Extract: Nation, Memory, Myth by Steve Vizard
Posted on 11 Jun 2025
How does myth generate meaning for a nation and its citizens? How does a national myth transform into symbolic performances of cultural memory and kinship?
John Essex-Clark
John Essex-Clark was born with soldiering in his blood, but his professional life has not fitted the orthodox mould. His interests range from rugby and cricket to sketching. He is a man of action, impatient with introspection, yet always with him at the battlefront were his thesaurus, book of quotations, complete Shakespeare... He is indeed a maverick.
After 34 years of military service, John and his wife Lilian built an eyrie in a hill-top on the northern New South Wales coast. John writes, gardens, works as a consultant in military and strategic matters, and contributes generously to local community affairs. He is happily entrenched.
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