Oddfellows - Picnic Day Broken Hill 1 January 1915 ... by Nicholas Shakespeare

Book cover via www.randomhouse.com.au

'Oddfellows - Picnic Day Broken Hill 1 January 1915 An Unexpected Enemy Attack' by Nicholas Shakespeare, is a recently released historical fiction novel set in Broken Hill.

It's release on 2 January 2015 has come at the time of the 100 year anniversary of the Picnic Day Attack in Broken Hill on 1 January 1915. 

On that New Years day of 1915, four citizens were killed and seven wounded in Broken Hill, when two Muslims from the nearby cameleers' camp opened fire on the annual Order of Oddfellows picnic train, from an ice-cream cart embellished with the Turkish flag.

Mullah (Molla) Abdullah and Badsha Mahommed Gool (Gul Mehmed) killed three men and a teenage girl (some reports describe six victims), before they were themselves shot dead. This was the only enemy attack to take place in Australia during World War I, and has become known as 'The Battle of Broken Hill'. This little known piece of history has been interwoven into a novella (128 pages).

The Independent '20th-century terrorists: The bizarre story of two jihadis in the Australian outback by Nicholas Shakespeare, 28 February 2015 - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/20thcentury-terrorists-the-bizarre-story-of-two-jihadis-in-the-australian-outback-10069702.html

Sydney Arts Guide book review by Richard Cotter, 1 January 2015 - http://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/nicholas-shakespeare-new-book-oddfellows/

The book is published by Random House - http://www.randomhouse.com.au/books/nicholas-shakespeare/oddfellows-9780857987181.aspx

Happy reading, cheers, Jane Deany