THE struggles the world faces today are no worse than those faced 50 years ago.

This is according to former prime minister John Howard who was in Noosa to launch his book, The Menzies Era.

Looking relaxed in a white shirt and blue tie, it was as though Mr Howard had never dropped out of public life since his loss to Labor in 2007.

But it was a breezy Mr Howard who worked the room at a packed berardo's restaurant and bar, ensuring he stopped at every table, shook every proffered hand, said how pleased he was to be in Noosa on such a perfect spring day.

Mr Howard wrote The Menzies Era after he retired from politics because "there are too many books by lefties and nothing about Sir Robert Menzies who founded the Liberal Party".

His obvious fascination for Sir Robert - Australia's longest serving prime minister from 1949 to 1966 - began when Mr Howard was just 10.

His book chronicles in painstaking detail the era that followed, through post-war Australia, the Korean War, the Petrov affair, the Vietnam War, the economic growth and social changes, right through to Menzies retirement in 1966.

"Menzies was a great orator and he built the foundation for modern Australia," Mr Howard said at the lunch. "And he retired from politics on his own terms."

Asked to predict Australia's future after he has written about it and made so much of it himself, Mr Howard said he did not like to make predictions but felt Islamic terrorism would be with us for some time to come. "We were too complacent (about it) for too long," he said.