Since he retired from radio, Mike has been very busy and his latest project is Cruiser, The life and Loss of HMAS Perth and Her Crew, to be published in August.

The book is the story of the Australian cruiser HMAS Perth, the brave men who sailed with her and those who loved and waited.

Most were young – many were still teenagers – from cities and towns, villages and farms across the nation. In three tumultuous years they battled the forces of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Vichy French and, the Imperial Japanese Navy.

They were nearly lost in a hurricane in the Atlantic. In the Medite-rranean in 1941 they were bombed by the Luftwaffe and the Italian Air Force for months until their ship took a direct hit and 13 men were killed.

After the fall of Singapore in 1942, HMAS Perth was hurled into the campaign to stem the Japanese advance towards Australia. Off Java she met an overwhelming enemy naval force. Firing until her ammunition ran out, she was sunk with the loss of 353 of her crew. Another 328 men were captured, most to become slave labourers on the Burma-Thai railway. Only 218 men, less than a third of her crew, survived to return home at war's end.

Mike Carlton started his career as a journalist with the ABC and among assignments in South East Asia covered the Vietnam war. He worked on This Day Tonight, and other current affairs shows before becoming a broadcaster with 2UE and 2GB. In the 1980s where he hosted a daily radio programme in London for four years.

He returned to Australian breakfast radio until he tired of 3am starts and retired from radio in 2009.

During his career Mr. Carlton build a reputation as a satirist, commentator on current affairs, and raconteur and developed his interest in the Navy and Naval history. This is his third book. He lives in Avalon and is a patron of Sydney's North Palm Beach Surf Club. He writes a weekly column for The Sydney Morning Herald.

He is a member of the Naval Historical Society of Australia, the Australian Naval Institute, the US Naval Institute at Annapolis, Maryland. This is the book he has always wanted to write.

Cruiser. The Life and Loss of HMAS Perth and her Crew.
Mike Carlton. Random House. $55.

TO BOOK:
Pittwater Literary Dinners are sponsored by Pittwater LIFE and The Next Chapter Books
Centro Warriewood. Dinners raise funds for local charities.

Tickets cost $50 each or $500 for a table of ten.

Buy them at Herforts Chemist Avalon, The Next Chapter Books Warriewood and Julie Allen of Allen’s Travel Collaroy.

OR click here to download the form. Print it, fill it in, enclose a cheque payable to ‘Pittwater Literary Dinners’and post to Literary Dinners, PO Box 1574, Warriewood, NSW 2102.

Enquiries: Julie Magill 9997 3221.