Roland Perry
Encyclopedia
Roland Perry is a Melbourne
-based author
best known for his books on history, especially Australia in the two world wars. His Monash: The Outsider Who Won The War, won the Fellowship of Australian Writers
' 'Melbourne University Publishing Award' in 2004. The judges described it as 'a model of the biographer's art.' In the Queen's Birthday Honours of June 2011, Perry was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia 'for services to literature as an author.' His sports books include biographies
of Sir Donald Bradman, Steve Waugh
, Keith Miller
and Shane Warne
. Perry has written on espionage, specialising in the British Cambridge Ring of Russian agents. He has also published three works of fiction and produced more than 20 documentary films. Perry has been a member of the National Archives of Australia Advisory Council since 2006.
In 1991, Perry was commissioned by the Weekend Australian Magazine to write a feature about an Australian syndicate attempting to raise the treasure from a sunken galleon off the coast of Guam. He returned there with a film crew to make a documentary entitled The Raising of a Galleon’s Ghost.
called it ‘altogether an exciting story...an exciting panorama.’ Publishers Weekly
(US) said: ‘In a slick, convincing manner, Perry welds high-tech with espionage.’
In an interview on Sydney radio a decade after the publication of Program for a Puppet, Perry spoke about learning more from the negative reviews for his first fiction book than the good reviews: ‘Some were a bit cranky; some were patronising,’ he said, ‘but they were all in some way instructive. One thought the writing was “too high mileage.” Another spoke of a “staccato” style. I recall another mentioning that it was, at times, like a film script. One reviewer thought I had two good thrillers in one, which had merit. I did meld two big themes that may have been better separated. But you don’t really know what you are doing on a first fiction. I did all the heavy research, “forty ways to pick a lock,” that sort of thing.’
The author’s second novel, Blood is a Stranger was set in Australia's Arnhem Land
and Indonesia
. This covered the ‘issue’ of the misuse of uranium mining and dangers of nuclear weapons, a theme in Perry’s early writing and documentary film-making. Stephen Knight in the Sydney Morning Herald wrote: Blood is a Stranger is a skilful and thoughtful thriller…with a busy plot and some interesting, unnerving speculations about what might be going on in the world of lasers, yellowcake (uranium mining and manufacture) and Asian politics—things that most people prefer to ignore in favour of more simple and familiar puzzles.’
Roland Perry returned to fiction and a pet theme—the evils of nuclear weapons—in his third novel Faces in the Rain (1990). Set mainly in Melbourne and Paris, he used the first person to expose the nefarious activities of the French in testing and developing nuclear weapons in the Pacific.
in 1980. The book explained how advertising techniques had been superseded in elections by more sophisticated methods, including marketing and computer analysis. It was published in 1984. The book, as much narrative as analysis, told how the two key campaign ‘pollsters’ steered their candidates. It was not critical of President Ronald Reagan
, but was seen by the Republican campaign as hostile to him.
In the UK, the book received wide coverage. The Economist
opined that it had a ‘frightening message: the pollsters with their state-of-the-art computers, which keep a finger on the pulse of the electorate, hope they can manipulate almost any election and have ambitions to control what the people’s choice can do in office.’ Oliver Pritchett in the London Sunday Telegraph thought the book’s main concept was ‘an alarming idea, and the author...plainly intends to give us the shivers.’
Communist journalist, Australian Wilfred Burchett
died in Bulgaria late 1983, and Perry wrote a book about him in 1988. Perry based the book on Australia’s biggest defamation trial, when Burchett in 1974 sued Jack Kane of the Democratic Labor Party
for calling him a KGB
agent.
" Cambridge University spy ring. All members of the Ring worked for the Soviet Union’s KGB
and were run by Russian Master Spy Yuri Ivanovitch Modin
. He claimed to have a strong base of contacts within British intelligence, especially MI6, members of which he claimed had assisted him on detail for his first novel and information for articles on espionage.
