Fare Thee Well, Hoddle Grid by Garry Kinnane

$20.00 AUD

Category: Autobiography and Biography

part two of the Shadowed Days Mid-50s to mid-60s Melbourne-a Wowserland of 6 o'clock closing, censorship, endless suburbia ...we could settle down. But that was the farthest thing from our minds. We didn't want security, we wanted adventure, risk, experience, we wanted to see and grasp the world ...In F are Thee Well, Hoddle Grid, Garry Kinnane continues the story, begun in Shadowed Days, of a young man looking for his direction in life. Having left school early, Garry finds himself at twenty-one in danger of working forever as an insurance clerk in the city. But gradually he finds an escape route-through night classes in literature, the folk-revival, The Push, the attractions of a Bohemian life ...GARRY KINNANE is the author of George Johnston: A Biography (winner of The Age Book of the Year 1986), and Colin Colahan: A Portrait. His memoir Shadowed Days was shortlisted in the 2009 Queensland Premiers Literary Awards for non-fiction. About the Author Garry Kinnane was raised in a working class family in Melbourne during the1940s and 50s, worked at a variety of jobs in his teens, and gained recognition as a folk musician in the early1960s. In 1964 he married and travelled abroad, living first in Greece, then in England for ten years. There he undertook a degree in literary studies at the University of Warwick, from where he won a postgraduate scholarship to the University of Oxford. He returned to teach literary studies at Monash, the University of Ballarat and Melbourne University, from where he retired in 2004. Garry is currently writing a sequence of memoirs, the first of which, Shadowed Days; Fragments of a Melbourne Boyhood was released in 2008. Fare Thee Well, Hoddle Grid is the second volume, and a third is planned. Garry is also writing fiction, and teaching a U3A literature class in Geelong, where he now lives with his wife Jo. * Reviews of Shadowed Days: 'Shadowed Days glows with humanity, with an understanding and wisdom born of privation and endurance.' -Tom Petsinis, author of The French Mathematician 'A beautifully written evocation of a childhood during the post-war years in Victoria ...Shadowed Days excels at pinning down a certain time and place.' -The Age ...Show more

George Johnston - A Biography by Garry Kinnane

$20.00 AUD

Category: Autobiography and Biography | Series: Australian Lives Ser.

"The life of George Johnston, author of the best-selling My Brother Jack,was in many ways symbolic of Australian post-war cultural life. He was a complex character, dogged by feelings of mediocrity, betrayal and failure that he ultimately transformed though the writing of his brilliant trilogy My Brothe r Jack, Clean Straw for Nothingand A Cartload of Clay. In this award-winning biography, Garry Kinnane examines the process by which Johnston selected people, places and events for this creative transformation. In doing so, he reveals the reality that lay behind the glamorous outer facade of the life of Johnston and his wife, the writer Charmian Clift." ...Show more

Kathleen O'Connor of Paris by Amanda Curtin

$32.99 AUD

Category: Autobiography and Biography

In 1906, Kathleen O'Connor left conservative Perth, where her famous father's life had ended in tragedy. She had her sights set on a career in thrilling, bohemian Paris. More than a century later, novelist Amanda Curtin faces her own questions, of life and of art, as she embarks on a journey in Kate's f ootsteps. Part biography, part travel narrative, this is the story of an artist in a foreign land who, with limited resources and despite the impacts of war and loss, worked and exhibited in Paris for over forty years. Kate's distinctive figure paintings, portraits and still lifes, highly prized today, form an inseparable part of the telling. ...Show more

The Prettiest Horse in the Glue Factory by Corey White

$32.99 AUD

Category: Autobiography and Biography | Reading Level: 3 Biography

Praise for Corey White's stand-up- 'Captivating' Tom Gleeson 'It's a spiritually enriching show. Whitey has safer hands than Gilchrist circa 2003 ... Strap in for this one, it's a harrowing little number that leaves you in a good mood, quite a feat.' Herald Sun 'Corey White runs the full gamut of human existence in a well planned, carefully executed show with a consistent voice and thoughtful jokes that, at times, had me crying with laughter.' Crikey 'A ferocious talent. Pay attention.' The Age 'Wonderful ... It's a rare stand-up show that you emerge from feeling like a better person, and that you want other people to see so that they can be better people too. I can't give any higher praise than that.' The Guardian 'He seems like an everyman you could happily have a beer with ... A winner straight out of the gate, a show with depth and insight.' Courier-Mail ...Show more

Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts

$69.99 AUD

Category: Autobiography and Biography

'Undoubtedly the best single-volume life of Churchill ever written' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times A magnificently fresh and unexpected biography of Churchill, by one of Britain's most acclaimed historians Winston Churchill towers over every other figure in twentieth-century British history. By the t ime of his death at the age of 90 in 1965, many thought him to be the greatest man in the world. There have been over a thousand previous biographies of Churchill. Andrew Roberts now draws on over forty new sources, including the private diaries of King George VI, used in no previous Churchill biography to depict him more intimately and persuasively than any of its predecessors. The book in no way conceals Churchill's faults and it allows the reader to appreciate his virtues and character in full: his titanic capacity for work (and drink), his ability see the big picture, his willingness to take risks and insistence on being where the action was, his good humour even in the most desperate circumstances, the breadth and strength of his friendships and his extraordinary propensity to burst into tears at unexpected moments. Above all, it shows us the wellsprings of his personality - his lifelong desire to please his father (even long after his father's death) but aristocratic disdain for the opinions of almost everyone else, his love of the British Empire, his sense of history and its connection to the present. During the Second World War, Churchill summoned a particular scientist to see him several times for technical advice. 'It was the same whenever we met', wrote the young man, 'I had a feeling of being recharged by a source of living power.' Harry Hopkins, President Roosevelt's emissary, wrote 'Wherever he was, there was a battlefront.' Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, Churchill's essential partner in strategy and most severe critic in private, wrote in his diary, 'I thank God I was given such an opportunity of working alongside such a man, and of having my eyes opened to the fact that occasionally such supermen exist on this earth.' ...Show more

The Sunday Story Club by Kerry Cue; Doris Imber

$32.99 AUD

Category: Autobiography and Biography | Reading Level: 4 Non Fiction

'I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cry. But the salons have given me the opportunity to look back and think about my life . . . I don't talk to anyone about these feelings outside of the salon.' A book club without books. A key to the stories we all carry within us - wrenching, redemptive, extraordinary, lac ed with unexpected and hard-won wisdom. These are the stories that women tell each other when they gather for a deep and structured conversation - once a month in a suburban living room - about the things that really matter. They discover that life can be a heartbeat away from chaos; that bad things happen to good people; that good people do outrageous things; that the desire for transformation is enduringly human - painful and yet possible. A mother tells of the heartbreaking loss of control when her daughter develops anorexia. A sister reveals the high psychological cost of being hated by a sibling over the course of her life. Husbands leave wives; wives take lovers; friendships shatter; finances collapse; children defy parents; wrong choices turn out to be right ones; agency is lost and re-claimed. Profound, layered and clear-sighted, this collection of real-life stories reveals the emotional untidiness that lies below the shiny surface of modern life and reminds us of the power of real conversation to enlighten, heal and transform. ...Show more

David Morgan: an Extraordinary Life by Oliver Brown

$45.00 AUD

Category: Autobiography and Biography

While most might imagine David Morgan AO to have a conservative economic background, the truth is far more exotic. Prior to becoming the CEO of a global top-20 bank, he overcame the scars of his father's bankruptcy, starred alongside Olivia Newton-John as a child actor, turned down a spot at Richmond Football Club, survived a stand-off with an African dictator, and served in the Treasury of the Hawke-Keating government as it liberalised Australia's economy. After a PhD at the London School of Economics, Morgan worked at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, uncovering eye-watering corruption on foreign postings, until Canberra pulled him home. As a colleague and confidant of Paul Keating, Morgan had a central role in an audacious period of financial deregulation, tax reform and budget consolidation. In 1989 Morgan jumped the public-private fence to join Westpac, where he was immediately branded an 'academic socialist' outsider.  Yet his boundless ambition, and his instinct to balance what is right for business and what is simply the right thing to do, saw him appointed CEO in 1999, a role he held until 2008. Oliver Brown's biography of one of Australia's key financial figures includes rare interviews with former prime minister Paul Keating, Wall Street titans Jamie Dimon and James Gorman, Reserve Bank governors Bernie Fraser and Ian Macfarlane, Westpac CEOs Bob Joss and Gail Kelly, and secretaries of the Treasury Ken Henry, Ted Evans and Martin Parkinson. ...Show more

