Overview

Australia has 'The Great South Land', South Africa has 'Shaka Zulu', Argentina has the gaucho epic 'Martin Fierro', and Chile has 'La Araucana' as its national poem. Now New Zealand has Crete 1941, an epic poem about the New Zealand-led defence of Crete during the Battle of Crete between 20 May and 1 June 1941. Crete 1941 is the only epic long poem in English since Derek Walcott's 'Omeros', with the entry of the 28th (Māori) Battalion as an active combat force providing the culmination of the poem. As geopolitical tensions rise in the Pacific today, it's timely to look back to when New Zealand last went to war and defended another small nation - Greece - on its last redoubt, in a battle that ended in a Dunkirk-style evacuation. More than just a war story, Crete 1941 brings women back into the historic struggle for Crete. The poem is a life-changing reflection on the virtue of good small nations, on the contribution of indigenous peoples such as Māori and Cretans to international developments, and on the fragility that both peace and its disruptors share. 'In no way glorifying the violence of the Greek campaign and the battle of Crete, ' said poet Bernard Cadogan, 'this epic places conflict right at the heart of our desire for peace, as well as our capacity to reason, will and love. Unlike other ""war stories"", women are central to this poem, never absent.' Cadogan asks: 'Why did New Zealanders fight for the oldest site of a European palace state: the site of the myth of the labyrinth and Minotaur? What was the monster in the palace that we fought? What other ways are there of dealing with such a menace?' 'This is a radical poem, not a fuddy-duddy poem, ' said Cadogan. 'It is not composed in Spenserian stanzas as a conservative nostalgia trip or whimsy, but as a deliberate act of decolonisation and reparation for Edmund Spenser and our own premier Alfred Domett's dreadfully racist ""Ranolf and Amohia"".' 'Crete 1941 does this in the spirit of Wu Ming's New Italian Epic, inverting Ferrara, Cork, colonial Wellington.... Someone has said Crete 1941 has put intellect and heart back into New Zealand verse; in a way this is true.'

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Reviews

Crete 1941 is both a compelling tribute to heroism under threat and a subtle study of the epic and its place in the modern world. By attending to the history of political poetry in such a compelling and informed way, Dr Cadogan proves that poetry can still contend with the most difficult questions about bravery, belief, and allegiance at a time of war, and that it can serve the memory of those who deserve the highest respect. - Dr Dan Sperrin, University of Oxford, Faculty of English Reclaiming the skill, force and wisdom of millennia of European and South Pacific poetic taonga, and acknowledging the complexities of heroic deeds, error, and crime, Crete 1941 is no less than a commemoration and analysis of the human condition in extremis. In post-heroic times, this is a most difficult task and Crete 1941 tackles it with sensitivity, wit and bravura. - Dr Norman Franke, Conjoint Research Fellow, University of Newcastle, Australia Like the epics of old, Crete 1941 is the story of the deeds of men and women that are worthy of recording and retelling. The battle of Crete may have ended in the defeat of the allied forces, but the bravery of the defenders of the island is still celebrated in Greece as one of the most heroic moments of that war. Crete 1941 offers a new perspective to this event: that of the New Zealand allied forces to whom the island was an alien world, providing insight and understanding of the experience of fighting on the other side of the world. Crete 1941 is more than a historical epic. It is a guide to knowledge: knowledge of the mythical and historical past, but also knowledge of the self, collective and personal. - Dr Olympia Bobou, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University Bernard takes a unique approach to describing the emotions, the sounds, the players and the stage of the Battle of Crete within a poetic saga. He captures the clash and collision of our Treaty cultures within this tale of tragedy. I hope that our future generations will study Bernard's poetic work for its insight into the political forces at play and how this piece of history has played its part in our national identity. - Tania Te Rangingangana Simpson, author, The Last Maopo, Member, Waitangi Tribunal Of all the military campaigns fought in Greece during the second world war, the Battle of Crete is remembered as one of the strongest acts of defiance against Nazi aggressors. During ten days of fighting, 274 Australians and 671 New Zealanders were killed, and more than 3000 captured. Cretan villagers risked their lives hiding many ANZAC troops on the island, forging special bonds among the nations of Greece, Australia and New Zealand. Eighty years on, Crete 1941 brings all this to life, highlighting the sacrifices of our forebears so we may lead a peaceful, liberated life. This book is a sensitive account which deserves all the accolades and respect it will doubtless receive. - Tony Tsourdalakis, President, Cretan Federation of Australia & New Zealand

Author Information

Born in New Zealand in 1961, Bernard Cadogan is an accomplished poet, philosopher and historian. Since 1996, he has worked as a political advisor and speech writer, in particular as the NZ prime minister's foreign affairs adviser, and has been a consultant to the New Zealand treasury since 2011. He was appointed an honorary adviser to the Māori king in 2015. He is especially interested in the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, John Rawls and Charles Taylor, and his current focus is on postcolonial thought, the formation of empires, and the resilience, relevance and viability of small nation states. Bernard holds a DPhil from Oxford University on the political thought, constitutionalism and racial policy of Sir George Grey (1812-98) in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. He lives in the Cherwell Valley, near Oxford, with his wife Jacqueline and their three children.

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