After initial research he presented a 20,000 word evidentiary statement to Sedgwick & Jackson UK’s William Armstrong, who had published various books on espionage, notably by British journalist Chapman Pincher. Armstrong had been caught up in circumstances surrounding the MI5 agent Peter Wright
, who published Spycatcher
. The Fifth Man was published in 1994, during an avalanche of spy book collaborations. Knightley instead edited a book The Philby Files by Genrikh Borovik
.
The book named Lord (Victor) Rothschild
, the Third Baron, as the fifth key member of the KGB-controlled Ring. The other four were Guy Burgess
, Donald Maclean
, Kim Philby
, and Sir Anthony Blunt
, the Queen’s art curator. The media and press were split between positive and negative reaction to The Fifth Man. The Irish Times reviewer Kieran Fagan said: ‘This book by an Australian journalist is very unusual.....Few writers on espionage achieve the page-turning fluency of Roland Perry.’ The Weekend Australian reviewer Richard Hall said ‘it only takes a couple of phone calls to establish that the Rothschild operation had been pretty small beer for a long time.’ In contrast, Norman Abjorensen in The Sunday Canberra Times
wrote: Perry makes a plausible case that the Fifth Man was...Rothschild...even from the most critical viewpoint it has to be conceded that the circumstantial evidence pointing to Rothschild is compelling.’
wrote: "Perry’s work must be rated the first great read about the victories of the Australian cavalry in Arabia." The Age
made the book a ‘Pick of Week’ and noted the author "emphasises the significance of the Light Horse achievement…it’s briskly written, well-researched popular history." Rod Moran in The West Australian
called the book "an example of popular history at its best, with a compelling overview of the Australian Light Horse Regiments’ exploits…what they achieved was quite remarkable. The Australian Light Horse is a history book that deserves a place in every suburban-home library. It tells the story of an extraordinary generation of Australians who created an enduring legend while changing the course of history." John Hamilton reviewing in the Melbourne Herald Sun
said: "Perry conjures up the romantic image of the Light Horse that endures to this day."
The Courier-Mail
saw the book as "a colourful and rattling good yarn." Good Reading
magazine similarly found it "an enthralling and absorbing tale. He (the author) gives a well-balanced view of Chauvel and the ALF’s achievements and he ties the importance of their deeds to Australia’s emergent nationhood."
Roland Perry’s 24th book is The Changi Brownlow. Publisher Hachette dubbed this non-fiction book "an inspiration story of the Aussie team spirit - mateship and sacrifice, courage and endurance." The story is set in Changi prison and on the notorious Thai-Burma Railway in WW2. It features Peter Chitty, a non-combatant ambulance driver whose exceptional mental and physical fortitude cause him to be an inspiration to all POWs. It was published in August 2010 and reached Australia’s top ten bestseller list, and, similar to The Australian Light Horse was number one in the categories ‘Military and History’ for six months
Perry’s 25th book, Centre Stage: Australia’s Pacific War, the last of a quartet on Australia in WW1 and WW2, will be published in 2012.
Perry's 22nd book was the fourth in series of five volumes drawn from his years of interviews with Sir Donald Bradman, Bradman's Invincible. It covered what Perry (and Bradman himself) saw as the sports legend’s crowning achievement as captain of Australia - a 34-match tour of the UK in 1948, in which his team did not suffer one defeat. This feat, perhaps the greatest ever by any sporting team, had never been done before and has not been done since in more than 130 years of tours. The book hit the mark. The Sydney Morning Herald
noted: "This is a wonderful insider’s view of the (1948 Ashes) series….Perry is a good, unpretentious writer and the story he has to tell is one of courage and drama….It is a great Australian yarn." Adrian Nesbitt in Sydney’s Sun Herald wrote: "Perry paints an excellent background picture of a tour that is remembered by Australians as a triumph over the mother country, often without consideration that England was still bearing the scars of war….Perry creates suspenseful moments, in the dressing-room and on the field…..His meticulous approach gives us a great understanding of the subtleties and room for instinct that were Bradman trademarks." Teri Louise Kelly in Independent Weekly
said, "Perry’s work, much like Bradman himself, is head and shoulders above the competition….Bradman’s Invincibles leads the reader into the dusty backrooms, on to windy training pitches and mid-Test; beautifully written and accompanies by excellent photographs." David Stanley in Cricket Boundary Magazine commented: "Bradman’s Invincibles is required reading for all cricket lovers, particularly those of the younger brigade who may not know much about the players, apart from Bradman, who made up his remarkable team….It is a good read and I recommend it." Inside Sport
noted: "Perry’s prose provides worthwhile insight into the mechanics of Bradman’s mind." Perhaps one the most pleasing reviews from the publisher’s point of view came from Neil Harvey, one the Invincibles’ stars. He said: "I found it a very entertaining read. It brought memories flooding back."
