The rise and fall of the brothers Gibb is perhaps the greatest saga in Australian, even world, music history. As ubiquitous as the falsetto harmonies, flares and multi-platinum record sales were the tragedies: the highs, the lows, the highs again. And then the brothers fell, one by one. Not long before his death, Robin made it clear that he believed the Gibbs had been forced to pay the highest possible cost for their success. 'All the tragedies my family has suffered . . . is a kind of karmic price we are paying for all the fame and fortune we've had.' This is the story of all four brothers' i... View More...
Jennifer Worth's tales of being a midwife in 1950s London, now a major BBC TV series. Jennifer Worth came from a sheltered background when she became a midwife in the Docklands in the 1950s. The conditions in which many women gave birth just half a century ago were horrifying, not only because of their grimly impoverished surroundings, but also because of what they were expected to endure. But while Jennifer witnessed brutality and tragedy, she also met with amazing kindness and understanding, tempered by a great deal of Cockney humour. She also earned the confidences of some whose lives were ... View More...
The third and final book in the bestselling CALL THE MIDWIFE series, now a major BBC TV series. This final book in Jennifer Worth's memories of her time as a midwife in London's East End brings her story full circle. As always there are heartbreaking stories such as the family devastated by tuberculosis and a ship's woman who 'serviced' the entire crew, as well as plenty of humour and warmth, such as the tale of two women who shared the same husband! Other stories cover backstreet abortions, the changing life of the docklands, infanticide, as well as the lives of the inhabitants of Nonnatus ... View More...
The relationship between Freddie Mercury and Jim Hutton evolved over several months in 1984 and 1985. Even when they first slept together Button had no idea who Mercury was, and when the star told him his name it meant nothing to him.;Hutton worked as a barber at the Savoy Hotel and retained his job and his lodgings in Sutton, Surrey, for two years after moving in with Mercury, and then worked as his gardener. He was never fully assimilated into Mercury's jet-setting lifestyle, nor did he want to be, but from 1985 until Mercury's death in 1991 he was closer to him than anyone and knew all Merc... View More...
This is an account of the extraordinary life of John Laffin, editor and journalist, novelist and poet, soldier, military historian, and more. Crammed with incident and anecdote, it is the story of a man determined to leave his mark on the world. View More...
The story of Harry Readford, born in 1841 on the frontier of the infant colony of New South Wales, who became a proficient bushman, stockman, drover, explorer, pioneer and above all, a renowned cattle duffer, has passed into Australian folklore. The pivotal event in the story was the famous cattle theft in 1870, of 1200 head from the Longreach area of Central Queensland, and droving them nearly 1600 kilometres through virtually unexplored desert country deep into South Australia. This feat, and the subsequent "infamous" trial at the Roma courthouse in 1873, was portrayed in Rolf Boldrewood's... View More...
For the crime of robbing a wealthy woman of a silk bonnet and a few guineas, an illiterate Cornish woman faces the hangman's noose. Her death sentence is commuted; instead she finds herself transported in chains on the First Fleet to Botany Bay, New South Wales to serve seven years penal servitude. So begins the extraordinary but true story of legendary Mary Bryant, the only female convict to escape from Botany Bay and whose open-boat escape voyage with her husband, two children and seven other convicts, must rank along with Captain Bligh's as one of the most amazing and courageous in history.... View More...
The scandalous true story of Mary Boleyn, infamous sister of Anne, and mistress of Henry VIII. Mary Boleyn, 'the infamous other Boleyn girl', began her court career as the mistress of the king of France. Francois I of France would later call her 'The Great Prostitute' and the slur stuck. The bete-noir of her family, Mary was married her off to a minor courtier but it was not long before she caught the eye of Henry VIII and a new affair began. Although a bright star at Henry's court, she was soon eclipsed by her highly spirited and more accomplished sister, Anne, who rapidly took her place in t... View More...
Michael Buble is an international singing sensation. Since his debut in 2003, he has sold 18 million albums, and won numerous awards including a Grammy. He reached No.1 on the Australian charts with his first album, 'Michael Buble', and when he toured Australia with his next big album, 'It's Time', he performed to sell-out crowds. Call Me Irresponsible (2007), debuted in Australia at No.1, spent over 6 months in the top 40 and was the bestselling blues and jazz album for 2007 and 2008. Michael Buble holds the record at the Sydney Opera House for the most tickets sold in one day. His popularity... View More...
Through the lives of three different women - grandmother, mother and daughter - this book tells the story of 20th-century China. At times scarcely credible in the details it reveals of the suffering of millions of ordinary Chinese people, it is an unforgettable record of tyranny, hope and ultimate survival under conditions of extreme harshness. In 1924, at the age of 15, the author's grandmother became the concubine of a powerful warlord, whom she was seldom to see during the ten years of their "marriage". Her daughter, born in 1931, experienced the horrors of Japanese occupation in Manchuria ... View More...
