eBook Listing

American-born Gus Pierce arrived in Australia in 1860 and promptly deserted, swimming ashore at Port Phillip. He worked as a photographer for Batchelders and painted scenery for the Lyceum theatre before hunting for snakes with Joe Shires - the inventor of a snake-bite cure. He compiled a strip map of the Murray River from Albury to Goolwa, by navigating it in a canoe with an Aboriginal dancer and a tracker in 1863, eventually skippering several steamboats along the Murray between 1868 and 1876.

In 1869 in Echuca he began painting historical panoramas and toured scenes, with musical accompaniment to Wagga Wagga, and a further series showing at his Hill End Tent Theatre in 1872 in a musical recue with William Gill, who went on to write the first Broadway musical. His Mirror of Australia panoramas were toured to Geelong and Castlemaine - where he added the male impersonator, Ellen Tremayne in 1881. Impresario, navigator, photographer and artist of Austral scenes - here is his confounded life with his own illustrations.

This book sees Ted Egan begin with 'Kulilkatima ... Try to understand, this land Australia ...' and then proceed to give us his understanding and experience to point a path forward for the nation. He ranges from teaching ethics in schools to future urban car-parking systems, and he has hopes for a special place for the First Australians in his tomorrow, throwing a flag and a national anthem into our luggage for the journey.

(from The Spectator, May 1936)

In his introduction to Lasseter's Last Ride (Cape, 7s. 6d.) Field-Marshal Sir William Birdwood writes : "The annals of Central Australian exploration are tragic and heroic, but it is long indeed since I read a more moving story of endurance and heroism in the face of terrific odds than the epic which Mr. Ion Idriess has woven out of the last few months of the life of L. H. B. Lasseter."

The reader will agree with this, and wonder why he has not heard of Mr. Idriess before. He is well known in Australia, but this is his first book to be published in England. It will not be his last, if the present one meets with the success it deserves. Having himself been a prospector, the story he has constructed out of the fragments of documentary evidence - a few reports, the barely legible diary and letters found buried near Lasseter's last camps - is probably very close to what actually happened. Harry Lasseter had once discovered a rich gold reef in unexplored west Central Australia. Owing to a faulty watch, the bearings he took were useless. An expedition was fitted out to locate it. From the first, misfortune dogged the steps of the party. Food ran short and they returned to the base-camp - all except Lasseter, who went on alone. When his two camels bolted he was left waterless in the desert. Blinded by sand and tortured by dysentry, he found the reef, but died shortly afterwards, deserted by a tribe of aborigines with whom he had tried to make friends. Mr. Idriess tells this story in a simple, virile style which is, in its intense economy, comparable to Hemingway at his best.

IT ALL STARTED ON THE EVE OF MY 43RD BIRTHDAY...

With two young boys, a new lecturer position and all the commitments of an active life, Ros Ben-Moshe had no plans for a tumour to take over her life. Yet after the news came on her 43rd birthday, medical appointments turned into hours of surgery, casual conversations disappeared, and even her children started asking questions.

In recovery rooms, as the clock slowly ticks, Ros Ben-Moshe starts writing. Through ups and downs, she tells it all, in an honest account of fighting the Big C, or should we say the small c?

Brimming with humour, insight and sensitivity, this series of journals, written at the time, explores how we talk about and view illness, and how changing your mindset can do wonders on the journey to health.

Through explanations of mindful healing techniques and the power of laughter, Laughing at cancer will inspire you to take a deep breath and start laughing.

"Comment diable sommes-nous ainsi passes, a l'etourdie, a cote des aventures de Napoleon Bonaparte, dit Bony?"
Jean-Luc Porquet, Canard Enchaine

Le roman classique de Joan Lindsay, Pique-Nique à Hanging Rock, est un mélange subtil d'événements mystérieux et effrayants qui se déroulent à une certaine période de la société australienne, décrite avec une nostalgie affectueuse. Le dernier chapitre du roman a été enlevé à la demande de ses éditeurs, créant ainsi un mystère dont des milliers de personnes ont demandé à connaître la solution. Le chapitre manquant révèle ce qui est arrivé aux écolières qui ont disparu de Hanging Rock après un pique-nique le jour de la Saint-Valentin en 1900.

Avec des commentaires de John Taylor et d'Yvonne Rousseau, ce livre est publié pour la première fois en France, dans une traduction de Marie-Laure Vuaille-Barcan.

