It is a high-30s day at Waverley Park. The pre-season competition is under way and the Demons are sweating through their training routine. In the midst of them the ‘Reverend’, a great hunk of muscle in navy singlet and shorts, strides around with half a dozen large plastic bottles in his arms. He offers them to the players, and all eagerly accept a drink.

Neale Daniher, senior coach of the Melbourne Football Club, says it is just this kind of presence that makes club chaplain Cameron Butler so valuable. ‘Cameron’s been a great asset to us over the last couple of years,’ Daniher says.

by Adrian Brookes

London, 1944. Hitler has turned his V1 flying bombs—his vengeance weapons—against England. A 10-year-old boy, playing outside his London home, catches the first inkling of a V1 approaching—a distinctively-pitched buzz. He freezes, and for a few moments tries to persuade himself he is mistaken. Then the wail of the air raid sirens removes any doubt. His wide eyes leap to the sky and seize on the red flame of a rocket winging over the bomb-scarred city.