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Roland John Perry OAM (born 11 October 1946) is an Australian author and historian. His work includes three works of fiction and more than twenty documentary films. His book Monash: The Outsider Who Won the War was awarded the Fellowship of Australian Writers' Melbourne University Publishing Award in 2004 and described as "a model of the biographer's art."
In 2011, Perry was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia "for services to literature as an author." The same year Monash University awarded him a fellowship for "high achievement as a writer, author, film producer and journalist."
Perry's sports books include biographies of Sir Donald Bradman, Steve Waugh, Keith Miller, and Shane Warne. He has also written on espionage, specialising in the British Cambridge Five ring of Russian agents and he has been a member of the National Archives of Australia Advisory Council since 2006.
In late 2012, Perry accepted an adjunct appointment at Monash University as a professor, with the title Writer-in-Residence, in the university's Arts Faculty.
Perry's Hidden Power (1984) followed the factual theme on the way the American public was manipulated into voting for candidates by slick computer-based campaigns. Hidden Power concentrated on the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984. The book explained how advertising techniques had been superseded in elections by more sophisticated methods, including marketing and computer analysis. The book, as much narrative as analysis, told how the two key campaign pollsters steered their candidates. It was not critical of Reagan, but was seen by the Republican campaign as hostile to him.
Perry's book The Exile, about Australian journalist, Wilfred Burchett, was published in 1988. Perry based the book on the 1974 defamation trial, when Burchett sued Jack Kane of the Democratic Labour Party for calling him a KGB agent.
Perry's Monash: The Outsider Who Won a War was a critically acclaimed WWI biography set on the Western Front. He subsequently turned his attention to the Eastern Front with the publication in 2009 of The Australian Light Horse, which comprised the dual part-biographies of General Sir Harry Chauvel and T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia). The book reached number one in the bestsellers list for the categories of 'Military' and 'History' in November 2009, and remained in that position for six months.
Perry's The Changi Brownlow is set in Changi prison and on the Thai-Burma railway in WW2. It features Peter Chitty, a non-combatant ambulance driver who had exceptional mental and physical fortitude. It was published in August 2010 and reached Australia's top ten best-seller list, and, similar to The Australian Light Horse was number one in the categories 'Military and History' for six months.
In October 2012, Perry's Pacific 360: Australia's Fight For Survival in World War II, was published by Hachette Australia. The same month saw publication of Bill the Bastard: Australia's Greatest War Horse, billed as "dramatised non-fiction". It was chosen as one of 50 top reads in 2013 in the national "Get Reading" program. This is the true story of Australia's greatest war-horse, and is featured in a documentary The Walers broadcast by ABC TV in April 2015. The feature film rights have been optioned by Australian producer/director Simon Wincer.
In amongst his six books on WW1 and WW2, Perry made a departure to write a biography on Australian yachtsman, Rolly Tasker, titled Sailing to the Moon.
In 2013, Perry's Horrie the War Dog was published. It is the true story of another maverick Australian character, Jim Moody, who saved a starving puppy in the Libyan Desert in WWII. The terrier, named Horrie, in turn saved the lives of countless Australian soldiers by acting as a canine early-warning system when he barked to warn them of attacking German Stuka planes. It mirrors the earlier book Horrie the Wog Dog, authored by Ion Idriess.
October 2014 saw publication of The Queen, Her Lover and the Most Notorious Spy in History, in which Perry claimed that Queen Victoria had an illicit affair with John Elphinstone 13th Lord Elphinstone, Captain of the Horse Guards and President of Madras, and Bombay during the Indian Uprising of 1857–58.
In 2016, Perry published Celeste: Courtesan, countess, bestselling author (Harper Collins / ABC Books). It is the story of Celeste Venard, a downtrodden French woman whose drive, intelligence, sensuality and writing skills drove her to be France's bestselling author in the 1850s.
In 2018, ABC Books also published Anzac Sniper: The extraordinary story of Stan Savige---From Gallipoli Marksman to WWII General.
Synopsis
Stan
Savige had been on Gallipoli for just two weeks, in the trenches firing
at Turks less than 20 metres away. But Sniper’s Ridge was a different
proposition. Killing took on another dimension.
In the flurry of
trench warfare, a soldier would rarely be certain he had hit an enemy.
On this ridge of death, however, Savige’s job was to make sure he struck
as many of the opposition as possible.
The son of a struggling
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 officers
and he was put in charge of the sniper’s post, his job to eliminate
enemy assassins at Anzac Cove. Savige
succeeded and survived Gallipoli, only to be sent to the Western Front,
then to Persia as part of the elite squad Dunsterforce. It was the
beginning of a long, dangerous and distinguished military career
spanning both world wars, with Savige fighting and commanding in Europe,
North Africa, the Middle East and the Pacific in World War II.
In this gripping biography, Roland Perry
paints a fascinating and complex portrait of Lieutenant General Sir
Stanley George Savige, KBE, CB, DSO, MC, ED. Savige was a man of
character and compassion, a quiet outsider who founded war veterans’
support charity Legacy, who still has few peers in courage, skill and
achievement.
His record is second to none in Australian military history, in the scope of his combat service spanning two world wars.
Reviews
"What
a great man, a great story and well read. This is one of the best books
I have listened to out of hundreds of audio books." - Audible reviewer
"This
book and great man makes our modern day lives seem so insignificant to
the war days. he details and direct references to written accounts
really grounds this story in reality and lends the authenticity of
truth. I really enjoyed this book and have recommended it others, it
blows my mind the stories of the men in this book are not taught in
schools. I'm 41 years old raised in Australia in the public school
system and I new nothing of Monash, or Savage before reading this and
that is a failing of our education system. I am sure i am not alone.
Thank you to the author and narrator for this great audio book. Most
especially, sincere gratitude to all ADF members for your service." - Bill, Amazon.com.au reviewer
Audiobook on CD-ROM, complete with cover art on CD. Supplied in windowed CD sleeve, no case provided.
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