Penny Wong: The Biography by Margaret Simons

$34.99 AUD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: 3 Biography

Senator Penny Wong is an extraordinary Australian politician. Resolute, self-possessed and a penetrating thinker on subjects from workplace relations to foreign affairs, she is admired by members of parliament and the public from across the political divide. In this first-ever biography of Penny Wong, a cclaimed journalist Margaret Simons traces her story- from her early life in Malaysia, to her student activism in Adelaide, to her time in the turbulent Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments, to her leading role as a voice of reason and respect in the polarising campaign to legalise same-sex marriage. What emerges is a picture of a leader for modern Australia, a cool-headed, cautious yet charismatic figure of piercing intelligence and a personal history linking back to Australia's colonial settlers through to its multicultural present. Drawing on exclusive interviews with Penny Wong and her Labor colleagues, parliamentary opponents, close friends and family, this scintillating portrait of an Australian politician without precedence promises to be one of the most talked-about political biographies of the year. ...Show more

Some Days - A Tale of Friendship, Cancer and Margherita: a Memoir: a Memoir by Lucy Moffatt; Nicola Matthews (Cover Design by); Ashleigh Meikle (Editor); Jennifer Leslie (Prepared for Publication by)

$20.00 AUD

Category: Biography

Green Nomads by Bob Brown

$45.00 AUD

Category: Biography

Green Nomads is a celebration of Australia's wilderness areas, and we surely have something to celebrate. The landscape and close-up photographs of Australia's natural landscape are ehterial yet familiar, calming yet powerful. Paired with Bob's personal and insightful anecdotes, there is not doubt that this book will appeal to travellers, tourists, conservationists and all those that enjoy the wilderness. When Bob Brown gave his home in Liffey (Tasmania) to Bush Heritage Australia he had no idea that it would be the start of a movement. Now, a number of beautiful places have become safe havens for Australia's wild places. In Green Nomads, Bob Brown takes us on a journey across Australia, visiting Bush Heritage sites and sharing the beauty and diversity they represent. Powerfully capturing the landscapes and spirit of Australia, Green Nomads is a book for anyone interested in Australia's environment, or anyone looking for a beautiful landscape photography book. When someone next asks for a book of Australian photography, this is the perfect answer.  "This is the most spectacular collection of Australian travel photography you will ever see" - Judith Gray, Creative Culture "In Green Nomads, Bob Brown takes us on a journey across Australia, visiting Bush Heritage sites and sharing the beauty and diversity they represent" - Home Ideas "GreenNomadscan becompared with publications by other stalwart defenders of the world's ecological systems such as David Attenborough andthe Prince of Wales." - Clyde Selby, Mercury "Green Nomads is the photographic document of their three-month travel. It's pretty much all that you could imagine: glorious" - Thuy On, Sunday Age ...Show more

Wild Wild Guru by Subhuti Anand Waight

$29.99 AUD

Category: Biography

This is the story of a Englishman who gave up a job in journalism to spend fourteen years with the controversial Indian mystic Osho, also known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and frequently referred to as 'the sex guru'. His guru was always controversial with his teachings on sex and spirituality, rumours o f orgies and because he owned ninety-three Rolls Royces. Early in 1976, Subhuti travelled to India to meet Rajneesh in his ashram in Pune, became initiated as his disciple and immediately began to have mystical experiences, which he attributed to the powerful energy field surrounding the guru. He stayed for six months, participating in the ashram's notorious Encounter Group and other therapies designed to release suppressed emotions and awaken sexual energy Subhuti would stay to live and work on his master's ashrams for fourteen years, first as his press officer in Pune, India, then as editor of the community's weekly newspaper when Bhagwan and his followers shifted to Oregon, USA, and built a whole new town on the massive Big Muddy Ranch. There Subhuti was a first-hand witness to the scandals and hullabaloo that accompanied the guru, including tales of broken bones in no-holds-barred therapy groups and Tantra groups that encouraged total sexual freedom, and the increasing hostility with the locals which would lead to Bhagwan's attempt to flee America, his arrest and imprisonment. . He was on the Oregon Ranch when Rajneesh's secretary, Ma Anand Sheela, plotted against rival cliques within the ashram as well as a range of murderous crimes against state and federal officials which feature in hit Netflix series Wild Wild Country. Yet, amidst it all, Subhuti could see the profound revolution in spirituality that Bhagwan was creating, leaving a lasting impact on our ideas about society, religion, meditation and personal transformation. According to the author's understanding, it was the controversy itself, plus Bhagwan's refusal to tread the path of a spiritual saint, that became the stepping stone to a new vision of what it means to be a spiritual seeker. ...Show more

