AustLit

'From the turbulent life of the late Shane Warne to the skill, mentality and character behind Pat Cummins’ new-look captaincy, and through the decades to the wit, wisdom and genius of Sir Donald Bradman, Great Australian Cricket Achieversand Characters examines the career highs and lows of many of the game’s big names through the ages.

'From the turbulent life of the late Shane Warne to the skill, mentality and character behind Pat Cummins’ new-look captaincy, and through the decades to the wit, wisdom and genius of Sir Donald Bradman, Great Australian Cricket Achieversand Characters examines the career highs and lows of many of the game’s big names.

'The chapters cover the elegance and style of Ellyse Perry and Neil Harvey; the drive of Ian Chappell, Steve Waugh and Bill Lawry; the dry humour of Lindsay Hassett and the guile of Richie Benaud; the speed and chivalry of Dennis Lillee and the bullyboy tactics of Kerry Packer, who changed the game forever. It also includes fresh insights into the first truly Australian tour of England in 1858, made exclusively by Aboriginal players, and the torch-passing that led to the sensational performance of Indigenous bowler Scott Boland in the 2021–22 Ashes.

'Bestselling cricket author and historian Roland Perry shines a light on the game’s biggest players and dramas through the ages in Great Australian Cricket Achievers and Characters.'  (Publication summary)

'Victor Cavalier has received the phone call every parent dreads: his daughter is lying in a coma after a motorcycle accident and given little chance of survival. But when a mysterious scientist known as the Shaman intervenes to save his daughter's life, Victor decides he must meet this maverick genius.

'The Shaman has developed cold-fusion technology that harnesses atomic energy from water. It can be used to replace combustion engines, revolutionising transport and power generation, but also to make terrifying weaponry - making him the target of a ruthless international organisation that will do anything to gain control of this new technology. Now all that stands in their way is Victor - an investigative reporter and undercover operative with lethal skills and a talent for getting to the bottom of the story.

'From Thailand to Tasmania, London to New York, The Shaman is the new international techno-thriller from bestselling author Roland Perry - and a grim warning that the world's corporate cartels will stop at nothing to destroy those who threaten them.' (Publication summary)

'Just after midnight on 1 March 1942, Australia's most renowned cruiser, HMAS Perth, was sunk by Japanese naval forces in the Sunda Strait off the coast of Java. Of the 681 men aboard, 328 survived the sinking and made it to shore-and one cat. Her name was Red Lead, and she was the ship's cat, beloved by the crew and by the Perth's
legendary captain Hector Waller.

'But surviving shellfire, torpedoes and the fierce currents of the Sunda Strait was only the beginning of the terrible trials Red Lead and the surviving crew were to face over the next three-and-a-half years. From Java to Changi and then on the Thai-Burma Railway, Red Lead was to act as a companion, mascot and occasional protector for a small group of sailors who made it their mission to keep her alive in some of the most hellish prison camps on earth.

'Red Lead's extraordinary story, of courage, loyalty and love amidst battle, imprisonment and death, is brought vividly to life by bestselling author Roland Perry.' (Publication summary)

'In 1995, journalist and author Roland Perry wrote to Sir Donald Bradman requesting an interview for a biography he was planning of the great cricketer. Surprisingly, the Don agreed. It was the start of a conversation that continued for years, during which the real Bradman shone, not only as a great sportsman but musician, brilliant thinker and humourist with a fondness for tea and a Scotch or two.

'In Tea and Scotch with Bradman, Perry paints an intimate and revealing portrait of the man many regard as the greatest Australian cricketer of all time.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The son of a country butcher, Stan Savige left school at twelve to become a blacksmith's striker. But in 1915, a passage in the bible inspired the devout scout leader and Sunday school teacher to enlist. Soon his abilities as a crack marksman attracted the attention of the officers and he was put in charge of Sniper's Ridge, his job to eliminate the enemy assassins in Anzac Cove. Savige succeeded and survived Gallipoli, only to be sent to the Western Front then Iran as part of the crack squad Dunsterforce. It was the beginning of a long, dangerous and distinguished military career spanning both world wars, with Savige commanding and fighting in Europe, Iran, North Africa, the Middle East and the Pacific in World War II, initially as Major-General then Lieutenant General.

'In this gripping biography, Roland Perry paints a fascinating and complex portrait of Lieutenant General Sir Stanley George Savige, KBE, CB, DSO, MC, ED, a man of character and compassion, a quiet outsider who founded the war veterans' support charity Legacy, who still has few peers in courage, skill and achievement and whose record is second to none in Australian military history, in the scope of his combat over two world wars.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The two most outstanding battle commanders on the Allied side at the Western and Middle Eastern Fronts were Generals John Monash and Harry Chauvel. They met and formed an unlikely bond in the cauldron of Gallipoli and went on with their armies to be dominant in the two biggest Fronts of the 1914-1918 War.

