When food writer Richard Cornish pulled over to the side of the road and started eating a roast leg of lamb with his hands he decided he might have a problem. He decided to give up eating meat for a year while he examined what it means to eat meat today. My Year Without Meat is a surprising and bittersweet journey: For Richard it changed his body a... Read more...

Peter Thomson won five golf Open Championships. He is only the third golfer to have won five or more, behind the great Harry Vardon, who won six. It is a feat unlikely to be repeated in the modern era and puts him in the legendary league of sports players like Don Bradman, Rod Laver, Margaret Court and Dawn Fraser. Read more...

In Life As I Know It, Michelle Payne tells her deeply moving story. It will lift your spirits, stir your heart and give you courage.Michelle was six months old, the youngest of eleven children, when the family was hit with the tragic death of their mother, Mary. Their father, Paddy, a renowned horseman, raised his children alone. As a family, they a... Read more...

Mélodie is the heartfelt memoir of a Japanese man's life with his golden retriever—or rather of his golden retriever's life with him. Fidelity, patience, attachment, love and family ties are illuminated through the demands and joys of living with a large dog in a small apartment in Tokyo.Akira Mizubayashi's attachment to Mélodie profoundly tra... Read more...

Dangerous to Know documents murders known and not so well known, conmen and their victims, street gangs of the early twentieth century, crime lords of the 1920s, dock wars of the 1970s, bikers, sex offenders, and the drug gangs of today as well as the wrongly accused and wrongly convicted. They're all here, as well as some of the police, lawyers and... Read more...

Céleste de Chabrillan, former courtesan and widow of the first French Consul to Melbourne, became the most prolific female stage writer in nineteenth-century France. Forever haunted by her scandalous past, Céleste fought to hold her place in an artistic world dominated by men.Courtesan and Countess tells the story not only of her struggle as a creat... Read more...

Once upon a time in Melbourne there was a gigolo who thought he was a vampire. He bit the tongue off a prostitute and was then murdered in broad daylight on a suburban street. His execution, top brass believed, was organised by police. The aftershocks of this killing-and the murder of a state witness and his wife inside their fortress home&mash;rock... Read more...

Peter Reith was a senior cabinet minister under John Howard from 1996 to 2001. He was the face of the government's tough waterfront reforms and architect of sweeping industrial laws, a major contributor to the Fightback policy, a potential leader of the Liberal Party, a key player in the introduction of the GST, an influential republican in the 1999... Read more...

The highs and lows of Malcolm Turnbull's remarkable career are documented here in technicolour detail by journalist Paddy Manning. Based on countless interviews and painstaking research, it is a forensic investigation into one of Australia's most celebrated overachievers.>Turnbull's relentless energy and quest for achievement have taken him from exc... Read more...

The Long Haul offers a series of practical lessons on leadership and public life from John Brumby's thirty years in politics. It gives insights into the challenges and opportunities Australia currently faces and argues for real political reform, a different future for our federation and strong leadership in a world in transition. Read more...

Much has been written about the lives and art of Heide, but finally the remaining members of the inner circle have entrusted the full story to be told through this intimate biography of John and Sunday Reed.Part romance, part tragedy, Modern Love explores the complex lives of these champions of successive generations of Australian artists and writer... Read more...

Modern Australia was in part defined by its early embrace of China—a turning from the White Australia Policy of the 1950s to the country's acceptance of Asian immigration and engagement with regional neighbours. It saw the far-sighted establishment of an embassy in Beijing in the 1970s by Gough Whitlam, headed by Stephen FitzGerald. Here, Fitz... Read more...

B.A. Santamaria was one of the most controversial Australians of our time. An ardent anti-Communist and devout Catholic, he was fiercely intelligent and a natural leader, polarising the community into loyal followers and committed opponents.In the 1940s Santamaria created the anti-Communist organisation 'The Movement'. In the 1950s he was a key figu... Read more...

Why do seemingly intelligent men and women leave their families to spend more than half the year travelling to Canberra, and spending night after night at electorate and campaign events? Surely there are easier ways to earn a living.A Letter to My Children is Christopher Pyne's honest account of how a belief in the power of public service, inspired ... Read more...

'The great task of statesmanship is to apply past lessons to new situations, to draw correct analogies to understand and act upon present forces, to recognise the need for change.'—Malcolm FraserMalcolm Fraser is one of the most interesting and possibly most misunderstood of Australia's Prime Ministers. In this part memoir and part authorised ... Read more...

In Mothermorphosis, some of Australia's most talented writers and storytellers share their own experiences of motherhood. In telling their stories they articulate the complex internal conflicts, the exhilaration and the absurdity of the transformation that takes place when we become mothers.We read about the yearning for a child, the private and pub... Read more...

In the Front Row charts the rise of Australian Fashion Week, from one man's ambition to take Australian fashion to the world, to the glittering international event it is today. Simon P. Lock's determination placed Sydney on the international fashion week circuit, up there with New York, London, Milan and Paris.Lock's story takes you backstage for th... Read more...

