Exclusive: Governing council ‘retrospectively’ decides the Les Carlyon literary award should go only to first-time authors, ruling out Chris Masters’ book
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
The Australian War Memorial has effectively overruled a decision by its appointed judges to award a military history literary prize to a book about the alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith.
War memorial sources and documents seen by Guardian Australia show that an external judging panel chose Chris Masters’ book Flawed Hero: Truth, Lies and War Crimes as the 2024 winner of the Les Carlyon literary award for military history, after a panel comprising memorial employees had included it in a shortlist of six from 59 entries.
Continue reading...