In the Shadow of Greatness: Five Remarkable Women and the Men of Genius They Served by Michael Menager

$39.99 AUD

Category: Biography

This book features the lives of five strong, creative, intelligent women who dedicated their lives to serving the genius of others. Among fascinating friends, dramatic historic events and transcendent achievements, these women chose saintly self-effacement, emotional suffering, loneliness, and personal privation. WHY? -- Why choose to live in the shadow of greatness? -- What did each sacrifice? What did each gain? Because each woman's shadow efforts influenced the public persona of her partner, the author believes the key is in the opaqueness or transparency of the genius being served. Some geniuses are so obsessed-opaque- they are open to nothing outside themselves. Others are transparent to the work of their own genius -- a witness, not a slave. How this affects the shadow women is the focus of this book. ...Show more

The Grit in the Pearl - The Scandalous Life of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll by Lyndsy Spence

$49.99 AUD

Category: Biography

Margaret, Duchess of Argyll (1912-1993) was an international celebrity in her youth, adored and observed by millions. But in 1963, the year of the Profumo Affair, the 11th Duke of Argyll shocked the country when he alleged that his adulterous wife had slept with over eighty men behind his back. He produ ced, as his evidence, a set of sexually explicit Polaroid photographs and explosive love letters. The duke won a divorce, but this had a dramatic effect on Margaret's life. On the verge of financial destitution, she fell from grace and was abandoned by most of her friends prior to her death in a nursing home in Pimlico in 1993. Lyndsy Spence tells a tragic story of the life and downfall of this fascinatingly complex woman, and shows how she fell victim to a cruel husband, harsh social mores and an unforgiving class. It uses hitherto unpublished sources, including taped conversations, an unexpurgated transcript of her divorce trial, interviews and letters. The Grit in the Pearl is a meticulously researched and powerful biography, which acts as a potent lens on various themes in the last century: fame, privacy, the media, sex, power, and relationships between classes. ...Show more

Falling Out Of Love with Ivan Southall by GABRIELLE. CAREY

$29.95 AUD

Category: Biography

At the age of nine, Gabrielle Carey fell in love with her favourite author. She wasn't alone. Hundreds of thousands of other young readers also fell in love with Ivan Southall and many wrote him adoring fan mail. But Ivan Southall - warm and tender in his letters to children - is not, she finds, so love able in real life. In fact, he is not the man that Gabrielle remembered at all. Part memoir, part literary biography, this intimate book explores what happens when we reach back in time to recover our first loves. What will we find when we stop believing in the ideas and the people that made us who we are? What's left over? ...Show more

Dickens' Artistic Daughter Katey by Lucinda Hawksley

$39.99 AUD

Category: Biography

Katey Dickens was born into a house of turbulent celebrity and grew up surrounded by fascinating, famous, and infamous people. From a very young age, she knew her vocation was to be an artist. Lucinda Hawksley charts the life of a celebrated portrait painter, who redefines our preconceptions about Victo rian women. Living to be almost ninety, Katey survived an unconventional marriage, love affairs, heartbreak, depression, and the challenges of being a female artist in a male-dominated era. Compelling and illuminating, Katey tells the story of a spirited woman who found fame at the centre of the first celebrity phenomenon; it also uncovers the reality of what it was like to be a child of Charles and Catherine Dickens. This biography of Katey, celebrating her artistic prestige - which saw her compared to Millais - is long overdue. The details of her fascinating life await rediscovery. ...Show more

