Peter Grose

OK
About Peter Grose
I started my working life as a journalist on the Sydney Daily Mirror, moved to London as a foreign correspondent for The Australian, switched to literary agency with Curtis Brown, first in Sydney then back in London, switched to book publishing with Martin Secker & Warburg in London, stayed as a publisher, first on my own and then with Australian Consolidated Press (UK), then started writing books. My first book A Very Rude Awakening tells the story of the Japanese midget submarine raid on Sydney Harbour in May 1942. My second book An Awkward Truth deals with the Japanese bombing raid on Darwin in February 1942 (by the same force that hit Pearl Harbor 10 weeks earlier). My third book A Good Place To Hide tells the story of the village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and the surrounding communities in the Auvergne region of France, where some 3500 Jews were rescued from the Nazis during World War 2. My latest book Ten Rogues, published in 2020, tells the unlikely story of ten convicts transported to 19th century Australia, who stole a leaky brig from Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) and sailed it across 10,00 kilometres of ocean to Chile without so much as a map or a chronometer.
I still think of myself as a journalist. I make no claim to be an academic historian, and I try to write in an accessible and conversational style. My main focus is on telling a story, the more dramatic the better. I have a weakness for cock-ups, hence the first two books. To my mild surprise, book number three might just about be described as inspirational.
Customers Also Bought Items By
Are you an author?
Author Updates
-
-
-
Blog postWhen I was a young lad in Sydney, Australia there was a category of jokes called 'shaggy dog stories'. What the connection was between these stories and hirsute dogs remains a mystery. However my father used to tell a beauty, which went like this:
Two men are sitting alone in railway carriage. One is reading a newspaper. To the astonishment of the other, whenever he has finished reading a page of the paper, the first man tears the page out, screws it up into a little ball, and throws2 weeks ago Read more -
Blog postIt's hardly a state secret that I supported the independent Zali Steggall (pictured above) in the seat of Warringah in the recent Australian election. For full disclosure, see the entry below 'Been there, got the T-shirt'.
You might also care to look at my blog entry for 26 April 2021 under the headline 'A mighty wind?' In that blog entry I suggested that we might be witnessing the first faint rumbles of a tectonic shift in the public mood around the world. If those rumbles grew loud3 weeks ago Read more -
Blog postSunday 22 May 2022
It will not have escaped your attention that Australia held a national election yesterday, nor that the odious Trump-aligned climate change denier Scott Morrison ("Scotty from Marketing") was unceremoniously tossed out as Prime Minister, to be replaced by the justifiably modest Anthony Albanese of the Labor Party. Happily, I've been in Australia for the last few weeks, so I've been in the thick of it.
Last night was a good night for independents,1 month ago Read more -
-
Blog postElle magazine is something of a French institution. It comes out weekly, looks as good and reads as well as any monthly, and is regularly devoured by over 300,000 buyers a week. With a cover price of 2.60 € and packed with high-end advertising, it is a serious business. It doesn't venture much into politics but this week it did.
The sigh of relief around the world when Emmanuel Macron trashed Marine Le Pen in last week's presidential election was audible even in our little island of2 months ago Read more -
Blog postBack when I was learning to fly (about 200 years ago!) the first thing I was told was that before take-off I shoud take a good look round and check the take-off area for potential obstacles, then keep looking around throughout the flight. Real pilots had swivelling heads. So ... before take-off, check the area for high obstacles in particular, but also for other aircraft. In addition, before take-off we had to commit a check-list to memory, aided by an obscene mnemonic which I won't repeat he10 months ago Read more
-
Blog postIt's probably wise if I don't say too much just now. If you take a look at the video below, it won't take long to work out that it's part of a hunt for funds for a show we are preparing. For what? That would be telling. But I would be grateful (as would my collaborator Gary Jackson) for any input or suggestions, particularly for sources of funding. We think we need about A$750,000, but two thirds of that is for advertising and promotion.
There is a short film below, a bit under 14 mi11 months ago Read more -
-
Blog postI don't like to make rash promises, but with luck this will be my last word on the subject of Covid-19. I've created a kind of Venn diagram which will enable you to forecast, with stunning accuracy, how things are likely to go Covid-wise in your country, region, city, street or neighbourhood. Here's the diagram:
The diagram plots vaccination rate against infection rate. So there are four possibilities: 1. low vaccination, low infection; 2. low vaccination, high infection; 3. high vacc11 months ago Read more -
Blog postI first heard the expression food truck in Wellington, New Zealand. Ophelie, the daughter of our next door neighbours, had moved to New Zealand with her husband and together they started a well-reviewed French restaurant in Christchurch. Despite the good reviews and good bookings, they felt it was a lot of hard work for not enough reward. They decided to move to Wellington and buy a food truck instead. Last I heard they were in Auckland, so maybe the Wellington food truck didn't live up to ex11 months ago Read more
-
-
Blog postIf America emerges still standing and still smiling after the combined and related horrors of Donald Trump and the Covid-19 pandemic, it will be thanks to Americans like Ben Fox.
