- Author
- Letter Writer
- Subjects
- Biographies and personal histories, Letter to the Editor
- Tags
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- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- December 2021 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
Dear Walter
I just wanted to thank you sincerely for your help. I seem to have involved you and members of your family considerably in the search. Perhaps you would thank them for me.
I would also like to thank Rhys Ferguson for his permission as copyright holder (I will of course do this formally in my book).
My book is essentially a travel memoir, rather than a history book, but as anyone who has been to Crete must accept, you can’t talk about the island unless you refer to its history – ancient and modern. I am the proud owner of a copy of Lew Lind’s Flowers of Rethymnon. My wife and I have stayed in Rethymnon province on many occasions, staying in an apartment where I have been able to look up to the straggling village of Fratti (where Lew Lind was looked after) whilst I was doing some chores centred on the kitchen sink!
The spirit of the islanders of Crete lives on. We spent the best part of two months in 2019 in various parts of the island. Their hospitality, is, in my opinion, quite unique, their courage is immense, and their humour remains undaunted by whatever the rest of the world throws at them.
If my book does anything, I hope it will shine a continuing light on the extraordinary character of these people, as many Australians and New Zealanders discovered in those dark days of 1941 and beyond.
I send you my grateful thanks and very best wishes.
Yours
Hugh Fernyhough