Here is that marriage of good writing to good scholarship that one seldom comes upon. Peter Brune's prose crackles and sparkles and he has done the hard work on the ground. You can smell the jungle. If Papua was a bastard of a place, this is a pearl of a book.

Les Carlyon, author of Gallipoli

Brune is that rare combination of a great researcher, powerful historian and good writer, and A Bastard of a Place brings all those qualities together on the canvas of Australia's greatest war story?' Peter FitzSimons, The Sydney Morning Herald

In 1942 and early 1943 Papua New Guinea was 'a bastard of a place to fight a war. Peter Brune gives us the final, all-encompassing story of the five battles that changed Australia forever.

Peter Brune's compelling narrative resonates with the voices of both the well-trained AIF volunteer and the young Militia conscript who triumphed together. He interviewed hundreds of these soldiers and himself travelled the treacherous terrain and bloody battlegrounds where so many of their mates perished. Peter reveals the inside story of how Generals MacArthur and Blamey sacrificed many of the senior Australian field commanders as scapegoats to protect their own positions.

A Bastard of a Place restores Milne Bay, Gona, Buna and Sanananda to their rightful place beside Kokoda to what they should collectively be for all Australians sacred ground.

PETER BRUNE is a leading authority and writer on the Australian campaigns in New Guinea in World War II. Peter has also written the bestselling Those Ragged Bloody Heroes, The Spell Broken and We Band of Brothers and has co-authored with Neil McDonald 200 Shots: Damien Parer and George Silk and the Australians at War in New Guinea.