Perry stayed in the sports genre with 23rd book, Sailing to the Moon, the biography of world champion yachtsman, and businessman, Rolly Tasker AO.
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
-based author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
best known for his books on history, especially Australia in the two world wars. His Monash: The Outsider Who Won The War, won the Fellowship of Australian Writers
Fellowship of Australian Writers
The Fellowship of Australian Writers, also known as FAW, was established in Sydney in 1928. Its aim is to bring writers together and promote their interests...
' 'Melbourne University Publishing Award' in 2004. The judges described it as 'a model of the biographer's art.' In the Queen's Birthday Honours of June 2011, Perry was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia 'for services to literature as an author.' His sports books include biographies
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
of Sir Donald Bradman, Steve Waugh
Steve Waugh
Stephen Rodger "Steve" Waugh, AO is a former Australian cricketer and fraternal twin of cricketer Mark Waugh. A right-handed batsman, he was also a successful medium-pace bowler...
, Keith Miller
Keith Miller
Keith Ross Miller MBE was an Australian Test cricketer and a Royal Australian Air Force pilot during World War II. Miller is widely regarded as Australia's greatest ever all-rounder. Because of his ability, irreverent manner and good looks he was a crowd favourite...
and Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
. Perry has written on espionage, specialising in the British Cambridge Ring of Russian agents. He has also published three works of fiction and produced more than 20 documentary films. Perry has been a member of the National Archives of Australia Advisory Council since 2006.
Career
Perry, as a freelance journalist, covered three US presidential elections (1976, 1980, 1984), writing for leading newspapers in the UK. He has also contributed to all major papers in Australia over more than 40 years. His work as a political writer for Penthouse Magazine UK led to a documentary on the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980: The Programming of the President.In 1991, Perry was commissioned by the Weekend Australian Magazine to write a feature about an Australian syndicate attempting to raise the treasure from a sunken galleon off the coast of Guam. He returned there with a film crew to make a documentary entitled The Raising of a Galleon’s Ghost.
Fiction
Perry worked for three years part-time on his first book, a fictional thriller, Program for a Puppet, which was first published in the UK by W. H. Allen in May 1979 and then Crown in US in 1980. Newgate Callendar in The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called it ‘altogether an exciting story...an exciting panorama.’ Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
(US) said: ‘In a slick, convincing manner, Perry welds high-tech with espionage.’
In an interview on Sydney radio a decade after the publication of Program for a Puppet, Perry spoke about learning more from the negative reviews for his first fiction book than the good reviews: ‘Some were a bit cranky; some were patronising,’ he said, ‘but they were all in some way instructive. One thought the writing was “too high mileage.” Another spoke of a “staccato” style. I recall another mentioning that it was, at times, like a film script. One reviewer thought I had two good thrillers in one, which had merit. I did meld two big themes that may have been better separated. But you don’t really know what you are doing on a first fiction. I did all the heavy research, “forty ways to pick a lock,” that sort of thing.’
The author’s second novel, Blood is a Stranger was set in Australia's Arnhem Land
Arnhem Land
The Arnhem Land Region is one of the five regions of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around 500 km from the territory capital Darwin. The region has an area of 97,000 km² which also covers the area of Kakadu National...
and Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
. This covered the ‘issue’ of the misuse of uranium mining and dangers of nuclear weapons, a theme in Perry’s early writing and documentary film-making. Stephen Knight in the Sydney Morning Herald wrote: Blood is a Stranger is a skilful and thoughtful thriller…with a busy plot and some interesting, unnerving speculations about what might be going on in the world of lasers, yellowcake (uranium mining and manufacture) and Asian politics—things that most people prefer to ignore in favour of more simple and familiar puzzles.’