I've never met Ben, though he lives not all that far away, in northern Portugal. He first entered my life way back in February of this year, when he tracked me down via my old web site and explained that he was creating a new book web site called Shepherd, where authors could plug one of their own books for11 months ago Read more -
Blog postWe’re just back from Paris, a trip which marks our first substantial voyage in 16 months and our first trip to Paris in 20 months. Since you ask … yes, it was great. Paris seemed a bit scruffier and a bit quieter than usual. But it was a joy to be back in familiar restaurants, now fully open, and to go to the Opera Bastille to see the ballet Romeo and Juliet before a live audience. The picture above shows part of the audience, all wearing their mandatory masks. In general Parisians are a stro11 months ago Read more
-
Blog postIt wouldn't be France if food didn't enter the equation somewhere. For years I've agonised over whether I'd been a total hypocrite after publishing my book A Good Place To Hide. The book tells the story of Protestant villagers in the mountains of eastern France who hid some 5,000 refugees, mostly Jews, during World War II. If ever I give a talk about the book, I always conclude by asking the audience: do you approve of what those villagers did? The answer is invariably yes. Then how come peop1 year ago Read more
-
-
Blog postA handful of newspapers and other journals around the world are starting to pick up on a theme I tried to give voice to in my last blog entry on 30 May. Here's some reinforcement.
Most countries around the world are now counting the wrong numbers when evaluating their progress against the Covid-19 pandemic. If you read in your local newspaper or hear on the radio or television that infections are down along with deaths and hospitalisations where you live, take no comfort whatsoever a1 year ago Read more -
Blog postRant alert.
Sorry, folks, but I'm well sick of people trying not to sound smug while asking me how things are in France Covid-19-wise. The implication is that we are suffering grievously here while things are MUCH better where they come from. Poor old you is the unstated message. Well here are the facts for France, the UK, the US and Australia.
France (population 67 million) has so far administered 10,742,886 second jabs, which means that some 16% of the population is fully1 year ago Read more -
-
Blog postChristopher Guest's wonderful faux documentary about the folk music pandemic that swept the world in the 1960s was titled A Mighty Wind. (You can find Christopher Guest himself in the picture above. He's the third red shirt on the right, in the centre of the picture, part of a lunatic parody of The Kingston Trio.) The folk music craze of the 1960s was central to the zeitgeist of that optimistic decade, when Bob Dylan sang through his nose that the times they were a' changin', and Pete Seeger1 year ago Read more
-
Blog postI really don’t know where to begin with this. You are now reading from my ‘new’ web site at www.petegrose.com. At the urging of my then British publisher, I set up my ‘old’ web site at www,petergrose.net way back in 2014. I built both web sites myself, and my hope for them both was that they would help people to find me – Google does this well, for instance – and contact me. My other hope was that the blog would give me a way of communicating directly with everyone without having to ‘sell’ my1 year ago Read more
-
Blog postMake a note of today's date . . . 14 March 2021. It could go down in history as the day Joe Biden was at long last rumbled. Whatever else, it's the day he lost his biggest advantage. How do I know? I read it behind the headlines in that great journal of record and authority The New York Times.
Try it for yourself. These are the headlines in today's NYT. "Joe Biden Knew He Was Onto Something Long Before We Did" (an article about how Joe Biden long before he was elected hinte1 year ago Read more -
-
Blog postI wouldn't take too much notice of what follows if I were you: it's the purest speculation. But, as the headline says, I can dream, can't I?
I've been staying up late watching the live coverage of Donald Trump's impeachment. It's some of the best drama I've ever seen, on TV or anywhere else. But, despite a brilliantly illustrated and argued prosecution, everyone seems to think Trump will get away with his part in triggering the Capitol riot, a high crime and misdemeanour if ever ther1 year ago Read more -
Blog postA topic which should be a simple matter of counting has become a hotly debated political issue. There is even a left-right split: the left says Covid-19 is a world-wide scourge and we must all suffer to get rid of it; the right says it's just a case of the sniffles and it will go away soon. Why the right would allow itself to be painted into this mindless corner is a mystery to me. If someone you know is dead from Covid-19, or if your local hospital is bursting at the seams and the nightly TV1 year ago Read more
-
-
Blog postAn article in today's New York Times talks about the very little damage done by the mob that invaded the US Capitol on 6 January. All will be fine, said that august organ, once the last shard of glass has been swept up. At this point I can only say: us too.
