Good Reading...

On my recent holiday I had the chance to sit down and do some serious reading.

I got into some good Christian living books, and a couple of novels, but my favourite read for the 2 weeks was a bit of a surprise packet my Mum gave me for Christmas.

We all watched the Beaconsfield Mine story evolve on our TVs from ANZAC Day 2006. However, there was so much stuff the news crews missed, and for good reason!

Now Tony Wright (who was reporting for a newspaper in Beaconsfield) has published this book BADGROUND Inside the Beaconsfield Mine Rescue where everyone involved in the who drama has told their story.

I thought this book would be just like all the other true story books which you find around the place, either following the story of one person involved, or just putting all the facts and incidents down on paper. Badground however reads like a good drama/thriller novel, if you weren't around to see the stories of Brant Webb and Todd Russell unfold you'd think this was a work of fiction.

Tony Wright is a gifted writer, and all the little facts that make this story so special are woven into a beautifully scripted storyline, I suspect it will be a movie one day!

The book gives insights the media never picked up on during the events at the mine, like how family reacted and emotions felt during the search and then the rescue. What Brant and Todd thought about, and delt with before they were found, and how the rescue attempt effected mine workers emotionally, things that would have become huge speculations if the media had of found out about them come through a simple human responses to the high emotions experienced during such a traumatic event. It also shows that Russell and Webb had it so much tougher than I ever realised, I knew it was bad, but as stories of their conditions flow throughout the book it really leaves you wondering how those two men survived in that cage down that mine for so long! It also gives an insight into the environment the rescue workers had to deal with, unbelievable.

Every man down that mine including Webb and Russell are true Aussie heros. In years to come I think this will become a required reading project for school students, it's just a fantastic story of courage, and fair dinkum Aussie will power.