The Unwinding of the Miracle: Life, Death and Everything That Comes After by Julie Yip-Williams

$32.99 AUD

Category: Autobiography and Biography

Born blind in Vietnam, Julie Yip-Williams narrowly escaped euthanasia at the hands of her grandmother, only to have to flee the political upheaval of the late 1970s with her family. Loaded into a rickety boat with three hundred other refugees, Julie made it to Hong Kong and, ultimately, America, where a surgeon gave her partial sight. Against all odds, she became a Harvard-educated lawyer, with a husband, a family, a life. Then, at the age of thirty-seven, with two little girls still at home, Julie was diagnosed with terminal metastatic colon cancer, and a different journey began. Growing out of a blog Julie kept for the last four years of her life, The Unwinding of the Miracle is the story of a vigorous life told through the prism of imminent death, of a life lived vividly and cut too short. With glorious humour, bracing honesty and the cleansing power of well-deployed anger, her story is inspiring and instructive, delightful and shattering. More than just a tale about cancer, it's about truth and honesty, fear and pain, our dreams, our jealousies. And it's about how to say goodbye to your children and a life you love.Starting as a need to understand the disease, it has evolved into a powerful story about living - even as Julie put her affairs in order and prepared to die. ...Show more

Things I Don't Want to Know by Deborah Levy

$19.99 AUD

Category: Autobiography and Biography | Series: Living Autobiography Ser.

Taking George Orwell's famous essay, 'Why I Write', as a jumping-off point, Deborah Levy offers her own indispensable reflections of the writing life. With wit, clarity and calm brilliance, she considers how the writer must stake claim to that contested territory and shape it to her need. Itis a work of dazzling insight and deep psychological succour, from one of our most vital contemporary writers. This first volume of the trilogy focuses on the writer as a young woman - the confusion and turbulence of youth, and the uncertainties of carving an identity as a writer. The second volume, The Cost of Living, speaks to the challenges of middle age as a writer and a woman - motherhood, separation, bereavement. ...Show more

Little Book of Queer Icons - The Inspiring True Stories Behind Groundbreaking LGBTQ+ Icons by Samuel ALEXANDER

$16.99 AUD

Category: Autobiography and Biography

Discover the fascinating stories behind 38 queer icons, all of them ground-breakers, risk-takers and game-changers. Whether they are activists, sportspeople, scientists or superstars, every one of these people has been a trailblazer in their field, and deserves to have their achievements celebrated the world over. Be empowered and inspired by their extraordinary life stories, their awesome achievements and their wonder-words of wisdom with this pocketbook of remarkable people, and prepare to be introduced to your new superheroes. ...Show more

The Ravenmaster: Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London by Christopher Skaife

$27.99 AUD

Category: Autobiography and Biography

The first behind-the-scenes account of life with the ravens at Britain's most famous national monument. For centuries, the Tower of London has been home to a group of famous avian residents: the ravens. Each year they are seen by millions of visitors, and they have become as integral a part of the Tower as its ancient stones themselves. But their role is even more important than that - legend has it that if the ravens should ever leave, the Tower will crumble into dust, and great harm will befall the kingdom. One man is personally responsible for ensuring that such a disaster never comes to pass - the Ravenmaster. The current holder of the position is Yeoman Warder Christopher Skaife, and in this fascinating, entertaining and touching book he memorably describes the ravens' formidable intelligence, their idiosyncrasies and their occasionally wicked sense of humour. Over the years in which he has cared for the physical and mental well-being of these remarkable birds, Christopher Skaife has come to know them like no one else. They are not the easiest of charges - as he reveals, they are much given to mischief, and their escapades have often led him into unlikely, and sometimes even undignified, situations. Now, in the first intimate behind-the-scenes account of life with the ravens of the Tower, the Ravenmaster himself shares the folklore, history and superstitions surrounding both the birds and their home. The result is a compelling, inspiring and irreverent story that will delight and surprise anyone with an interest in British history or animal behaviour. ...Show more

Rebel Women Who Changed Australia by Susanna De Vries

$34.99 AUD

Category: Autobiography and Biography