Shakespeare in the Orchard by Danielle Binks

Title: Shakespeare in the Orchard

Author: Danielle Binks

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Lothian/Hachette Australia

Published: 7^th July 2026

Format: Paperback

Pages: 320

Price: $17.99

Synopsis: A coming-of-age story inspired by true events in Australia in World War I that explores the things that separate us and those that bring us together, from an award-winning author.

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,

Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel.

– William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 3

Langwarrin, Victoria, 1914. The whole world is at war. In Langwarrin on the Mornington Peninsula, fourteen-year-old Jack Thorning is the best marksman in military cadet training. His brother, Matt, taught him everything he knew, after their father died. But now Matt has joined the war effort, and it’s up to Jack to hold down the home front and help his mother run the family orchard.

When a group of ‘enemy aliens’ are sent to Langwarrin to be held prisoner at the military base, tensions in the town run high. For Jack and his best friend, Walter, the war feels closer than ever.

Like the rest of the town, Jack and Walter want nothing to do with the German prisoners. But as the war progresses, the inmates at the camp are put to work doing manual labour on the farms around Langwarrin, including Jack’s family orchard, and Jack begins to see that the prisoners are people, too.

What could Jack possibly have in common with the people responsible for keeping his beloved brother at war? And can Shakespeare bring them all together?

~*~

It’s 1914, and war has broken out across the world. Battles are raging across Europe, an archduke is dead, and everyone is turning on Germany and the Germans, including the ones that have never seen Germany. This means that in the small Victorian town of Langwarrin on the Mornington Peninsula is going to become home to German prisoners and ‘enemy aliens’.

The main character, Jack, goes to cadets while his brother Matt is off to the war in Europe. Jack and his mother, Ada, are left alone to harvest the apples from the orchard during picking time. But without Matt and without help from the people they’d usually employ whilst all the men are off to war, Jack and his mother are stuck.

Until the ‘enemy aliens’ arrive around Christmas. They’re living at the military base, and working in the orchard. Their families have come to town, and are being harassed, even the ones who have never been to Germany in their lives. They have German names because of marriage or ancestors coming to Australia long before the war. And others have been captured, or declared German because their countries are part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Simple things that complicate their lives. Things they don’t have control over. And in this book, nobody has control over what is going on in the world at the time of the war.

It’s a time of unpredictability, and a time of harshly demarcated lines in the sand. Those who are against any Germans. The people who accuse them of being spies. The women who send white feathers to the men (and sometimes boys not old enough to serve). The people who look down on people who are sympathetic to Lotti and the prisoners. There’s conflict everywhere, and Jack is conflicted, and as he gets to know the prisoners helping in his family orchard and practises Hamlet with them.

It’s these conflicts, and the chance to get to know the prisoners as people that change Jack’s perspective. And his willingness to help Lotti and her family as he stands by his best friend Walter as well. It’s a time of change for all of them as the novel moves towards Gallipoli. As I got to this section, I knew that something would drastically affect the characters in many ways, and this would alter the tone of the novel and the way people reacted to what was going on in Langwarrin.

It’s a serious novel with undertones of patriotism, propaganda and how fast this can alter our perceptions, assumptions and create division amongst friends. It’s a beautiful examination of humanity and how we recognise it, and the things that unite us across language and culture. And, Jack’s ability to learn not to box people into assumptions or stereotypes is a wonderful message, because he learns he can hold so much in his heart and his understanding shapes who he will become. I think this as important World War I novel because it explores the conflicting emotions of war, where we try to dehumanise the enemy and the realisations that they’re not that different. That nobody in this situation has chosen it. Nobody is where they want to be, and nobody truly understands what is going on all the time. So it reflects the world at the time, especially in a small town of Australia that had its male population decimated by the war. This would have been huge at the time given the population of Australia.

I think Danielle has done a great job with this emotional book that shows how the war and consequences of the war shaped Australia at the time and into the future. This was a very moving book, and one that I think resonates today. The identities and nationalities may have changed, but the attitudes are the same, and we need to be reminded of the terrible outcomes that can occur when we let division rule how we feel and react.

Another emotional and important book from Danielle Binks.