Peter FitzSimons is Australia's bestselling non-fiction writer, and for the past 30 years has also been a journalist and columnist with the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD and the SUN HERALD. He is the author of a number of highly successful books, including KOKODA, NED KELLY and GALLIPOLI, as well as biographies of such notable Australians as Sir Douglas Mawson, Nancy Wake and Nick Farr-Jones. His passion is to tell Australian stories, our own stories: of great men and women, of stirring events in our history. Peter grew up on a farm north of Sydney, went to boarding school in Sydney and attended Sydney University. An ex-Wallaby, he also lived for several years in rural France and Italy, playing Rugby for regional clubs. He lives in Sydney with his wife, Lisa Wilkinson - journalist, magazine editor and currently co-presenter of TODAY on Channel 9 - and their three children.
Strongly grounded in empirical research and context, Burke & Wills has much to commend it. It will undoubtedly please the author's established readership, and its enthusiastic and colourful prose style will no doubt serve to encourage younger readers to develop a passion for Australian history. - Weekend Australian