Roland Perry returned to fiction and a pet theme—the evils of nuclear weapons—in his third novel Faces in the Rain (1990). Set mainly in Melbourne and Paris, he used the first person to expose the nefarious activities of the French in testing and developing nuclear weapons in the Pacific.
Nonfiction
The author’s second book followed up on a factual theme in Program for a Puppet—the way the American public was manipulated into voting for candidates by slick computer-based campaigns. Entitled Hidden Power: The Programming of the President it concentrated on the election of Ronald ReaganRonald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
in 1980. The book explained how advertising techniques had been superseded in elections by more sophisticated methods, including marketing and computer analysis. It was published in 1984. The book, as much narrative as analysis, told how the two key campaign ‘pollsters’ steered their candidates. It was not critical of President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, but was seen by the Republican campaign as hostile to him.
In the UK, the book received wide coverage. The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
opined that it had a ‘frightening message: the pollsters with their state-of-the-art computers, which keep a finger on the pulse of the electorate, hope they can manipulate almost any election and have ambitions to control what the people’s choice can do in office.’ Oliver Pritchett in the London Sunday Telegraph thought the book’s main concept was ‘an alarming idea, and the author...plainly intends to give us the shivers.’
Communist journalist, Australian Wilfred Burchett
Wilfred Burchett
Wilfred Graham Burchett was an Australian journalist known for his reporting of conflicts in Asia and his Communist sympathies...
died in Bulgaria late 1983, and Perry wrote a book about him in 1988. Perry based the book on Australia’s biggest defamation trial, when Burchett in 1974 sued Jack Kane of the Democratic Labor Party
Democratic Labor Party
The Democratic Labor Party is a political party in Australia that espouses social conservatism and opposes neo-liberalism. The first "DLP" Senator in decades, party vice-president John Madigan was elected to the Australian Senate with 2.3 percent of the primary vote in Victoria at the 2010 federal...
for calling him a KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
agent.
The Fifth Man
For his seventh book, published in 1994, Perry set out to discover the identity of the ‘Fifth Man’ in the "Cambridge FiveCambridge Five
The Cambridge Five was a ring of spies, recruited in part by Russian talent spotter Arnold Deutsch in the United Kingdom, who passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and at least into the early 1950s...
" Cambridge University spy ring. All members of the Ring worked for the Soviet Union’s KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
and were run by Russian Master Spy Yuri Ivanovitch Modin
Yuri Modin
Yuri Modin was the KGB controller for the "Cambridge Five" from 1944 to 1955, during which period Donald MacLean was said to have passed atomic secrets to the Soviets. In 1951 Modin arranged the defections of Maclean and Guy Burgess...
. He claimed to have a strong base of contacts within British intelligence, especially MI6, members of which he claimed had assisted him on detail for his first novel and information for articles on espionage.
After initial research he presented a 20,000 word evidentiary statement to Sedgwick & Jackson UK’s William Armstrong, who had published various books on espionage, notably by British journalist Chapman Pincher. Armstrong had been caught up in circumstances surrounding the MI5 agent Peter Wright
Peter Wright
Peter Maurice Wright was an English scientist and former MI5 counterintelligence officer, noted for writing the controversial book Spycatcher, which became an international bestseller with sales of over two million copies...
, who published Spycatcher
Spycatcher
Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer , is a book written by Peter Wright, former MI5 officer and Assistant Director, and co-author Paul Greengrass. It was published first in Australia...
. The Fifth Man was published in 1994, during an avalanche of spy book collaborations. Knightley instead edited a book The Philby Files by Genrikh Borovik
Genrikh Borovik
Genrikh Averyanovich Borovik is a Soviet and Russian publicist, writer, playwright and filmmaker, the father of journalist Artyom Borovik.According to Vasili Mitrokhin, Borovik was a KGB agent in the United States, one of whose successful projects was promotion of false John F. Kennedy...
.
