, an assiduous researcher, has benefitted greatly from access to material made available for the first time by Long’s family. Although avowedly pro-Long, he never strays into hagiography. The book contains a comprehensive bibliography, a detailed notes section and illustrations that add considerably to its appeal (given how pivotal Long’s marriage was to his work and happiness, the absence of family photographs is puzzling). The index would have been strengthened by the inclusion of a detailed entry for Long (he receives no entry at all). There is a haphazard use of honorifics throughout, for example, General Sir Edmund Herring, knighted in 1943, is referred to in 1959 and 1970 (and in the index) without his title (pp. 140, 161–2, 180). More rigorous editing would have improved the book: no date (only the month) is given for Long’s birth (p. 16); and R. G. Menzies was not prime minister in 1944 (p. 88).

Garry Hills has crafted a well-written, all-embracing study of his subject as official historian, journalist in war and peace, defence correspondent and cultural critic, along with an insightful account of the private Long. His labours have ensured that this unassuming man, deemed by Bean to possess the ‘capacity and character’ (p. 79) necessary in managing a major historical enterprise, also deserves Professor Manning Clark’s tribute of being ‘great at heart’ (p. 7).

1. 1 Philip Hensher, Spectator Australia, 28 June 2025, 24–5. Durrell, Liddell and Long each spent periods in Egypt and Greece just before, during or immediately after World War II as press attaché (Durrell), lecturer (Liddell) and war correspondent (Long). All were gifted authors and philhellenes. For promoting Greece’s stature internationally through his writing, Long was awarded the Gold Cross of the Royal Order of the Phoenix in 1956.

2. 2 Among the many congratulatory letters Long received was one from Lieutenant William Woodward: ‘I like the way you write the truth’ (quoted in Hills, Great at Heart, 83).

3. 3 Peter Stanley, Beyond the Broken Years: Australian Military History in 1000 Books (NewSouth Publishing, 2024); chiefly, Long’s failure to deal with the higher ‘grand strategy’ considerations germane to Australia’s conduct of the war (106–7).

4. 4 Professor Robert O’Neill, Australia’s Korean War official historian, quoted in Hills, Great at Heart, 163 and 178 n. 10. Long’s history remains both highly esteemed internationally and a starting point for students of World War II.

5. 5 Hills, Great at Heart, ch. 11, 146–58.

6. 6 Peter Stanley, ‘Gavin Long and History at the Australian War Memorial’, in The Last Word? ed. Jeffrey Grey (Praeger, 2003), 106, 114–15.