Why have we no biography, three hundred pages, dense with footnotes, boasting your achievements? He was a Melbourne surgeon. He worked for the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War. He was the oldest man at Gallipoli, and took illegal photographs during a nine-hour truce. He repaired Ned Kelly after the Siege of Glenrowan. He cut quite a figure in "Marvellous Melbourne" of the 1880s and 90s. He did remarkable things. He wrote it all down. In this verse-portrait of Sir Charles Snodgrass 'Plevna' Ryan (1853 - 1926), Geoff Page weaves the writing of Ryan together with his own voice as...