Item category 2: Newmarket - Beyond the paywall

In 1959, Australians thrilled to every move made by a new criminal underdog, a Ned Kelly for the rock 'n' roll era. Kevin John Simmonds was a charismatic crook whose brazen crime spree had scored him a lengthy prison sentence. But as he was led from court, he boasted, 'They'll never hold me.' Two...

It's 2008, and it's been a while since Jake Adelstein was the only gaijin crime reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun. The global economy is in shambles, Jake is off the police beat but still chain-smoking clove cigarettes, and Tadamasa Goto, the most powerful boss in the Japanese organised-crime worl...

In ancient times, the vast area that stretches across what is now modern-day Iraq and Syria saw the rise and fall of epic civilizations who built the foundations of our world today. It was in this region, which we call Mesopotamia, that history was written down for the very first time.

The Dead Sea is a place of many contradictions. Hot springs around the lake are famed for their healing properties, though its own waters are deadly to most lifeforms, even so, civilizations have built ancient cities and hilltop fortresses around its shores for centuries. The protagonists in its ...

Many theories that form the bedrock of good parenting were created decades before devices even existed - they don't consider the significant impact on a child's psychological and physical development. The landscape of the early years has changed so quickly, yet parents and caregivers do not have ...

Before COVID, both Qantas and its CEO Alan Joyce were flying high, the darlings of customers, staff and investors. After COVID hit, only money mattered - in particular, the company's share price and extraordinary executive bonuses. Illegally redundant workers, unethical flight credits, abysmal cu...

One of the great unexplained wonders of human history is that written philosophy flowered entirely separately in China, India and Ancient Greece at more or less the same time. These early philosophies have had a profound impact on the development of distinctive cultures in different parts of the ...

One evening in 2009, April Balascio was searching online, as she had been every night, for unsolved murders in the towns her family had lived growing up, when she stumbled across the latest investigations into the "Sweetheart Murders" cold case. All at once, the buried memories of her father's da...

What's gone wrong with our media? The answer: its owners. From William Randolph Hearst to Elon Musk, from the British press barons to colonial upstarts Conrad Black and Rupert Murdoch, media proprietors have manipulated the news to accumulate wealth and influence as they meddled with democracy. E...

Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! is the untold story of the courageous actions of the NSW Tactical Operations Unit (TOU) that unfolded on the 15th and 16th of December 2014. For over 16 hours, a lone wolf terrorist, Man Haron Monis, inspired by Islamic State and armed with a pump action shotgun and the threa...

Michael and Mary Shelley are Christian fanatics who loathe their fellow Australians - especially their 'reckless indulgence of alcohol and obsession with idiotic ball sports'. Lenore and Tom Blaine are working-class Queensland publicans raising a large family in a raucous, loving, sports-obsessed...

An urgent, indispensable guide to why Taiwan matters -- for China, the West and everyone's future. When the bloody Chinese Civil War concluded in 1949, two Chinas were born. Mao's Communists won and took China's mainland; Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists fled to Taiwan island. Since then, China and...

The Dalai Lama has had to contend with the People's Republic of China his entire life. He was 15 years old when communist China invaded Tibet in 1950, only 19 when he had his first meeting with Chairman Mao in Beijing, and 24 when he was forced to escape to India and became a leader in exile. Alm...

In The Secret Life of the Universe, astrobiologist and the director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute Nathalie A. Cabrol takes us to the frontiers of the search for life. The book's odyssey begins by exploring how life began on Earth in order to understand what's necessary for its ex...

"'If you're having symptoms that don't feel right, call Triple Zero. If it's not a heart issue, then that's OK. No one ever died of embarrassment.' Rachel Jayne Cassidy knows firsthand what it's like to be on the brink of life and death. After surviving a critical heart attack, she understands th...

The early promise of a free Internet is long gone. Now, rather than allowing us a meaningful relationship with a range of content of our choosing, algorithms have not only removed genuine choice but de-texturized the world around us: smoothed its edges, planed down friction, and flattened differe...

On the First Fleet of 1788, at least 15 convicts were of African descent. By 1840 that number had risen to almost 500. Among them them were David Stuurman, a revered South African chief transported for anti-colonial insurrection; John Caesar, who became Australia's first bushranger; Billy Blue, t...

After the global pause in 2020, we returned to a world that feels faster, looser, and less structured - our professional boundaries have been erased, social and cultural norms are shifting rapidly, and at the same time, we're facing profound developments in artificial intelligence. We're facing m...

A true story of murder and vengeance, a shattered community and a miscarriage of justice that echoes down the decades October 1971. Nineteen-year-old Una Lynskey vanishes near her home in County Meath. In the weeks that follow, and on flimsy grounds, Gardai identify three young local men as suspe...

Drawing on interviews and insights with luminaries of the Left, a leading progressive voice -- and the first content creator to interview President Biden -- lays bare the long con of the modern Republican, explaining how American politics has turn into a dumpster fire and what we can do to preser...

When Pat Cummins unexpectedly became Australia's 47th Test captain at age 28, he inherited a team with a long and storied history, but also one on the cusp of reinvention. It was the beginning of a personal leadership journey for him, a unique moment of challenge and pressure that would see him b...

The trial of Dominique Pelicot, which began on 2 September 2024, has captured the world's attention. Behind the haunting details of Pelicot's unthinkable crimes are a mother and daughter who were forced to rebuild their lives. This is their story. In November 2020, Caroline Darian received a call...

Ah, Britain. So special. The greatest nation on earth, some say. And we did it all on our own. Didn't we? Well... not quite. As it happens Britannia got its name from the Romans, and for the past two centuries we have been ruled by Germans. As Horrible Histories author Terry Deary argues, nations...

Robert Dessaix's testament to a wonderful life is funny, incisive and literary. His voice is completely distinctive and utterly compelling. Robert Dessaix's Chameleon is about everything that matters, a book of memories that flow so freely they seem to happen as we read. Cartwheeling from story t...

Belle Gibson convinced the world she had healed herself from terminal brain cancer with a healthy diet. She built a global business based upon her claims. There was just one problem: she'd never had cancer. Written by the same journalists who uncovered the details of Gibson's lies, this book trac...

Where should you move first in Connect 4? Which property is best in Monopoly? How can pi help you win Rock Paper Scissors? Crossing oceans, continents and millennia, mathematician Marcus du Sautoy explores how maths and games have always been deeply intertwined. As well as being integral to human...

The construction of the Overland Telegraph in 1870 is an extraordinary feat of engineering and a wild gamble that nearly went terribly wrong. It was the greatest feat of engineering in nineteenth century Australia, but it very nearly collapsed in the face of monumental obstacles. The year was 187...

Something's about to break, and if we don't change direction soon, it's going to be us. It doesn't matter in which industry or where: too many of us are overworked, disengaged and apprehensive about the future of work. In his life-affirming new book, bestselling author and founder Tim Duggan argu...

Discover the secret skills of influence and persuasion taught to intelligence officers and how to adapt them to win over personal and professional allies to your cause. Every day, intelligence officers achieve the unimaginable. They persuade people to share classified secrets with them.To become ...

Why have divisive conversations become so flammable? Is there any value in cancelling historical figures? How has the so-called 'transgender debate' become so toxic and what can we do to genuinely help? Why are the most progressive people calling for censorship in comedy? Is cancel culture real a...