THE WAR WITHIN

G'day.........

My name is Don Tate- author of 'The War Within'.

(Incidentally, I'm not as grim as I might look in that photo. It was a bad day!)

 The War Within is described by one reviewer as:

"...a compelling and sometimes shocking search for manhood by an alienated man fuelled by anger, alcohol and women, in a world where the only war heroes are the Anzacs....."

(For more reviews, go to Articles in the Menu..then Reviews.)

Initially published in Australia by one of Australia's most prestigious publishers, Murdoch Books, The War Within is now published internationally by iUniverse, USA in both eBook and hard copy versions. It now contains an additional eight chapters.

Copies of The War Within may be purchased directly from: iUniverse; Amazon; and/or BarnesandNoble.

The eBook version costs $3.99; the hard copy version costs $28.99.

There is also an unabridged, Audio Book version available from the Association for the Blind, Western Australia. It comes in CD or MP3 format with 'DAISY' application.

Being turned into an Audio Book is a rare honour for any author, and I am very proud of this achievement. It was launched by one of Australia's premier radio announcers/journalist- Howard Sattler of 6PR. Other significant recommendations have come from Ian McPhedran ("Soldiers Without Borders"); Paul Ham ("Vietnam: The Australian War"); Frank Walker ("Ghost Platoon"); Bob Rogers of radio 2CH; Michael Smith of radio 4BC and 2UE; and significant Australian senior, ex-army officers, George Mansford OA; and Neil Weekes AM MC (a member of the Prime Minister's Advisory Council.)

For more details of the Audio Book- contact Sue Murray at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (Note: The Association for the Blind W.A. receives all proceeds from Audio Book sales.)

MEDIA RELEASE (Murdoch Books)

"There were times I felt I was in the clutches of a force beyond my understanding, something dark and malevolent, gripping me like a vice……   Most of all, I felt like all the light and good had been siphoned from me.”

Don Tate’s The War Within is stark realism at its best. He writes in a raw and visceral style of all life’s struggles and failings, a kind of public confessional- and herein lies this book’s extraordinary power to shock. It is a complex, virtuoso analysis of his world- a profoundly unsettling mosaic of a man struggling to belong in a world in which he can never really belong.

It is so many things at once- on the one hand, an acidic dissection of the role environment and family have in developing a person’s character, and on the other, it is a sauntering chronicle of social analysis and injustice.

We grow with the author as he struggles to make sense of a tsunami of astonishing sequences- from sexual and physical abuse as a boy; sexual awakening; family dysfunction; teenage delinquency; the clamour of jungle warfare and gut-wrenching descriptions of the aftermath; war atrocities; the corruptions of history; of love and lust; and underpinning it all, the pervasive fear that there is a spiritual force manipulating it all.

Along the way, Tate examines the dark recesses of the male psyche as the morally bankrupt adult is forced to confront and battle both his inner demons and the dazzling decency of his long-suffering wife, Carole. Ironically, although she enters late in the narrative, it is his wife whose unconditional love provides the social and psychological safety net that keeps the author sane in the face of incredible adversity.

Of particular note are his descriptions of  his service as an infantryman in the Vietnam War which, as one reviewer said, “ scales new heights in war writing.” Not only must Tate come to terms with the horrors of combat and an horrific wound that required years of hospitalisation, but battles with the military bureaucracy over corruption of war records in the decades that followed.

His successful prosecution of official recognition for the 2nd D&E Platoon (‘edited out’ of the histories of the Vietnam war for almost forty years because of contentions in the field) caused outrage within Australian veteran circles- but came to fruition in 2008 when the Australian federal government formally recognised the platoon and its activities- a decision unparalleled in Australian military history.

But at the heart of The War Within, and part of its richness, lies in the fact that although there is a simmering anger beneath the text, Tate can find hope and colour in the worst of the greyness in his life- a celebration of the human condition, of a man with a can-do, cavalier attitude to life, and his desire to rise above mediocrity.

This is a memoir that deserves to stand apart as an outstanding contribution to Australia's rich heritage of memoir. As at least one other viewer has commented, "The War Within is Facey's A Fortunate Life on steroids and deserves a place among the classics of Australian memoir.”

A preview is online at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6Fx8XQxAew

EMAIL: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

And for images relating to the controversial Vietnam section, go to:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRik3cOn4KM

The War Within is now available in hard copy and eBook formats from iUniverse; Amazon; and Barnes and Noble.
The hard copy retails for $28.99.
The Ebook retails for $3.99.
There is also an unabridged Audio Book version available from the Association for the Blind, W.A. It is of 15 hours duration and comes in two formats: a set of 16 CDs; or 1 x cd suitable for MP3 players. For more details, contact: Sue Murray at the Association: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Feel free to email me at:
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