Witty, wise, and deeply moving, this is a remarkable novel, a story of the fall of Singapore and life as a POW, and of a young boy making sense of his future while old men try to live with their past

David is 13 and confused. His mother has left with her lover and dumped David on his grandparents. David's grandfather, Jimmy, is 70. He spends his days at the social club grumbling with his three best friends, all of them Jewish-Australian survivors of the enforced labor camps of the WWII Thai-Burma Railroad. But behind their playful backbiting and irresistible wit, Jimmy and his friends are haunted by the ghosts of long-dead comrades, and the only person Jimmy can confide in is a 13-year-old from a different world.

Why everything you think you know about Australia's Vietnam War is wrong. When Mark Dapin first interviewed Vietnam veterans and wrote about the war, he swallowed (and regurgitated) every misconception. He wasn't alone. In Australia's Vietnam, Dapin reveals that every stage of Australia's commitment to the Vietnam War has been misunderstood, misinterpreted and shrouded in myth. From army claims that every national serviceman was a volunteer; and the level of atrocities committed by Australian troops; to the belief there no welcome home parades until the late 1980s and returned soldiers were met by angry protesters. Australia's Vietnam is a major contribution to the understanding of Australia's experience of the war and will change the way we think about memory and military history. Acclaimed journalist and bestselling military historian Mark Dapin busts long-held and highly charged myths about the Vietnam War Dapin reveals his own mistakes and regrets as a journalist and military historian and his growing realisation that the stereotypes of the Vietnam War are far from the truth This book will change the way military history is researched and written

Mad at the modern world? Meet Mark Dapin ...your new best friend Modern life: advertorials, obscenely cheerful breakfast tV hosts, celebrity chefs, call centres, smiling charity collectors. Brands, highly effective people, misuses of the word 'creative'. Performance reviews, people who say 'I'm not racist, but ...', sushi bars and the taliban. Alexander Downer. Water-cooler moments. Yellow stickers. Fridge magnets. Mark Dapin can complain - and does - about almost everything. In Fridge Magnets are Bastards, he's tried to contain his rants about the things that annoy him to a list of 141 - in alphabetical order. Why? Just to be irritating. A book for anyone who's ever gnashed their teeth over contemporary stupidity. 'CYNICAL,ILL-tEMPERED AND NEEDLESSLY AGGRESSIVE. I tHOROUGHLY ENJOYED It.' JACK MARX 'ELEGANt, WELL CONSIDERED ABUSE IS A LOSt ARt IN tHE AGE OF tHE E-MAIL. HERE, MARK DAPIN REVIVES tHAt ARt tRIUMPHANtLY, HILARIOUSLY ...' MIKE CARLtON