Tito with sailors from the Partisan Navy (used with permission) Freivogel and Rastelli's Adriatic Naval War is a treasury of superb naval images drawn from private collections, alongside the best-informed text I have ever read on the topic. The sheer amount of small but important details suggests to me that much of the book was put together from local knowledge and oral history. The gathering together of this information is a credit to its authors, but it was not the first ti

Version 1: In 1960 the government social worker handling the adoption told Mum that our birth mother was a sensitive woman who only had half a house and who received no help from her relatives. Version 2: Quoted from the New South Wales Government, Department of Youth and Community Services. ‘Giving you up for adoption was a very difficult decision for your parents to make. They were experiencing financial difficulties and could not live on your father’s wage and support twin

I decided to research the history of Istria because my biological mother was Istrian. It was a bad job from the start and it finished off worse. Nevertheless, I am reminded of the quote from Cicero: ‘To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.’ So I proceed with confidence. Here is what I had: Silvana was born in Tar, Istria (today’s Croatia) in 1920, educated in Udine and Florence in Italy, travelled to Australia in 1950 (and thereafter)