The Mentals went from the top of a pool table to the top of the charts. Enjoy the untold stories behind Aussie classics like: Live it Up, Too Many Times, If You Leave Me Can I Come Too?, Berserk Warriors, Egypt, The Nips are Getting Bigger, and a whole lot more. Plus tales from the road as told by Greedy, Martin, Bird, Pete & Reg - and a star-studded cast including Colin Hay, Richard Gottehrer, Mark Opitz, and Wreckless Eric - in this access-all-areas official biography.

In 1933, the British colonial government embarked on a controversial social experiment: to raise and train a professional military unit made up entirely of native Malay soldiers. The result was the Malay Regiment, a disciplined and loyal force that would come to embody a new sense of national identity—just as the world descended into chaos.By February 1942, as the Japanese Imperial Army advanced with unstoppable ferocity, Singapore...

Just days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Britain’s naval strength in Southeast Asia was tested — and found wanting.In The Depths of December, Stuart Lloyd delivers a fast‑paced, immersive retelling of the fateful encounter between Force Z and the Japanese 22nd Air Flotilla, as HMS Repulse and Prince of Wales were left vulnerable in open seas without air cover.Lloyd draws heavily on first-hand survivor accounts, and amazingly interviewed the Japanese pilo...

‘The Missing Years’ is one of the most enduringly popular POW memoirs, because it is part military history, part travelogue, and pure human spirit.A gripping wartime chronicle of Captain Hugh ‘Pilk’ Pilkington, this 80th Anniversary Edition traces his prewar life as a rubber planter in Malaya to the horrors of Changi Prison, Japanese occupation, and forced labor on the Thai‐Burma Death Railway. Retraced decades later by his son and author Stuart Lloyd, they subsisted on ‘railway ra...

On the fringes of military history sits a horrifying true crime event few dare to discuss: the Alexandra Massacres at Alexandra Military Hospital (the largest British military hospital outside England). In A Bleeding Slaughterhouse, this long-suppressed chapter is resurrected through the painstaking work of investigation, testimony, and forensic records."There are some books, which once read, you cannot get completely out of your mind. This is one of them. Whether ...

What if paradise had a underbelly? In Gone Troppo, Stu Lloyd trades civilization for wild beaches, jungle trails, and swaying palms—and finds more mischief, madness, and magic than postcards ever show. This is escapism with grit, laughter, and heart.“A thigh-slappingly funny travelogue!”—8 Days Magazine, Singapore.“A hilarious read. Entertaining to the hilt, this irreverent tone of this book elevates armchair travelling to another more quirky, more ...

They call it “a drinking club with a running problem”—but Hare of the Dog proves the Hash House Harriers are much more: a global phenomenon, a social circus, and a subculture of mayhem.This is THE Hash Bible. Stuart Lloyd (author, Hasher, raconteur) offers the definitive Hash history, humour, and hell‑raising of the Hash House Harriers. Updated for the Hash's 80th anniversary 2018, this volume is a living chronicle of the Hash’s transforma...

Started Out Just Drinking Beer is the official biography of Mental as Anything. It captures the Riotous Rollercoaster Ride of one of Australia's greatest bands, The Mentals, from 1976-2019 as they went from the top of a pool table to the top of the charts.VOTED ONE OF THE TOP 10 MUSIC BOOKS OF 2023 by Australian Financial Review.Enjoy the untold stories behind Aussie classics like: Live It Up, Too Many Times, If You Leave Me Can I Come Too?, Berserk Warriors, Egypt, The Nips...

"At bayonet point, the tall sister and the short officer headed for the mortuary where the prepared body lay.“If you lived in England, you should know how civilized people behave,” said Sister Mary Curry.The officer looked into the eyes of Sister Curry: “Do English women never cry?”“Not when we have work to do,” she replied.This is a short, sharp, punchy treatment of what happened that dreadful Christmas Day. It touches on expat eccentricities, over-sexed Scotti...

The Depths of December is a short and punchy (12,000 word) treatment on one of the most pivotal naval battles in WW2: when the British Far East Fleet found itself pitted against the Mitsubishi Bombers of the 22nd Flotilla Imperial Japanese Air Service off the coast of Singapore and Malaya.It is narrated in an engaging and high-energy style by the author of the book. Praise for Stuart Lloyd’s military history writing comes from very high quarters indeed:'We are in the hands ...

This is a Secret Memoir of Living Hell ... Revisited 60 years on. Capt Hugh Pilkington enjoyed the full and fun life of a rubber planter in pre-war Malaya. Then war broke out and he found himself fighting in Johor. Blasted by a sniper, he was hospitalised in Singapore, only for the hospital to be overrun by the Japanese in a horrific massacre. Then as a POW he was soon sent to labour on the Death Railway in Thailand. Can you imagine the horrors?All the while he kept secret diaries,...

A WWII reporter's dangerous adventures in Singapore, Malaya, Java, and more.Harold Guard became a war correspondent by chance after he'd been invalided out of the navy following a submarine accident. Thereafter, working for United Press, he gained a front-row seat to many of the most dramatic battles and events of the century.In March 1942, Guard arrived in Australia, having narrowly escaped from Japanese forces invading Singapore and Java. His dispatches f...