Nous trouvons ici une sorte de réponse au mystère qui se situe au coeur de Pique-Nique à Hanging Rock. Nous découvrons pourquoi, une semaine après sa disparition, Irma Leopold, l'héritière aux boucles noires rebondies, est retrouvée avec des doigts ensanglantés mais des pieds nus "parfaitement propres" qui ne présentent "aucune égratignure ni ecchymose". Nous voyons la manifestation de l'obsession de Lindsay pour le temps - il est dit qu'elle ne pouvait pas porter de montre parce qu'elles s'arrêtaient toujours, comme c'est le cas dans le livre. Nous assistons à la disparition de Miranda et de Marion. Nous voyons des corsets suspendus dans les airs. Nous assistons à une fin aussi insolite que Lindsay le laisse supposer tout au long de Pique-nique à Hanging Rock. - Rony Ash, Literary Hub

Great leadership is hard to find. Companies spend millions trying to fix their leadership issues by recruiting new leaders, hiring consultants to tell them how to restructure and a myriad of other 'outside-in' initiatives that fail to achieve the intended results. What if they’re approaching the leadership dilemma entirely the wrong way?

 

82-year-old Ben Luckeridge is wise enough to know his business needs an inside-out leadership solution. Despite having all that a billion-dollar company and a successful career affords, Ben has serious health problems, regrets and an estranged daughter with whom he longs to reconnect. He must choose an heir to the Luckeridge Group of Companies before it's too late.

 

Ben's nephew Jack, the heir apparent, is barely clinging to his role as CEO of The Luckeridge Group, thanks to his autocratic and arrogant leadership style. How could Ben possibly bequeath the business to him?

 

With the help of his confidant Angela, a transformational executive coach, Ben devises a 12-month leadership adventure which Jack must successfully navigate if he is to become heir. Jack is soon joined on the challenge by a host of would-be challengers, including the engaging and energetic Zenobia, and he is immediately drawn to her calm confidence.

 

While Zenobia is fighting emotional battles of her own, her patience, empathy and leadership potency shine through, showing Jack that to unlock his inherent leadership potential he must overcome his emotional reactivity.

 

As Ben hurtles closer to death, Jack and Zenobia navigate their way toward a business that is more profitable, more meaningful and more sustainable than ever before. Their quest uncovers startling truths that transform all of them – and the organisation – forever.

This autobiography by Leanne Benjamin with Sarah Crompton reveals the extraordinary life and career of one of the world’s most important ballet dancers of the past 50 years.
Leanne was born and raised in the central Queensland town of Rockhampton in a tightly knit hard-working Catholic family. At the age of 3 she attended her first ballet class and at 16 she was accepted into the Royal Ballet School in London and at 18 danced her first leading role on the Royal Opera House stage in the school’s performance of Giselle that catapulted her to a stellar career.
The book takes you behind the scenes to find a real understanding of the pleasure and the pain, the demands and the intense commitment it requires to become a ballet dancer.
It’s a book for ballet-lovers which will explain from Benjamin’s personal point of view, how ballet has changed and is changing.
It’s a book of history: she was first taught by the people who created ballet in its modern form and now she works with the dancers of today, handing on all she has known and learnt.
But it’s also a book for people who are just interested in the psychology of achievement, how you go from being a child in small town Rockhampton in the centre of Australia to being a power on the world’s biggest stages — and how an individual copes with the ups and downs of that kind of career.
It’s a story full of big names and big personalities — Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, Kenneth MacMillan, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Darcey Bussell, Carlos Acosta to name a few. President Clinton, Michelle Obama, Diana Princess of Wales and David Beckham all make an appearance.
But it is also a book of small moments of insight: what makes a performance special, how you recover from injury, illness and childbirth; how you combine athletic and artistic prowess with motherhood, how a different partner can alter everything, what it’s like to fall over in front of thousands of people and what it’s like to triumph. Above all, it seeks to explain, in warm and human terms, why women get the reputation for being difficult in a world where being a good girl is too much prized. And what they can do about it.

Jade Green has done what she had previously thought impossible. The infamous madam has emerged from obscurity and dared to use her legendary videos to sway Toby Brown's court case in his favour.

Prime Minister Foster knows reputations will be ruined and his government could fall if those tapes were to be released. So too, do other foreign governments as well as far more sinister organisations.

John Thorpe and his agents at Inland Security are ordered to recover the tapes, intact, and at all costs. But they are not the only ones in the desperate and bloody hunt for Jade Green's secrets.

The quiet rural life in Walton Village will never be the same again for the elderly Mrs Green and her friends.

