Major-General Gordon Bennett played a decisive role in the defence of Malaya and Singapore in World War II. A colourful character, known to sport a straw hat with a rainbow scarf tied around it, his officers found him at times abrasive and cocky, but he was also known as an outstanding commander. He is, however, best remembered for his escape by boat from Singapore in the dying days of the Japanese invasion, which led to the imprisonment of 15,000 Australian servicemen.Bennett’s de...

Survival, heroism, courage and mateship in Ambon - a place of nightmares.In February, 1942, Ambon, an Indonesian island north of Darwin, fell to the Japanese army and the Allied forces defending it were captured. Over a thousand of these soldiers were Australian. By the end of the war, just one-third of them had survived and Ambon became a place of nightmares, one of the most notorious of all POW camps the war had seen.Many of the men captured were massacre...

The forgotten story of the worst POW camp in Japan'I think I was very near death that night.' HELL'S HEROES is the story of the prisoner-of-war camp that never was - so dubbed by one old soldier because the atrocities that occurred there went largely unreported at the time. But while the Burma-thailand railway, the Bataan death march and events at Changi became synonymous with Japanese brutality, the experiences of those imprisoned in camps like the infamous 4-B provided a measure o...

On Paths of Ash is an extraordinary Australian World War II story. Robert and Jack Holman were working-class brothers who found themselves in three of the most horrific experiences of the war. They were interned in Changi prisoner-of-war camp, from where they became prison labourers on the infamous Burma Railway. From there they went as slaves to the coalmines of Japan, close enough to Nagasaki to see the mushroom cloud when the atomic bomb was dropped.This is Robert Holma...

The Second World War was the final global conflict of the twentieth century. It involved more combatants, and a wider range of battlefield terrain than any other conflict in history, from the frozen plains of Russia to the baking Libyan desert, and from the atolls of the Pacific to the skies over Britain.In Turning the Tide, Nigel Cawthorne has taken a fresh look at the crucial battles which decided the outcome of the Second World War, beginning with the evacuation of Dunkirk in 19...

the Sydney to Hobart yacht race is one of the world's major sporting events. In 1998, it became one of the world's major sporting disasters. Six sailors tragically perished and numerous yachts sank or were badly damaged. the subsequent search and rescue operation was one of the most phenomenally accomplished peacetime effortsthe world has ever seen. In this fully updated edition to mark the 10th anniversary of the tumultuous race, Rob Mundle, one of Australia's leading journalists and yach...

A NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST“Extraordinary … A sweeping history of the Palestinian-Israeli conundrum … Highly readable and evocative.” – The Washington PostThe tale of a simple act of faith between two young people, one Israeli and one Palestinian, that symbolizes the hope for peace in the Middle East – with an updated afterword by the author.In 1967, Bashir Khairi, a twenty-five-year-old P...

"the home grown version of Wilbur Smith" The Sunday AgeAgainst the backdrop of impending war and the rise of the Nazi Party, the epic saga of the Macintosh and Duffy families continues.It's 1936. While Europe is starting to feel the shadow of the upcoming turmoil, George Macintosh is determined to keep control of his business empire. He takes extreme measures to prevent his nephew David from taking a seat on the Board. Meanwhile, George's son Donal...

"the home grown version of Wilbur Smith" The Sunday AgeIt is 1942 and the war in the Pacific is on Australia's doorstep, changing the lives of the Duffy and Macintosh families as never before.In Sydney, siblings Donald and Sarah Macintosh battle for their father's approval, and control of his empire, while their cousin David fights the enemy across the continents.US Marine Pilot James Duffy defies his grandfather's wishes, and, a n...

When a plan goes badly wrong, nine Australians pay a heavy priceOn 17 April 2005, nine young Australians were arrested in Bali on charges of drug trafficking. Known as the 'Bali 9', some members received the death penalty for their crimes; others are serving lengthy jail sentences. Journalists Cindy Wockner and Madonna King, who were present at the trials and sentencing, have used their investigative skills to piece together the whole story, from arrest to jail to the harrowing fin...

Laura Murphy will need to call on all her grit and determination to retain her beloved farm. But will her fierce self reliance close her off to the possibility of love?Since inheriting Nambina, the property that's been in her family for generations, Laura Murphy has worked wonders. Rather than just focus on farming she has set up a successful school teaching women the basics of managing a property - from fencing and mustering to handling the financial side of the b...

Journalist Chris Baxter is at a crossroads. He has an enviable life as a journalist in the U.S. and the prospect of an exciting new post in Thailand. But his needs aren't the only ones he must consider. His daughter is struggling with the effects of his divorce and her mother's remarriage. So Chris abandons dreams of Thailand and returns with his teenage daughter to his mother's house in the beautiful township of Neverend, where Chris comes to see that sometimes taking the road back is the...