Follows Peekay, a white British boy in South Africa during World War II, between the ages of five and eleven, as he survives an abusive boarding school and goes on to succeed in life and the boxing ring, with help from a chicken, a boxer, a pianist, black African prisoners, and many others.

"The Persimmon Tree is unashamedly a love story. I've always wanted to write one but until now have been afraid to do so. The reason is simple enough: most men in my experience have very little idea of what really goes on in a woman's heart or head. Now, at the age of 74, I just might know enough and have sufficient courage to write on the subject - the way of a man with a woman, of a woman with a man. My story is set in the Pacific, although not...

Thommo and ten of his war mates develop physical and mental problems on their return to Australia. Angry at their hostile reception, they recruit an ex-Viet Cong with "special skills" and plan their revenge, but in real life, they're too screwed up to put up a fight. The team is transformed when Wendy, a woman whose baby needs a bone-marrow transplant, moulds them into a viable fighting unit.

A novel about a small boy's triumph over cruelty and loneliness to become a famous boxer. Set in the turbulent 1940's in Southern Africa, it is an epic of survival in the best of dramatic traditions.