Five children held captive in an ever-changing forest, trapped by their own memory loss, face the battle of their lives to overcome evil and reclaim their birthright.

Why do they only have some memories for one day?

What is the purpose of the Three Moons' Song?

Which of their magical gifts will allow the children to conquer the riddles of the imprisoned mermaid, the chained eagle and the frozen dragon?

Adventure and danger abound as Lyla, Celeste, Lem, Chad and Swift face enchanters, murderers, shape thieves, monsters and slave traders to save all that is precious to them.

Passion is what one must know to truly appreciate the collection of recipes from Jean-Claude de Toulouse's Legendary Cuisine. Jean-Claude cooks like an angel and combines his French heritage with culinary secrets from around the world to seduce the tastebuds.

The recipes in Legendary Cuisine are sectioned off by Jean-Claude's own imaginary meeting with a Lady - a legendary figure who Jean-Claude is inspired by and cooks for.

His interest in healthy lifestyles combines with his exquisite culinary skill to show that food that is good for you can also taste sensational.

These recipes are dripping with pomegranates, figs, honey, fruits of the season, vegetables from the land, fresh salmon, and desserts to die for.

Legendary Cuisine is truly an oral sensation.

For 50 years, until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the Soviet Union ran a campaign of repression, imprisonment, political trials and terror against its 3 million Jews. In Australia, political leaders and the Jewish community contributed significantly to the international protest movement which eventually triumphed over Moscow's tyranny and led to the modern Exodus of Soviet Jews to Israel and other countries.

Lipski and Rutland make this largely unknown Australian story come alive with a combination of passion, personal experience and ground-breaking research.

"The struggle for the freedom of Soviet Jewry was one of the most powerful displays of strength and solidarity by the world Jewish community... even those intimately familiar with the struggle will be surprised to discover in Let My People Go how the Australian Jewish community and its leaders were among the campaign's initiators, and how they saw it through to its successful conclusion. This is a unique testament to how a small group can play a big role in history." - Natan Sharansky, Chairman Jewish Agency for Israel, Prisoner of Zion (1977-86)

Another extremely gross Agnath adventure ... you just have to read about this!

 

Sam and Jared's lives are in chaos once again. Why would the cute, cuddly, spoilt pets that get to lay around all day and have their food slopped out right in front of them purposely want to get their masters into trouble? Were they evil, stupid ... were they even from this world?

 

"Oooh Crap!! Fluff Butt just pooped right in the middle of the lounge room rug! ... a week's worth of Chunky Beef Tongue with Vegetables, Chicken Liver in Noodles, Lambs Brain in Gravy ... all mooshed together, dissolving and rotting in the gastric juices of the dog's stomach. All deposited at once in a huge greeny browny yellowish dump!" …

DO YOU WANT TO BE DELIRIOUSLY, UNAPOLOGETICALLY HAPPY? IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE CALM, CENTRED AND GROUNDED WHILST LIVING IN A BUSY CITY, RUNNING A BUSINESS AND JUGGLING GROWN-UP RESPONSIBILITIES?

In her previous book 'Daring and Disruptive', serial entrepreneur Lisa Messenger, editor-in-chief of The Collective magazine, shared the business lessons she learned after decades of success in multiple industries, including how to identify your true purpose, pinpoint your passions and visualise the work culture you want to exist in. But, Lisa admits that although her world now seems perfect on paper it hasn't always been this way. In 'Life and Love', she offers insights into the support system, strategies and relationships, which allow her to cope with the emotional rollercoaster of running a profitable, multi-platform start-up. Blending advice from mentors and role models, with lessons that she's learned the hard way, Lisa's personal journey is proof that no mistake is undoable, no relationship is unfixable and no failure is in vain if you have the right attitude and an abundance of gratitude.

This is a book about love, joy and happiness, community, authenticity and learning to sink into your femininity even when you're a ball-breaking businesswoman. Lisa's message is; you can be a traditionalist and a rebel, you can be a lover and a fighter, you can be vulnerable and invincible. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a lawyer, a mother, a wife, a student or a blend of all the above, this book will teach you how to wear your heart on your sleeve, embrace every side of yourself and still achieve more than you ever imagined!

Karina Stell's moving memoir details the journey from her first to her fourth and final cancer diagnosis through to her ultimate palliation. She wrote this book for everyone who would find themselves on a similar journey, for their loved ones and for those who work in the haematology/oncology field who must never forget the importance of compassion and humanity in their care.

Karina passed away on 27th September, 2018. Her story is her legacy.