The day before the Washington ruckus we left a well-locked house a bit after nine in the morning to do our daily shopping. We were back at about 10 o'clock, to find that there had been an attempted break-in while we were out. It w1 year ago Read more -
Blog postThe Law of Unintended Consequences, otherwise known as The Law of Be Careful What You Wish For, swung lustily into action on New Year's Day this year. The illustration above shows the front pages of Le Monde, France's best newspaper, on January 1, 2 and 3. The paper on the left is dated January 1 and 2, and was a numéro double, or double issue, which is not unusual in a holiday season. The front page on the right is for January 3.
It will not have escaped your attention that 11 year ago Read more
Titles By Peter Grose
The untold story of an isolated French community that banded together to offer sanctuary and shelter to over 3,500 Jews in the throes of World War II
Nobody asked questions, nobody demanded money. Villagers lied, covered up, procrastinated and concealed, but most importantly they welcomed.
This is the story of an isolated community in the upper reaches of the Loire Valley that conspired to save the lives of 3,500 Jews under the noses of the Germans and the soldiers of Vichy France. It is the story of a pacifist Protestant pastor who broke laws and defied orders to protect the lives of total strangers. It is the story of an eighteen-year-old Jewish boy from Nice who forged 5,000 sets of false identity papers to save other Jews and French Resistance fighters from the Nazi concentration camps. And it is the story of a community of good men and women who offered sanctuary, kindness, solidarity and hospitality to people in desperate need, knowing full well the consequences to themselves.
Powerful and richly told, A Good Place to Hide speaks to the goodness and courage of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.
'Grose's compassionate, honest and vivid account deserves to be widely read.' Sun Herald on An Awkward Truth
'About as good as any yarn can get . . . a great retelling of a great story.' Sydney Morning Herald on A Very Rude Awakening
Originally published as the best-selling An Awkward Truth and A Very Rude Awakening
The bombing of Darwin by the Japanese on 19 February 1942 was the first wartime assault on Australian soil. The Japanese dropped more bombs on Darwin, killed more civilians in Darwin and sank more ships in Darwin than Pearl Harbor.
Three months later, on 31 May 1942, three Japanese midget submarines crept into Sydney Harbour and caused an unforgettable night of mayhem, high farce, chaos and courage. The war was no longer confined to distant deserts and jungles. It had well and truly come to Australia.
Absorbing, spirited and fast-paced, 1942: the year the war came to Australia tells the story of the under-armed and unprepared soldiers and civilians who faced their toughest test on home soil.
The compelling and very human story of the first foreign assault on Australian soil since settlement—the attack on Darwin by the Japanese in February of 1942, the first wartime assault on Australian soil. The Japanese struck with the same carrier-borne force that devastated Pearl Harbor only ten weeks earlier, the only difference being that more bombs fell on Darwin, more civilians were killed, and more ships were sunk. The raid led to the worst death toll from any event in Australia. The attackers bombed and strafed three hospitals, flattened shops, offices and the police barracks, shattered the Post Office and communications center, wrecked Government House, and left the harbor and airfields burning and ruined. The people of Darwin abandoned their town, leaving it to looters, a few anti-aircraft batteries and a handful of dogged defenders with single-shot .303 rifles. Yet the story, until now, has remained in the shadows. Drawing on long-hidden documents and first-person accounts, An Awkward Truth is a compelling and revealing story of the day war really came to Australia, and the motley bunch of soldiers and civilians who were left to defend the nation.
That Sunday night the party came to a shattering halt when three Japanese midget submarines crept into the harbour, past eight electronic indicator loops, past six patrolling Royal Australian Navy ships, and past an anti-submarine net stretched across the inner harbour entrance. Their arrival triggered a night of mayhem, courage, chaos and high farce which left 27 sailors dead and a city bewildered. The war, it seemed, was no longer confined to distant desert and jungle. It was right here at Australia's front door.
Written at the pace of a thriller and based on new first person accounts and previously unpublished official documents, A Very Rude Awakening is a ground-breaking and myth-busting look at one of the most extraordinary stories ever told of Australia at war.