Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), Saturday 9 January 1954, page 3


Jap. Harbor Attack Created In Book

From Our Special Representative

LONDON, Jan. 8

A crowded Sydney ferry is torpedoed at night; by a Japanese U-boat in Jon Cleary's

'The Climate of Courage,' a new Australian war novel published in London this week by Collins. So realistically is the scene created against the actual events of Sydney's "Nip night" that in years to come it could well provide the basis for pub arguments as to whether the Japanese really did sink a ferry. London reviewers hail the book with unanimous warmth. Frederick Laws, book critic of the 'News Chronicle,' says that anybody who wishes to understand the Austra-lians should read 'The Climate of Courage.' This reviewer says "the English find Australians more difficult to understand even than Americans. This novel would be very useful to an Australian Council which had to explain Aus-

tralian virtues and way of life to us islanders. "It is a decent, genuine novel, humane, straight-forward and uncompromis-ingly Australian. The book's main charac-ters are men of "the Silent Seventh" on leave in Syd-ney on their return from the Middle East and then in action in New Guinea.

Jon Cleary.

Jon Cleary.