'John Monash, on the Western Front in Europe commanded the Australian Imperial Army (AIF)—the biggest single army Corps on the Allied side and six times the size of Australia’s current Defence Force. At the most critical time of the war in 1918, he masterminded victory over two German armies at the battle of Amiens in Northern France, which the German High Command conceded ended their chances of winning the overall conflict. In the war against the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East, Harry Chauvel led the 34,000-strong Desert Mounted Column. Realising he would have to ignore the command directives of superiors, he took the initiative in planning battle tactics to defeat the Turks in the Sinai in August 1916; at Beersheba in October 1917; and in the final 1918 drive to push the Turks right out of the Middle East.

'Monash and Chauvel planned thoroughly and acted with the best interests of the soldiers under their command. This is the fascinating story of how their capacities and attitude presented a winning formula for their armies and ensured that they never lost a battle they planned and executed.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A sequel to Perry’s first book, The Honourable Assassin (2016) in a new series of thrillers that incorporate actual events, criminal organisations and key figures in the underworld of Asia as they play out globally, involving international law enforcement and intelligence operations.

'The Honourable Assassin finishes with the main protagonist, Victor Cavalier, learning from former Thai supercop and boxer, Jacinta Cin Lai, that his daughter may be alive although a mysterious video sent to him which seemed to show that she had been decapitated by Mexican drug warlord, Mendez.

'Now, in The Assassin on the Bangkok Express, he learns that the video may have been doctored to ensure that Cavalier accepted the assassination assignment to eliminate Mendez. However, Cavalier has now heard that his daughter is alive but is a sex slave for the Mexican drug gang operating in the Golden Triangle.' (Publication summary)

'Courtesan, countess, bestselling author - the tempestuous true story of a woman far ahead of her time ... The true story of the Countess Céleste de Chabrillan is a rich and tempestuous tale of an extraordinary woman. Born in the gutters of Paris in 1824, Céleste made her name as a dancer in the Parisian dance halls, where it is said she invented the can-can. Then, as an equestrienne at the Paris hippodrome, her daring feats on horseback thrilled the crowds. However, it was as the city's most celebrated courtesan that the young Parisian found genuine fame and fortune. Strikingly beautiful and charismatic, her lovers included famous novelists, artists and composers, not least Georges Bizet, whom, many believe, based his free and fearless Carmen on Céleste. But when Céleste married the Count de Chabrillan, a prominent member of the French aristocracy, Parisian society was scandalised. And when the pair turned up in far off Australia, where the count served as the first French consul, Melbourne society was scandalised in turn. Later a bestselling memoirist, novelist, playwright and librettist, the remarkable Countess Céleste de Chabrillan was, indeed, a woman far ahead of her time.' (Publication summary)

'The execution of a Mexican drug cartel hit man in a Carlton laneway draws Vic Cavalier to Thailand and back to a past he'd rather forget in this tense, action-packed thriller.

'Vic Cavalier has certainly had better weeks. His newspaper editor is hell-bent on showing him the door, his footy team lost its last game, and his drinking habit is winning the war with his better angels. And then there's the man with the bullet in his head and links to a Mexican drug-cartel lying in a Carlton laneway. When his editor wants the story Cavalier finds himself in Bangkok uncomfortably close to the action and under the watchful eye of a local cop with an intriguing background herself.

'In the steamy violent world of Thai elite power plays and the chaos of a coup Cavalier's motivation becomes clear - this same cartel is implicated in the disappearance and possible murder of his daughter. He has no choice but to pursue them - whatever it takes.

'Weaving together a face-paced, all-too-real story The Honourable Assassin is part psychological thriller and part today's headlines about massive illegal drug trafficking in Australia and corruption at the highest levels in South East Asia.' (Publication summary)

In the harsh Libyan desert in the middle of the second world war, Private Jim Moody, 'a signaller with the First Australian Machine Gun Battalion, found a starving puppy on a sand dune. Moody called the dog Horrie. Much more than a mascot, Horrie's exceptional hearing picked up the whine of enemy aircraft two minutes before his human counterparts and repeatedly saved the lives of the thousand-strong contingent. The little Egyptian Terrier's ritual of sitting, barking, then dashing for the trenches, had the gunners running for cover before their camp was strafed and bombed.

'Where Moody went, Horrie went too, through the battle zones of the Middle East and far beyond. As the Japanese forces began their assault in Asia Moody and his soldier mates joined the fight, but not before they had smuggled Horrie onto a troop ship and a harrowing journey back to Australia where they thought their little friend would be safe. The war over, Moody brought Horrie out of hiding to raise money for the Red Cross, and the brave little dog's story became widely known. When quarantine officers pounced and demanded that the dog be put down there was a huge public outcry. Horrie had saved a thousand lives. How could a cruel bureaucracy heartlessly kill him? But defying the authorities would mean gaol for Moody and certain death for Horrie. Was Horrie, the gunner's hero, condemned to die or could Moody devise a scheme to save him?

'In the finest ANZAC tradition, Horrie the War Dog is a story of intrigue and illusion, and of sacrifice, courage and loyalty. Best-selling author, Roland Perry, tells this remarkable true story for the first time.' (Publication summary)

'When a young woman investigating a smuggling racket is murdered, her boyfriend picks up the trail. It leads him to a giant corporation, a sophisticated computer and a very sinister plan.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.