Despite the heat the issue of divorce, separation and the welfare of children had been generating for decades, the Australian Government was slow to address family law reform. While more than a million children were listed with the Child Support Agency, an institution as roundly and profoundly despised as the Family Court itself, politicians were reluctant to move into such an emotionally charged and gendered arena. Finally, with an increasingly large number of disenchanted constituents, t...

Refusing to hide, Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia Alastair Nicholson, scheduled to appear before an inquiry into family law and child support, entered Australia's Parliament House in Canberra via the front door on the 10th October 2003.As Chief Justice of one of the most unpopular courts in the country, Nicholson had become a key figure fuelling discontent with Australia's political, bureaucratic and judicial wings of government. With millions of Australians having g...

Dads On The Air, often shortened to DOTA, is a community radio program which began in western Sydney in August of 2000 with a small group of extremely disgruntled separated men who had no experience of radio and no resources. The author of Chaos at the Crossroads: The Birth of Dads On The Air, William John Stapleton, worked as a mainstream journalist and was the only one with any media experience.The series of short books in the Chaos at the Crossroads series tell the story of the ...

The unique enterprise A Sense Of Place Publishing has just released its newest publication, Bangkok Busted: You Die For Sure. This is a deeply personal story by author William John Stapleton on the fallout after he wrote a book about being robbed, lied to and deceived by one of the city's go-go boys and the subsequent personal distress and widespread public ridicule he endured.Few foreigners are crazy brave or stupidly insane enough to tell their often embarrassing and humiliating ...

Of all the thousands of stories he had written across his lifetime, author and journalist William John Stapleton had never been happier to write the words "The End" than when he completed The Twilight Soi series with the short book "Bangkok Busted: You Go To Jail For Sure".The series began in an anguished state after the author wrote a book detailing the decline of Bangkok's famous strip of go-go boy bars known as Soi Twilight, a narrow street adjacent to Bangkok's oldest red light...

With Thailand preparing for the ASEAN Summit of 2015, the welfare of visitors to the so-called Land of Smiles has become a major issue. Every day tourists are bashed, robbed, drugged and murdered; many of these incidents going unreported in the press.European, Australian, American and Chinese governments have all warned Thailand that the welfare of their citizens while on Thai soil has become an issue of major concern.Not For Publication is the final novella of The Twilight...

The Twilight Soi dwells on the dangers of one of the world's most beautiful and intoxicating cities, Bangkok. It is named after one of Bangkok's more infamous small streets, or sois as they are known. Soi Twilight runs off the main thoroughfare of Surawong in the centre of Bangkok's oldest entertainment district Patpong and is known to travelers around the world. It is here where touts from go-go boy bars such as Ocean boys, Bangkok Boys and Classic Boys hustle for the attention of local a...

From the author of Children of the Camps, a look at the disturbing activities of the Kempeitai, Japan's feared military and secret police.The book opens by explaining the origins, organization, and roles of the Kempeitai apparatus, which exercised virtually unlimited power throughout the Japanese Empire. Author Mark Felton reveals their criminal and collaborationist networks that extorted huge sums of money from hapless citizens and businesses. They ran the...

Follow in the footsteps of Robert Louis Stevenson with J. Maarten Troost, the bestselling author of The Sex Lives of Cannibals.Readers and critics alike adore J. Maarten Troost for his signature wry and witty take on the adventure memoir. Headhunters on My Doorstep chronicles Troost’s return to the South Pacific after his struggle with alcoholism left him numb to life. Deciding to retrace the path once traveled by the author of Treasure Island...

"Wanna stand in the face of a charging elephant, get hit by a motorcycle, eat giant water bugs, blowtorch your mouth on some of the hottest chili peppers on earth, then go watch a sex change operation? Of course you don't, but, happily, Jerry Hopkins has done all that and more—lots more—in this darkly humorous, deeply affectionate, clear-eyed but never patronizing portrait of Thailand, his adopted home. Highly recommended." —Tim Cahill, author of Lost in My Own Backyard, Hold t...

How could it be wrong to save the children by starting an orphanage? Oh, in so many ways . . .Tara Winkler first arrived in Cambodia to join a tour group in 2005 and was taken to visit a small orphanage in Battambang. The children were living in extreme poverty, and Tara was determined to raise money to help them.Two years later, after fundraising in Australia, Tara returned to Battambang only to discover that the same children were in deep trouble. Her spontaneous response...

Enter Pattaya with your eyes wide open, not like a lamb to the slaughter. The original guide to Pattaya by Neil Hutchison, author of A Fool in Paradise. From landing at Bangkok airport through to going home again, everything is covered. From hotels to entertainment, from motorbike taxis to Baht buses, from beer bars to go go bars, and from bar hostesses to freelancers, you will find it in this book. And most of all find out how the Thai entertainment workers think about their visitors....