Item category 1: Biographies & Memoirs

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.

A harrowing account of life in Italy in the year leading up to World War II, available in the US for the first time. War in Italy in 1939 was by no means necessary or even beneficial to the country.But in June 1940, Mussolini finally declared war on Britain and France. The awfulinevitability wit...

"At the age of sixteen, Edith Eger, a trained ballet dancer and gymnast, was sent to Auschwitz. Hours after her parents were killed, the 'Angel of Death, ' Nazi officer Dr. Josef Mengele, forced Edie to dance for his amusement--and her survival. He rewarded her with a loaf of bread that she share...

Colin Dillon is an extraordinary man. He was the first Indigenous policeman in Australia. But that is actually a very small part of his story. He was also the first serving police officer to voluntarily appear before the Fitzgerald Commission of Inquiry in 1987 and give first-hand evidence of pol...

Tim Watson-Munro is famous for his association with the infamous. As Australia's leading criminal psychologist he assessed over 20,000 'persons of interest' in some of the country's most notorious court cases, including Hoddle Street gunman Julian Knight, corporate fraudster Alan Bond, Melbourne ...

Dylan Jones’s engrossing, magisterial biography of David Bowie is unlike any Bowie story ever written. Drawn from over 180 interviews with friends, rivals, lovers, and collaborators, some of whom have never before spoken about their relationship with Bowie, this oral history weaves a hypnotic spe...

Endearing, charming, honest and absorbing, Detours is the most anticipated literary and rock n' roll memoir of the year - it is witty, endearing, funny, sad, truthful tender and beautiful - think Patti Smith meet Dylan Thomas, via Banjo Paterson. Tim Rogers - the front man and singer of hugely po...

50 years ago, Sir Richard Branson started his first business. In his new autobiography, Finding My Virginity, the Virgin Founder shares his personal, intimate thoughts on five decades as the world's ultimate entrepreneur. In Finding My Virginity, Sir Richard Branson shares the secrets that have s...

Ben Stokes is not cast in the same mould as the vast majority of English cricketers. Fiery, combative, gladiatorial - he plays the game hard and with great gusto. He is an all-rounder who bats, bowls and fields at full throttle. Some opponents feel threatened by his physical stature and aggressiv...

General Erich Ludendorff was one of the most important military individuals of the last century, yet today, one of the least known. One of the top two German generals of World War I, Ludendorff dominated not only his superior - General Paul von Hindenburg - but also Germany's head of state, Kaise...

Emerging from an unconventional, boisterously happy childhood, Mary-Rose MacColl was a rebellious teenager. And when, at the age of fifteen, her high-school teacher and her husband started inviting Mary-Rose to spend time with them, her parents were pleased that she now had the guidance she neede...

ROCK & POP MUSIC. As the man whose voice and style came to define pop music in the eighties and beyond, George Michael will forever be remembered as one of the all-time greats of British music. With records such as 'Club Tropicana' and 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go', Wham! rapidly became one of Br...

"What I've learned from climbing mountains is that we can push ourselves far beyond what we think we are capable of, and it's outside of our comfort zones that the most amazing things happen." What drives us to go to our limits and beyond? What does it take to make dreams come true over all else?...

Stevie Nicks is a legend of rock, but her energy and magnetism sparked new interest in this icon. At 68, she's one of the most glamorous creatures rock has known, and the rare woman who's a real rock 'n' roller.

The definitive visual biography of Grace Kelly's unforgettable Hollywood career, chronicled in 400 extraordinary black-and white and color photographs, including many never-before-seen. "Mr. Hitchcock taught me everything about cinema. It was thanks to him that I understood that murder scenes sho...

One of the founding artists of modern art, Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) is now widely acclaimed as the preeminent painter of the late nineteenth century. Less well known is his groundbreaking work as a draftsman; relatively little scholarship has been devoted to this aspect of his oeuvre, which is ra...

Angus Young, the co-founder and the last remaining original member of AC/DC, has for more than 40 years been the face, sound and sometimes the exposed backside of the trailblazing rock band. In his trademark schoolboy outfit, guitar in hand, Angus has given his signature sound to songs such as ‘A...

John Curtin became Australia's Prime Minister eight weeks before Japan launched war in the Pacific.Curtin's struggle for power against Joe Lyons and Bob Menzies, his dramatic use of it when he took office in October 1941, and his determination to be heard in Washington and London as Japan advance...

Film legend Kirk Douglas and his wife Anne look back on a lifetime filled with love and drama both on and off the screen. Sharing priceless correspondence with each other as well as the celebrities and world leaders they called friends, Kirk and Anne is a candid portrayal of the pleasures and pit...

The story of Emma and Carl Jung's highly unconventional marriage, their relationship with Freud, and their part in the early years of Psychoanalysis. Emma Jung was clever, ambitious and immensely wealthy, one of the richest heiresses in Switzerland when, aged seventeen, she met and fell in love w...

Administrators and broadcasters come and go, but there was something different about Wally Foreman.More than 3000 people filled a stadium in November, 2006, to farewell him after his passing from a heart attack, while his memorial service was broadcast on state-wide radio. It was the largest serv...

Light and Shadow is the incredible story of a father waging a secret war against communism during the Cold War, while his son comes of age as a journalist and embarks on the risky career of a foreign correspondent. Mark covered local and global events for the ABC for more than four decades, repor...

Throughout his life, basketball superstar Earvin Magic Johnson has met both challenges and opportunities with perseverance and leadership. Dubbed Magic, Johnson blazed a spectacular career in basketball. His play with the Los Angeles Lakers as point guard alongside center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, as ...

"In late 1967, fourteen-year-old Dianne Lake became one of "Charlie's girls," a devoted acolyte of cult leader Charles Manson and member of his Family. Joining the group with little more than an old note from her hippie parents granting her permission to leave them, the two years that followed we...

Mike Willesee has been Australia's most revered television journalist for over fifty years. And behind the lens, a businessman, powerbroker, trailblazer and enduring enigma.Son of a minister in the Whitlam cabinet, Willesee was a football star before finding fame as a crusading journalist, and Vi...

In 1909, a young Australian actress made headlines around the world when she took to the sky over London in an airship emblazoned with the slogan 'Votes for Women' and dropped leaflets over the city. Muriel Matters was dubbed 'that daring Australian girl', and the American media declared it the w...

When Ned Kelly's mother, Ellen, arrived in Melbourne in 1841 aged nine, British convict ships were still dumping their unhappy cargo in what was then known as the colony of New South Wales. By the time she died, aged ninety-one in 1923, having outlived seven of her twelve children, motor cars pli...

A celebration of President Obama's presidency, featuring stunning images by photographers from the White House and beyond. Looking back at Barack Obama's journey, from his remarkable victory to his final days in office.

As in life, Sam Dastyari's memoir is unexpected and unorthodox. This is the man who introduced Pauline Hanson to the halal snack pack and accountability to big banks. Named Sahand by his hippy Iranian parents, he changed his name to Sam to fit in with his schoolmates. But Sam was always going to ...

Hello dear book browser and welcome to Peggy and Me. The story of my life since getting a beautiful Shih-Tzu Bichon Frise cross puppy (I call the breed a Shitty Frise - fun) in the form of Peggy. Some of you may be thinking: "a book about a dog, how totally brilliant, I need hear no more, I'm sol...