Show Notes
Alex Calder is a professor at the Faculty of Arts, English and Drama, New Zealand of Auckland University. He also edited the book, Gallipoli to the Somme, written by Alexander Aitken.
Aitken began to write about his experiences in 1917 as a wounded out-patient in Dunedin Hospital. Every few years, when the war trauma caught up with him, he revisited the manuscript, which was eventually published as Gallipoli to the Somme in 1963.
Join Damien Grant as he interviews professor Alex Calder about the life and times of Alexander Aitken, the book, Gallipoli to the Somme, and why he put his time into reviving it.
For more information, or to get in touch, visit the Different Matters Website.
More from Different Matters by Damien Grant
Craig Renney is a New Zealand economist and politician. He is the Labour Party candidate in Wellington Bays for the 2026 New Zealand general election. In his recenty published book, The Good Economy, Renney asks what kind of economy we want – and who it should serve. Through an analysis and the voices of New Zealanders he explore the values shaping our current system, how we got here, and what it would take to build something fairer and more resilient. Tune in as I interview a wide selection of interesting individuals, authors, businesspeople, politicians and anyone else willing to talk to me. For more interviews visit: https://www.differentmatters.co.nz/
Julie Glamuzina is the author of Perfectly Natural, Out Front: Lesbian Political Activity in Aotearoa 1962-85, and co-author of Parker and Hulme: A Lesbian View. She has also written for the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Women Together, and Spiral magazine. In 2021 she published Lies and Spies, on the curious life of Hjilmar Dannevill. Hjilmar Dannevill travelled the world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, sometimes using aliases, sometimes disguised as a male, and claiming to be researching venereal diseases on behalf of a wealthy Austrian businessman. She arrived in New Zealand in 1911 and falsely presented herself as a qualified medical professional while helping to set up a private health home run by women. In the hostile anti-foreigner environment of World War 1, doubts about her sex, identity, qualifications and motivations, as well as suspicions about her relationships with women, drew the attention of police and military authorities. Tune in as I interview a wide selection of interesting individuals, authors, businesspeople, politicians and anyone else willing to talk to me. For more interviews visit: https://www.differentmatters.co.nz/
Daniel is a leading barrister who lives with his family in Wellington. He has lived in New York and London, taught at Columbio University, and practises internationally. With degrees in law, English and philosophy, he has always been interested in unravelling the layers of meaning behind ordinary things. This book is about what happened when that search, in his own life, became pressing rathe than a pastime. Tune in as I interview a wide selection of interesting individuals, authors, businesspeople, politicians and anyone else willing to talk to me. For more interviews visit: https://www.differentmatters.co.nz/
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