The Mascot
Author:  Mark Kurzem

'A powerful book . . . revealing his father's remarkable and horrific story' Sunday Telegraph

One summer's day in 1997, Mark Kurzem returned home to find his father on his doorstep.  Alex Kurzem had travelled halfway round the world to reveal a long-kept secret, and now wanted his son's help to piece together his past and his identity.

As a five-year-old during the Second World War, Alex Kurzem had watched from a tree as his entire village, including his family, were murdered by a German-led execution squad.  He scavenged in the forests of Russia for several months before falling into the hands of a Latvian SS company.  After one soldier discovered this young boy was actually Jewish, Alex was made to promise never to reveal his true identity – to forget his old life, his family, and even his name.  The young boy became the company's mascot and part of the Nazi propaganda machine responsible for killing his own people.

After the war Alex was adopted and his new family made a home in Australia, far from the sites of wartime atrocities.  But after fifty years of holding onto this childhood secret, Alex needed to discover and share the astonishing truth about his past.

Kenny was barely nineteen years old, a wide-eyed Aboriginal kid from the bush, when he left for a tour of duty in Vietnam. 350 pp.

On Patrol with the SAS takes the reader into the heart and soul of the men of the Australian Army's Special Air Services Regiment. It provides a clear insight into the rigours of the SAS selection process, training for war in Papua New Guinea, then in graphic and sometimes raw and brutal detail into combat behind enemy lines in Borneo and South Viet Nam.
'It is an engrossing soldier's story. One in which the qualities of the men, their mental, physical and psychological toughness together with their superb battlecraft, essential for operating in small teams isolated in the enemy's backyard, emerge as the key components for their success in these two conflicts.' Brigadier Rod Curtis, AM, MC (Retd)
'McKay has done what few other authors writing about the SAS achieve. He debunks the myths and lets the men who served in the Regiment tell it as it was. My children ask me what it was like to serve with the SAS in South Viet Nam: I will give them this book to read.' Brigadier Chris Roberts, AM, CSC

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Australian soldiers and Military police. A detailed history, complimented by vivid interviews outlines this complex and sometimes bitter aspect of military history

Hardcover. A follow-on book from Convoys Up the Track. Tells how thousands came into contact with the Outback as part of World War II communication lines along the Stuart Hwy & Barkly Hwy. Over 300 historic photos

The Pacific

Hugh Ambrose’s bestseller follows the struggles and triumphs of four US Marines and a US Navy carrier pilot fighting in the Pacific region during World War II.

Built on hundreds of hours of testimony, as well as diaries, letters and memoirs, The Pacific tells the true stories of men who put their lives on the line for the Allied forces; men who were dispatched to the other side of the world to fight an enemy who preferred suicide to surrender; men who suffered hardship and humiliation in POW camps; men who witnessed casualties among soldiers and civilians alike; and men whose medals came at a shocking price—a price paid in full.

A record of the changes to rural Australia because of World War I.

Fasten your fleecy-lined flying suit, and pull on your leather helmet, goggles, and gloves. It is 1919, the First World War is over, and the Commonwealth Govenment has put up £10,000 prize money for the first Australian air crew to fly from London to Port Darwin. Up until now, the longest flight anywhere in the world has been 2,000 miles, yet this one will be 11,000 miles, almost halfway round the planet - with very few landing strips on the way. Sixteen outstanding young Australian aviators - decorated ex-servicement - have the opportunity to participate in the unique air race. Kingsford Smith, Bert Hinkler, Hudson Fysh, Keith and Ross Smith and the indefatigable Ray Parer - all to become legendary for their exploits - are involved. By today's standards their aircraft would be considered almost unbelievably primitive. Yet at the time, they were at the cutting edge of the new science of aeronautics. Still, only six flyers will reach Australia by aeroplane. Others will never see their country again.

The true story of Jim Martin, the youngest Anzac. He was just fourteen years old.

Four months after leaving home he would be numbered among the dead, just one of so many soldier boys who travelled half way around the world for the chance of adventure.

It is also the story of Jim's mother Amelia Martin who had to let him go, of his family who lost a son, a brother, an uncle and a friend.