Dragons in the Forest

Peter Yeldham OAM has been a writer since the age of seventeen when he wrote short stories and radio scripts. He went to England, intending to stay a year and stayed nearly twenty,writing for British television, then feature films and stage plays, including the highly successful 'Birds on the Wing' (in 1972 it was the top grossing play in Europe) and 'Fringe Benefits' which ran for two years in Paris. He has written another six plays for the theatre and collaborated on the musical 'Seven Little Australians'.His Australian work includes numerous mini-series, among them '1915', 'Captain James Cook', 'The Alien Years', 'All the Rivers Run', 'The Heroes', 'The Far Country', 'Run from the Morning', 'The Timeless Land', 'Ride on Stranger' and 'The Battlers'. His adaptation of Bryce Courtenay's novel 'Jessica' earned Peter a Logie award in 2005.He is the author of nine previous historical novels - A Bitter Harvest, The Currency Lads, Against the Tide, The Murrumbidgee Kid, A Distant Shore, Glory Girl, Barbed Wire and Roses, Above the Fold and Dragons in the Forest.In 1991 he received an Order of Australia Medal for achievement in film and television, and a Centenary Medal in 2003. Industry honours include six Australian Awards, a British Writers GuildAward, a Ned Kelly Award nomination for his thriller Without Warning, and an Emmy Award nomination for his television drama, Captain James Cook. For more information please visit peteryeldham.com

'This book brings my youth alive, and what an incredible time it was!' - Alex Faure
December 7th, 1941.
Today the war began! I've just heard the news on the radio. I was trying to finish my homework in English, and at the same time listen to a talk to improve my Japanese. I often use the radio for this purpose. The Marianist Brothes at St Joseph's teach us in English and French, but speaking Japanese at school is forbidden. Which is a pretty stupid rule, since this is where I was born and where my family lives, and on leaving school I want to get a job here...

Born in Japan of a French father and White Russian mother, Alex Faure greeted news of war in the Pacific with schoolboy enthusiasm. That is until the hardships of being a 'gaijin' and neutral foreigner in Japan during World War II became a stark reality for the Faure family.

December 22nd, 1944.
Since Sunday night there has been a raid most days and every single night. The bombing has been relentless. It accounts for the sombre mood; no Christmas spirit in evidence anywhere in this city. Certainly none at the French bank...

Peter Yeldham masterfully tells us Alex Faure's own true story against the backdrop of real events in wartime Japan. Laced with excerpts from Alex's diary, Dragons in the Forest is a riveting tale of life as a foreigner in a strange land at a very dangerous time.