Born and bred in north-western New South Wales, Tony Windsor has held the balance of power in state and federal parliaments for nearly a third of his public life. He has always stood as an Independent, believing it was the only way he could achieve the attention country voters deserved from the major parties.Windsor's Way reveals Tony's courageous p... Read more...

His wife Margaret was his 'best appointment', he called Malcolm Fraser 'Kerr's cur' after the Dismissal and when Sir Winton Turnbull called out in parliament 'I am a country member', Gough interjected 'I remember'.When it was suggested he was funny, Gough responded: 'Funny! Funny? Witty, yes. Epigrammatic perhaps, but not funny. You make me sound l... Read more...

Gough Whitlam, Australia's twenty-first prime minister, swept to power in December 1972, ending twenty-three years of conservative rule. It was an ascendancy bitterly resented by some, never accepted by others, and ended with dismissal by the Governor-General barely three years later-an outcome that polarised debate and left many believing the full ... Read more...

The definitive biography of Australia's twenty-first prime minister, Gough Whitlam, who swept to power in 1972, ending twenty-three years of conservative rule. His reform agenda modernised Australia and was ended with dismissal by the Governor-General three years later. Here for the first time in a two-volume box set, acclaimed author Professor Jenn... Read more...

Gough Whitlam, Australia's twenty-first prime minister, swept to power in December 1972, ending twenty-three years of conservative rule. In barely three years Whitlam's dramatic reform agenda would transform Australia. It was an ascendancy bitterly resented by some, never accepted by others, and ended with dismissal by the Governor-General just thre... Read more...

Barrie Cassidy's dad Bill survived more than four years as a prisoner of war in World War II. He first saw conflict on Crete in May 1941, during the only large-scale parachute invasion in wartime history. Just four days later, Bill was wounded and eventually captured. Twice he tried to escape his internment with horrific consequences. He suffered gr... Read more...

'I thought I knew a bit about breakfast TV. I was wrong. What we see is nothing compared to what goes on behind the scenes. I was fascinated to read this brutally honest account of so many stories that have become Australian media folklore. The characters, the drama, the egos. It is an unflinching account from the man who has arguably had a grea... Read more...

It was a very different Kevin Rudd who returned to office in 2013. Kevin 07 was a fresh face and a new image: the convivial, Mandarin-speaking nerd who seemed so different from past leaders and who held so much potential.By 2013 Rudd retained some of his popularity but none of his novelty. The Opposition could say nothing derogatory about him that h... Read more...

What do you do when your husband claims to be madly in love with you, but doesn't desire you sexually? When your therapist is more interested in opening an online sex-toy shop with your husband than in saving your marriage? Do you try yet another counsellor, get divorced or settle for a sexless marriage?Lee Kofman, rebellious daughter of ultra-ortho... Read more...

From FOXTEL to News Corp, film to football, opera to business, Kim Williams is a builder of Australian institutions. He has worked with some of the very best in their fields—Rupert Murdoch, Kerry Packer, Kevin Sheedy, Gail Kelly and Don Burrows to name just a few.Rules of Engagement is a candid, up close and very personal account of the exerci... Read more...

A thrilling memoir of the spectacular high-altitude mountaineering achievements of Andrew Lock: the only Australian to have summited all fourteen 8000-metre peaks in the world, including Mount Everest—twice.Here Andrew Lock gives us a gripping account of his death-defying ascents and explains his passion for climbing in small teams, or solo, w... Read more...

Greg Combet has been at the centre of some of the biggest battles of our time—the waterfront dispute, the collapse of an airline, compensation for asbestos victims, the campaign against unfair workplace laws and then climate change. From an isolated childhood on the Minchinbury estate west of Sydney, Combet's world changed dramatically with th... Read more...

The last volume in the best-selling series, Gangland North, South & West looks at crime in South and Western Australia, Northern Territory and Tasmania. In addition to contract killing, prostitution, robbery, illegal gambling and the stand-over game, in these regions there has been a healthy living to be made from gold, diamond and pearl thefts. ... Read more...

Wide-ranging in theme and context, it explores the imaginative effects of his writing. A tribute to Chris on the occasion of this eightieth birthday, and in many ways it suggests an alternative cultural history of Australia since the 1950s. Containing biographical and critical pieces, poems (including new work by Chris) and essays that respond to hi... Read more...

Is it possible to be passionate about politics, football or R&B; and still be a creative scientist? In this entertaining and inspiring account, Nobel Prize winner Peter Doherty offers readers an insider's guide into discovery science and the individuals who work in it.Starting with the story of his own career and its improbable origins in the outer s... Read more...

On a Sunday evening in July 2011, 40-year-old Anthony Dunning was pinned to the floor of Melbourne's Crown casino by security staff. Four days later, he died in the intensive care unit of the Alfred Hospital. The incident was reported to the police by two friends who were with Dunning on the night—not by Crown casino. Later that week, a spokes... Read more...

Maverick Soldier is the forthright, nuts-and-bolts account of John Essex-Clark's unmatched experience as a warrior, leader and teacher. Its telling is all of a piece with the man himself—bluff, astute, no-nonsense.In the course of stumbling, as he puts it, from the rank of private to brigadier, Essex-Clark has fought in wars with the Australia... Read more...