The book named Lord (Victor) Rothschild
Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild
Nathaniel Mayer Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild, GBE, GM, FRS was a biologist by training, a cricketer and a member of the prominent Rothschild family...
, the Third Baron, as the fifth key member of the KGB-controlled Ring. The other four were Guy Burgess
Guy Burgess
Guy Francis De Moncy Burgess was a British-born intelligence officer and double agent, who worked for the Soviet Union. He was part of the Cambridge Five spy ring that betrayed Western secrets to the Soviets before and during the Cold War...
, Donald Maclean
Donald Duart Maclean
Donald Duart Maclean was a British diplomat and member of the Cambridge Five who were members of MI5, MI6 or the diplomatic service who acted as spies for the Soviet Union in the Second World War and beyond. He was recruited as a "straight penetration agent" while an undergraduate at Cambridge by...
, Kim Philby
Kim Philby
Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for and later defected to the Soviet Union...
, and Sir Anthony Blunt
Anthony Blunt
Anthony Frederick Blunt , was a British art historian who was exposed as a Soviet spy late in his life.Blunt was Professor of the History of Art at the University of London, director of the Courtauld Institute of Art, Surveyor of the King's Pictures and London...
, the Queen’s art curator. The media and press were split between positive and negative reaction to The Fifth Man. The Irish Times reviewer Kieran Fagan said: ‘This book by an Australian journalist is very unusual.....Few writers on espionage achieve the page-turning fluency of Roland Perry.’ The Weekend Australian reviewer Richard Hall said ‘it only takes a couple of phone calls to establish that the Rothschild operation had been pretty small beer for a long time.’ In contrast, Norman Abjorensen in The Sunday Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times newspaper was founded in 1926 in Canberra, Australia by Arthur Shakespeare.It was the second paper to be printed in the city, the first being The Federal Capital Pioneer. The paper was sold to the Fairfax group in the 1960s by Arthur Shakespeare on the condition that it continue...
wrote: Perry makes a plausible case that the Fifth Man was...Rothschild...even from the most critical viewpoint it has to be conceded that the circumstantial evidence pointing to Rothschild is compelling.’
Recent non-fiction
After covering the Western Front through the biography of Monash in WW1, Roland Perry turned to the Eastern Front for his 23rd book. It covered the dual part-biographies of Australian General Sir Harry Chauvel and T E Lawrence (‘Lawrence of Arabia’), which are the vehicles for his tome: The Australian Light Horse, published in late September 2009. 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. Reviews for The Australian Light Horse were consistently strong and positive. Paul Ham in The AustralianThe Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
wrote: "Perry’s work must be rated the first great read about the victories of the Australian cavalry in Arabia." The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
made the book a ‘Pick of Week’ and noted the author "emphasises the significance of the Light Horse achievement…it’s briskly written, well-researched popular history." Rod Moran in The West Australian
The West Australian
The West Australian is the only locally-edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia, and is owned by ASX-listed Seven West Media . The West is published in tabloid format, as is the state's other major newspaper, The Sunday Times, a News Limited publication...
called the book "an example of popular history at its best, with a compelling overview of the Australian Light Horse Regiments’ exploits…what they achieved was quite remarkable. The Australian Light Horse is a history book that deserves a place in every suburban-home library. It tells the story of an extraordinary generation of Australians who created an enduring legend while changing the course of history." John Hamilton reviewing in the Melbourne Herald Sun
Herald Sun
The Herald Sun is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia. It is published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Limited, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation. It is available for purchase throughout Melbourne, Regional Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital...
said: "Perry conjures up the romantic image of the Light Horse that endures to this day."
The Courier-Mail
The Courier-Mail
The Courier-Mail is a daily newspaper published in Brisbane, Australia. Owned by News Limited, it is published daily from Monday to Saturday in tabloid format. Its editorial offices are located at Bowen Hills, in Brisbane's inner northern suburbs, and it is printed at Murarrie, in Brisbane's...
saw the book as "a colourful and rattling good yarn." Good Reading
Good Reading
Good Reading is a popular monthly print magazine, focused on books and reading, based in Australia. The magazine was launched in July 2001. The popular magazine is devoted to books, and includes profiles of authors, extracts and independent reviews of the latest Australian and international...
magazine similarly found it "an enthralling and absorbing tale. He (the author) gives a well-balanced view of Chauvel and the ALF’s achievements and he ties the importance of their deeds to Australia’s emergent nationhood."
