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  • Hachette Australia
  • Hachette Australia

The Changi Brownlow: An inspirational story of the Aussie spirit

Roland Perry

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Hachette Military Collec, Singapore, Australia, c 1939 to c 1945 (including WW2), True war & combat stories, True stories of heroism, endurance & survival, Prose: non-fiction, History, Australasian & Pacific history, History of other lands, History: specific events & topics, Second World War, Rugby football, Australian Rules football

This is the moving, powerful and surprising story of a group of Australian POWs who organise an Australian Rules Football competition under the worst conditions imaginable - inside Changi prison.

After Singapore falls to the Japanese early in 1942, 70 000 prisoners including 15 000 Australians, are held as POWs at the notorious Changi prison, Singapore. To amuse themselves and fellow inmates, a group of sportsmen led by the indefatigable and popular Chicken Smallhorn, created an Australian Football League, complete with tribunal, selection panel, umpires and coaches. The final game of the one and only season was between Victoria and the Rest of Australia , which attracted 10 000 spectators, and a unique Brownlow Medal was awarded in this unlikely setting under the curious gaze of Japanese prison guards.

Meet the main characters behind this spectacle: Peter Chitty, the farm hand from Snowy River country with unfathomable physical and mental fortitude, and one of eight in his immediate family who volunteered to fight and serve in WW2; Chicken Smallhorn, the Brownlow-medal winning little man with the huge heart; and Weary Dunlop, the courageous doctor, who cares for the POWs as they endure malnutrition, disease and often inhuman treatment.

This is a story of courage and the invincibility of the human spirit, and highlights not only the Australian love of sport, but its power to offer consolation in times of extreme hardship.

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Roland Perry

Roland Perry is an award-winning author, journalist and documentary-maker, best known for his writing on Australian military and sporting history. His books include BRADMAN'S INVINCIBLES, THE FIGHT FOR AUSTRALIA, MONASH: THE OUTSIDER WHO WON THE WAR, THE AUSTRALIAN LIGHT HORSE, THE CHANGI BROWNLOW, biographies of cricketers Keith Miller and Shane Warne, his highly praised life of DON BRADMAN, as well as the recent bestsellers BILL THE BASTARD and HORRIE THE WAR DOG. Roland Perry was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia, for services to literature, in 2011. For more information visit rolandperryauthor.com

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