The Story of Beatrix Potter by Sarah Gristwood

$35.00 AUD

Category: Biography | Series: National Trust History & Heritage

To this day, Beatrix Potter's tales delight children and grown-ups around the world. But few people realise how extraordinary her own story is. She was a woman of contradictions. A sheltered Victorian daughter who grew into an astute modern businesswoman. A talented artist who became a scientific expert . A famous author who gave it all up to become a farmer. Bestselling biographer Sarah Gristwood follows the twists and turns of Beatrix Potter's life and its key turning points - including her tragically brief first engagement and happy second marriage late in life. She traces the creation of Beatrix's most famous characters - including the naughty Peter Rabbit, confused Jemima Puddleduck and cheeky Squirrel Nutkin - revealing how she drew on her unusual childhood pets and locations in her beloved Lake District. She explores too Beatrix's role as a pioneering conservationist, whose work with the National Trust helped to save thousands of acres of the Lake District - a legacy that, like her books, continues to enrich our lives today. Main text: 30,000 words. Approx 3,000 words for captions and index. ...Show more

Elizabeth Revealed - 500 Facts about the Queen and Her World by Lucinda Hawksley

$44.99 AUD

Category: Biography

- A lively and affectionate celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's long and eventful life - Archive images and new photography combine to create a beautiful visual record of her reign - A fascinating glimpse into the private life of the monarchy - The wealth of information is presented in the successful, b ite-sized '500 Facts' format and conveyed in an engaging tone Elizabeth Revealed is a lively and affectionate celebration of The Queen's long and eventful life. This gorgeously illustrated book blends personal and public, frivolous and factual in a tribute to an extraordinary woman and the sweeping social changes she has lived through. The enjoyable '500 Facts' format highlights surprising aspects of The Queen's intimate life, the good and the bad years. It offers illuminating glimpses into a changing monarchy and royal family life as an elegant young princess developed into the most famous woman in the world. ...Show more

Beyond Nab End by William Woodruff

$24.99 AUD

Category: Biography

The second volume of Woodruff's memoirs starts with him having arrived in Poplar in the early 1930s. On spec he turns up at a steel foundry and luckily gets a job. His digs are with an old couple in Bow where he has to share a single bed (head to toe) with their mentally retarded son.Life in the foundry is grim but William is indomitable. For recreation one day he cycles (then in the days before inflatable tyres) to Berkhamstead to try and track down an old girlfriend. She's not there and he has to return in a snowstorm - it takes him eight hours to get back to Poplar and then he has to get up three hours later to work at the foundry.Eventually he decides to 'get some leernin' and his first white collar job starts for the water board in ... Brettenham House He continues to pursue his studies, finally winning a place at Ruskin College, Oxford. How the ex-steel worker became an Oxford academic - and William's concluding description of returning from the war to meet the son he's never seen - is deeply moving. ...Show more

An Irresistible Force: How Caroline Chisholm Helped Shape a Nation by Sarah Goldman

$24.99 AUD

Category: Biography

A fresh, spirited and engaging biography of a fascinating and influential woman who was absolutely instrumental in shaping modern Australia - but whose influence and importance has largely been forgotten. Caroline Chisholm was a take-no-prisoners game-changer of Colonial Australia - as well as a charmin g, wholly committed, and utterly determined force of nature. Arriving in Australia in 1838, she was appalled by the plight of young female immigrants in Australia - there were no jobs for them, no accommodation, and many of them resorted to prostitution to survive. In response to this need, Caroline became a woman on a mission. She met every immigrant ship and became a familiar figure on the wharves, finding positions for immigrant girls and sheltering many of them in her home. As the government of the day refused to help, Chisholm established accommodation, services and the first emloyment office in the colony, drawing up the first ever employment contracts in Australia. She established minimum wages, found jobs and homes, created employment agencies in a dozen rural centres as well, and she managed to do all this without any assistance from the government of the time. In many ways a proto-feminist and committed social activist, she transformed life in Australia. This is a long overdue, contemporary and lively reassessment of Caroline, bringing to life her spirited character, her modern relevance, her feminist credentials and her egalitarian spirit. ...Show more