Roland Perry’s 24th book is The Changi Brownlow. Publisher Hachette dubbed this non-fiction book "an inspiration story of the Aussie team spirit - mateship and sacrifice, courage and endurance." The story is set in Changi prison and on the notorious Thai-Burma Railway in WW2. It features Peter Chitty, a non-combatant ambulance driver whose exceptional mental and physical fortitude cause him to be an inspiration to all POWs. It was published in August 2010 and reached Australia’s top ten bestseller list, and, similar to The Australian Light Horse was number one in the categories ‘Military and History’ for six months
Perry’s 25th book, Centre Stage: Australia’s Pacific War, the last of a quartet on Australia in WW1 and WW2, will be published in 2012.
Cricket books
Perry turned to his love of cricket for his book, The Don, a biography of Sir Donald Bradman published in 1995 again by Macmillan in Australia and William Armstrong at Sedgwick & Jackson in the UK. Perry consulted with Bradman for six years and four books resulted: The Don; Bradman’s Best (Random House, 2001); Bradman’s Best Ashes Teams (Random House, 2002); and Bradman’s Invincibles (Hachette, 2008). According to Perry, he and Bradman discussed the latter's thoughts on a compilation of a best-ever dream team. The book, Bradman’s Best (Random House) was published in Australia and the UK in 2001. The UK Observer’s Norman Harris noted in his column that the book "containing the 11 precious names will be guarded like gold bars."Perry's 22nd book was the fourth in series of five volumes drawn from his years of interviews with Sir Donald Bradman, Bradman's Invincible. It covered what Perry (and Bradman himself) saw as the sports legend’s crowning achievement as captain of Australia - a 34-match tour of the UK in 1948, in which his team did not suffer one defeat. This feat, perhaps the greatest ever by any sporting team, had never been done before and has not been done since in more than 130 years of tours. The book hit the mark. The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
noted: "This is a wonderful insider’s view of the (1948 Ashes) series….Perry is a good, unpretentious writer and the story he has to tell is one of courage and drama….It is a great Australian yarn." Adrian Nesbitt in Sydney’s Sun Herald wrote: "Perry paints an excellent background picture of a tour that is remembered by Australians as a triumph over the mother country, often without consideration that England was still bearing the scars of war….Perry creates suspenseful moments, in the dressing-room and on the field…..His meticulous approach gives us a great understanding of the subtleties and room for instinct that were Bradman trademarks." Teri Louise Kelly in Independent Weekly
Independent Weekly
The Independent Weekly is a tabloid-format alternative weekly newspaper published in Durham, North Carolina, United States and distributed throughout the Research Triangle area and counties .The Independent is a member of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and has a...
said, "Perry’s work, much like Bradman himself, is head and shoulders above the competition….Bradman’s Invincibles leads the reader into the dusty backrooms, on to windy training pitches and mid-Test; beautifully written and accompanies by excellent photographs." David Stanley in Cricket Boundary Magazine commented: "Bradman’s Invincibles is required reading for all cricket lovers, particularly those of the younger brigade who may not know much about the players, apart from Bradman, who made up his remarkable team….It is a good read and I recommend it." Inside Sport
Inside Sport
Inside Sport is an Australian sport magazine published by nextmedia. Inside Sport largely comprises articles by freelance journalists, covering a wide array of sports. It focuses on sporting content, sports photography, and the attention given to models and their photo shoots...
noted: "Perry’s prose provides worthwhile insight into the mechanics of Bradman’s mind." Perhaps one the most pleasing reviews from the publisher’s point of view came from Neil Harvey, one the Invincibles’ stars. He said: "I found it a very entertaining read. It brought memories flooding back."
Perry stayed in the sports genre with 23rd book, Sailing to the Moon, the biography of world champion yachtsman, and businessman, Rolly Tasker AO.