ME AND HER: a Memoir of Madness reveals how Karen Tyrrell, a dedicated Australian teacher is repeatedly harassed by parents at her school to breaking point and beyond. In a fit of desperation, she escapes and runs. Police and medical professionals discover her hiding in a lonely motel, forcing her into the frightening world of the psychiatric system. The reader is taken back to the classroom, discovering how the harassment affected Karen as we journey through her gradual decline and disintegration leading to her incarceration. Later Karen performs an 'experiment', purposefully stressing over a... View More...
Me & Him: A Guide to Recovery reveals the shock discoveries casting Karen Tyrrell's first memoir Me & Her: A Memoir of Madness in a new light. An Australian teacher, Karen highlights the crucial role of her husband, Steve played as carer in her recovery from parent harassment and subsequent mental illness. In this self-help memoir, Karen shares practical mental-wellness advice, demystifies meditation, addresses sleep problems and explains how to beat depression and anxiety. Karen also discloses the dreaded secrets Steve finally revealed to her. 'On that fateful blue-sky day, my life as I knew ... View More...
The truly classic Australian story of Tom Kruse - legendary mailman of the Birdsville Track. For the people who lived in the desert between Marree and Birdsville, contact with the outside world was hard and sporadic - but one man was their lifeline: Tom Kruse. For more than twenty years he was the connection with the outside world for the families, station workers and others who lived along the Birdsville Track. Tom delivered everything from the mail and newspapers to fuel and food - whole communities waited in anticipation for him to drop off their supplies. But it was a hard life, from re... View More...
One-Straw Revolutionary represents the first commentary on the work of the late Japanese farmer and philosopher Masanobu Fukuoka (1913 2008), widely considered to be natural farming's most influential practitioner. Mr. Fukuoka is perhaps most known for his bestselling book The One-Straw Revolution (1978), a manifesto on the importance of no-till agriculture, which was at the time of publication a radical challenge to the global systems that supply the world's food, and still inspires readers today. Larry Korn, who apprenticed with Mr. Fukuoka in Japan at the time, translated the manuscript and... View More...
Sometimes myths and legends can appear in the most unexpected places. The Brisbane Central Business District is one such unlikely setting. It is here that the young George Kiprios found accidental and enduring fame in his public persona of Rock 'N' Roll George. Many people who have grown up, or lived, in Brisbane have a story to tell about George. For more than 50 years, he was constant presence in a city that was evolving rapidly from sleepy country capital to modern metropolis. George touched the lives of Brisbane residents from all walks of life and our collective memories of him are nosta... View More...
The story of Ned Kelly is also the untold story of Michael Kennedy, the police sergeant slain and robbed by the outlaw 140 years ago. Both Kennedy and Kelly were Irish immigrants struggling to make their way in the new colonies of Australia - Kennedy was committed to defending the law, while Kelly was hell-bent on breaking it. When their paths crossed one fateful day at Stringybark Creek, it triggered the end for one and the beginning of an incredible myth about the other. Author Leo Kennedy is the great grandson of Sergeant Michael Kennedy. He was raised in the shadow of his great grandfather... View More...
The phenomenal international bestseller Before you can fly, you have to be free.In a small, desperately poor village in north-east China, a young peasant boy sits at his rickety old school desk, more interested in the birds outside than in Chairman Mao's Red Book and the grand words it contains. But that day, some strange men come to his school - Madame Mao's cultural delegates. They are looking for young peasants to mould into faithful guards of Chairman Mao's great vision for China. This is the true story of how that one moment in time, by the thinnest thread of a chance, changed the course ... View More...
One day, not so very many years ago, a small peasant boy was chosen to study ballet at the Beijing Dance Academy. His mother urged him to take this chance of a lifetime. But Li was only eleven years old and he was scared and lonely, pushed away from all that he had ever known and loved. He hated the strict training routines and the strange place he had been brought to. All he wanted to do was go home - to his mother, father and six brothers, to his own small village. But soon Li realised that his mother was right. He had the chance to do something special with his life - and he never turned ba... View More...
It was a shocking crime that made headlines around Australia. An innocent young woman, violently attacked in her family home by a total stranger and left to die. Beaten repeatedly and soaked with petrol as her home burned, Lauren Huxley's life was hanging by a thread. Lauren's battle to survive caused an outpouring of public love and support. For her father, Patrick, mother Christine and sister Simone it was like being plunged into hell. Doctors gave Lauren only a five percent chance of survival. Her injuries were among the worst they had ever seen, so horrific that she was barely recognisable... View More...
Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen, was the top ace of the First World War, with eighty confirmed victories. He is also one of the most famous fighter pilots of all time. A Prussian nobleman, he started the war as an officer in a Uhlan cavalry unit, serving on both the Eastern and Western fronts. In May 1915 he joined the flying service, initially as an observer then as a pilot, flying two-seaters. In August 1916, ace fighter pilot Oswald Boelcke recruited von Richthofen into a fighter squadron he was forming. He would later take command of Jasta 11, and then of Jagdgeschwader 1, the famous 'Flyi... View More...
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