The story of a local World War II hero has been so popular among readers it has been converted into an audio book.
Roleystone resident Charlie Parkin was captured by the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II, interned in a Japanese Prisoner of War camp and survived the atomic bomb blast on Nagasaki in August 1945.
While Charlie Parkin’s story might not be known much outside the small Perth hills suburb, local author Linda Moore took it upon herself to tell Parkin’s story to the world as best she could and in 2016 her novel Apple Core Wars was published.
“The book is based on the true story in Roleystone about the Parkin family,” she said.
“They had eight sons and all eight wanted to go off to war.
“Charlie ended up in Nagasaki and survived the atomic blast – a pretty astounding story.”
The book follows his life and that of a boy named Jacky Bellamy from Karragullen, a hometown rival who is thrown into the madness of late-war Japan with Charlie.
Parkin and Bellamy grew up enemies who conducted apple core attacks on each other.
The two were forced to forget their hometown rivalry when the harshest war in human history gave them no option but to unite.
Captured by a barbaric enemy when their ship was torpedoed the two recognised the need to set aside their suburban differences and stand together if they were to survive one of history’s darkest periods.
Mrs Moore’s book soon caught the attention of disability support service VisAbility and has recently been converted into an audio book.
The story was considered so interesting it is being celebrated as the 10,000th audio book published by VisAbility and later this month the organisation will hold an event to commemorate the milestone.
“We’ve done pretty well,” Mrs Moore said.
“It’s a really hard slog without a huge publishing company behind you.
“I’m stoked, I’m honoured – they’ve got all of these Western Australian authors to choose from.”
Mrs Moore said once she had become more familiar with the benefits of audiobooks she became a big fan.
“Audio has opened the book up to a whole lot of people I wasn’t expecting,” Mrs Moore said.
“It’s good for people who want to listen to something while they’re working or driving; people who are bed-bound in hospital.”
Apple Core Wars is Mrs Moore’s third book and the latest to be converted to audio and can be found on lindasbooks.com.au along with her other works.
