Jacqueline Dinan was at the Albury Library Museum yesterday to present her new book Between the Dances.

It’s a collection of short stories from the women who lived through World War II.

Before her presentation she had one important stop-off, a surprise visit with one of her subjects — 99-year-old Daphne McKibbin in her Albury nursing home.

“She remembered me,” Mrs Dinan said.

“I had interviewed her in 2011 and promised her if I ever came to Albury that I would visit her.

“She was in Darwin when the POWs were brought back and she remembered going onto the ships to say hello to them.

“Daphne had been in the army herself, so there’s a local connection there.”

Back in 2011, Mrs Dinan was curious to know what women had done in World War II and distributed a questionnaire around Australia using Legacy and Country Women’s Association’s regional branch network.

“In response I received 300 double-sided questionnaires completed,” she said.

“I had been hearing stories of women in World War II while I was promoting my earlier novel, a fiction titled A Woman’s War.

“I would ring, or visit 

if I could, each woman while her notes were 

fresh of mind and that’s where the anecdotes would come out — the laughter and the tears and that’s where the stories would flesh out.”