When Jono Lineen's brother died in tragic circumstances, he gave up a comfortable life, moved to the Himalayas and over eight years immersed himself in the cultures of the world's highest mountains.The experience culminates in his book Into the Heart of the Himalayas, a fascinating memoir that traces his solo trekking odyssey from Pakistan to Nepal ... Read more...

The urgent phone call comes from behind the barbed wire.'This is Ayalon prison,' says one of the guards urgently. 'Listen, he hanged himself, we need an ambulance.'Prisoner X, just 34 years old, was slumped in a small bathroom, separated from his cell by a transparent door. Kept in one of the most technologically sophisticated solitary jail cells, a... Read more...

The simple tale of Simpson and his donkey is the pre-eminent legend of heroism. It is the story of a humble water-carrier, a rescuer of wounded men, a tale of compassion, stoic persistence, with a tragic end. His tale is an integral part of the Anzac story.Across time, a simple tale can acquire a complicated history. This is what happened to the man... Read more...

Known as the 'Warlpiri Warrior,' the 'Jurrahcane' and 'Cougar,' one time Melbourne AFL footballer Liam Jurrah made his mark with startling displays of skill, artistry and the 'deadly' impact of his football ability. This book tells the extraordinary cultural journey travelled by Liam, a fully initiated Warlpiri man, from the remote Aboriginal desert... Read more...

Kathleen Fitzpatrick, born in 1905, was the grand-daughter of Melbourne real estate agent JR Buxton, whose investments in land and housing brought him wealth and significantly influenced much of his city's early development. In her memoir, Solid Bluestone Foundations, described by her great friend Manning Clark as 'a magnificent book of memories', K... Read more...

Everyone in Australia knows Ray Martin the journalist and TV presenter, but few know about his secret passion—photography. Full-colour and gloriously produced, this book will showcase Ray's stunning photos from Australia and around the world.Ray presents landscapes from remote Central Australia to the wild Galapagos Islands to unseen angles of... Read more...

160 Years:160 Stories provides an insight into the University of Melbourne community from its foundation to the present day through the lives of people associated with every aspect of the University. Scholars and athletes, doctors and priests, actors and musicians, philosophers and linguists, administrators and student activists are among those who... Read more...

John Cantwell, Queensland country boy, enlisted in the army as a private and rose to the rank of major general. He was on the front line in 1991 as Coalition forces fitted bulldozer blades to tanks and buried Iraqi troops alive. He served in Baghdad in 2006 and saw what a car bomb does to a crowded marketplace. He was commander of Australian forces ... Read more...

Not many leaders are gifted a second chance. In the short time he had before he faced the verdict of the people, Kevin Rudd had to revive respect and credibility in his governing party. Beyond that, he needed to give Australians a bit of hope, and return a sense of pride to a country that for too long had been the plaything of a destructive bunch of... Read more...

In 1968 historian Sheila Fitzpatrick was 'outed' by the Russian newspaper Sovetskaya Rossiya as all but a spy for Western intelligence. She was in Moscow at the time, working in Soviet archives for her doctoral thesis on AV Lunacharsky, the first Soviet Commissar of Enlightenment after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.Despite KGB attention, and the imp... Read more...

This is the revealing, personal story of the man behind the controversial pro-euthanasia movement, told in his own words. Medical doctor, humanist, author and founder/director of Exit International, Philip Nitschke's life has always been in the spotlight.The book spans Philip's early days, from his curious, activist student days in Adelaide, to work... Read more...

One life, many roles: soldier, brilliant barrister, High Court judge, Governor-General, Australian diplomat, mediator in Northern Ireland, member of the first war crimes tribunal since Nuremburg and Tokyo, head of UN and Commonwealth missions to crisis zones from Cambodia to Burma to Bangladesh, Sir Ninian Stephen is the recipient of five knighthood... Read more...

'In Australia the name Copland is one to be conjured with.' The Canadian ambassador to China was addressing the diplomatic corps gathered to farewell Professor Douglas Copland, Australia's second Minister to China. It was early 1948, and Copland was leaving China to become founding Vice-Chancellor of the new Australian National University in Canberr... Read more...

Transported convict George Clarke absconded in the early 1800s and went far into the then unexplored wilderness of northern New South Wales. There, thought by the Aborigines to be a 'ghost', he lived with them for four years integrating into their lives and later leading them on raids to steal the white men's cattle.On eventual capture he claimed to... Read more...

James Button spent a year writing speeches for Kevin Rudd. Before that, he reported on politics as a highly regarded journalist for Fairfax. But James also has politics in the blood: his father was the diminutive but larger-than-life Senator John Button, who was a minister in the Hawke and Keating governments.Growing up, James watched a roll-call of... Read more...

The last volume in the best selling series, Gangland North, South & West looks at home-grown crime in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. In addition to contract killing, prostitution, robbery, illegal gambling and the stand-over game, in these regions there has been a healthy living to be made from gold, diamond and pearl... Read more...