A simple, moving, vivid and heartbreaking account of one young sailor's eventful war. I heard the cries of scared men yelling they couldn't swim, but they jumped in regardless. I pulled off my new boots, dropped them on the deck and, clutching my tobacco tin, jumped overboard, feet first ...We were a good distance away from the sinking Perth when two more torpedoes slammed into it and we watched silently as our ship slid under. Suddenly we were alone at sea in a pitch-black night in an overcrowded Carley float. Someone said, 'Goodbye, gallant one.' Stoker Munro was just an inexperienced seventeen year old knockabout kid when he went to war, but he turned out to be an extraordinary survivor. the sinking of the Perth was only the beginning of his war. Stoker suffered through years of harsh imprisonment in Java and the infamous Changi prison camp, as well as the horrors of the thai-Burma Railway. then, just as conditions improved, he was shipped off to Japan and another disaster. Stoker Munro, Survivor is a simple but moving account of a young sailor's war, as told to his close friend, David Spiteri. Stoker's voice - clear, distinctive, laidback and larrikin, with an ability to find the humour in just about any situation - epitomises everything that is great about the ANZAC spirit: courage, resilience, and the sheer refusal to lie down and be beaten. 'the story of Stoker Darby Munro's survival is an epic of the human spirit ...In our time, when the word hero is flung around so lightly, this book reflects upon genuine heroism. We forget these stories and these lives at our peril.' Mike Carlton

The true story of forty years inside one of Australia's first outlaw motorcycle clubs as told by its one-time president. With previously unrevealed insights into the outlaw world of extreme violence, drugs, corruption, sex, treachery and retribution. All names have been changed, and identities and events obscured. This is the only way the story could be told. 'this story is a true account of the birth of outlaw motorcycle clubs in Australia. there was no template for us, it just evolved. It shows our simple creed: loyalty to the club and respect for your brothers.' David Spiteri was a founding member and long-time President of one of Australia's first outlaw motorcycle clubs from its inception in the early 1960s through to the early 2000s. He has been uniquely placed to witness the clubs develop from loose affiliations of riders to the well structured and well connected groups we see today, with links to police, politicians and lawyers. In this never-before-told inside story, Spiteri puts himself at risk to reveal everything from the drug trafficking which funds the clubs' operations to the extreme violence that continues to make them infamous. For the first time, the true extent of the clubs' corruption will be exposed, and the treachery and subsequent retribution enforced by their own brand of law known as 'the code' is brought to light. A truly shocking and compelling look at a fascinating subculture.