Kokoda
Description
A story of young Australians' mateship and bravery against all odds in WWII
For Australians, Kokoda is the iconic battle of World War II, yet few people know just what happened - and just what our troops achieved. In this new edition of his bestselling account of this seminal battle, Peter FitzSimons tells the Kokoda story in a gripping, moving story specially geared for high-school age readers.
Conditions on the track were hellish - rain was constant, the terrain close to inhospitable, food and ammunition supplies were practically non-existent and the men constantly battled malaria and dysentery, as well as the Japanese.
Kokoda was a defining battle for Australia - a small force of young, ill-equipped Australians engaged a highly experienced and hitherto unstoppable Japanese force on a narrow, precarious jungle track - and defeated them.
Prase for the original edition:
'an engrossing narrative, beautifully controlled by a master storyteller' The Sydney Morning Herald
More details
Person
Peter FitzSimons AM is Australia's bestselling non-fiction writer, and for the past 39 years has also been a journalist and columnist with the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD and the SUN-HERALD.
He is the author of a number of highly successful books, including BREAKER MORANT, BURKE AND WILLS, MONASH'S MASTERPIECE, KOKODA, NED KELLY and GALLIPOLI, as well as biographies of such notable Australians as Sir Douglas Mawson, Nancy Wake and John Eales. His passion is to tell Australian stories, our own stories: of great men and women, of stirring events in our history.
Peter grew up on a farm north of Sydney, went to boarding school in Sydney and attended Sydney University. An ex-Wallaby, he also lived for several years in rural France and Italy, playing rugby for regional clubs. He and his wife, Lisa Wilkinson AM - journalist, magazine editor and television presenter - have three children; they live in Sydney.
