Author(s): Louise Austin

Military

"Journey to Tobruk" is a biography/war history title incorporating an element of intriguing family history. Based on the discovery of a family archive of approximately 100 letters, 50 hours of interviews, war diaries, official brigade diaries and other histories of the period, "Journey to Tobruk" traces the life journey of genuine war hero and 'rat of Tobruk' John Murray, strongly focused on his wartime experiences. After the war Queensland-based Murray became a federal politician, among other things, and Quentin Bryce as Governor of Queensland endorsed this manuscript in May 2008, writing a foreword. Author Louise Austin (Murray's niece) makes extensive use throughout the story of Murray's letters to his mother, with whom he was very close: a loyal and lifelong correspondence. This adds a wonderful dimension of immediacy and humanity to the story. Murray is an eloquent letter writer, and his laconic, laidback tone in times of hardship is definitively Australian. The family letters also reveal aspects of his family life, a life that is anything but usual or ordinary, which adds extra depth and interest to the book.