Item category 1: Biographies & Memoirs

In this idyllic pastoral setting, unencumbered by the callous father who so quickly abandoned his family responsibilities, Laurie's adoring mother becomes the centre of his world as she struggles to raise a growing family against the backdrop of the Great War. The sophisticated adult author's ret...

'Living in Corfu was rather like living in one of the more flamboyant and slapstick comic operas.' It is 1935 and the Durrells have escaped the leaden summer skies of Bournemouth to arrive 'like a troupe of medieval tumblers' on the sun-drenched island of Corfu for a new life. Gerald Durrell's be...

'It was as though England had never really existed'. Budding zoologist Gerald continues to explore the natural wonders around him, enjoying a night fishing trip, receiving a donkey as a birthday present and accidentally bringing a bear home for tea. Here too are more stories of the eccentric crea...

The island of Corfu, where the Durrell family live in agreeable chaos, is paradise for aspiring naturalist Gerald. His battalion of creatures has grown to include eleven puppies, a toad named Deirdre and an unwelcome infestation of scorpions. Yet the human visitors to their sun-drenched villa are...

'The sun is shining through the bars of my window on what must be a glorious summer day. I've been incarcerated in a cell five paces by three for twelve and a half hours, and will not be let out again until midday; eighteen and a half hours of solitary confinement. There is a child of seventeen i...

A mathematician unlike any other, John Horton Conway (1937-2020) possessed a rock star's charisma, a polymath's promiscuous curiosity, and a sly sense of humour. Conway found fame as a barefoot professor at Cambridge, where he discovered the Conway groups in mathematical symmetry and the aptly na...

Tina Knowles, the mother of icons Beyonce Knowles-Carter, Solange Knowles and bonus daughter Kelly Rowland, is known the world over as a Matriarch with a capital M: the woman who raised and inspired some of the great artists of our time. But this story is about so much more than that. Matriarch b...

An account of the extraordinary life of Josephine Bonaparte, the charming and promiscuous socialite who stole Napoleon's heart.

CryBaby is Yamatji author Mabel Gibson's highly anticipated collection of micro memoir. Moving across distinct landscapes in Western Australia, the 56 dreamy and fragmented moments in this collection chronicle Mabel's life from age two to twenty-five. They tell her story as a young First Nations ...

While visiting his ailing father in Sydney, the author discovers an old suitcase chucked out for a council clean-up. Curiosity gets the better of him and he opens it. Inside are hundreds of photographs, newspaper clippings and letters, all addressed to Mr Blank. And so the process of discovery be...

It is difficult to take myself back to the beginning, and even more difficult to share such a private time in my life. But I will. It's how I will find meaning from the loss, from the universe robbing the kids and me of an extraordinary father and husband, by paying it forward to you. In this dee...

The most important book of the year, publishing 26 November 2024 For 16 years, Angela Merkel was Chancellor of Germany. She led the country through numerous crises, shaping both Germany and international politics with her actions and attitudes. In her memoirs, co-written with her long-time polit...

By 1974 the Beatles were a distant memory, and Paul McCartney had already gone on to release a solo album and form a new band, Wings. By the end of the decade Wings would be the bestselling band of the 1970s. The McCartney Legacy, Vol. 2 begins in 1974 at the height of Wings popularity and the be...

The definitive biography of Ange Postecoglou, Australia's first Premier League manager and instigator of the 'Angeball' phenomenon that has taken the football world by storm. With unparalleled access to Postecoglou himself and a career spent pitch-side, leading Australian football writer Vince Ru...

Molly Jong-Fast is the only child of Erica Jong, author of the feminist autobiographical novel Fear of Flying. A sensational exploration of female sexual desire, it catapulted Erica into the heady world of fame in the early 1970s. Molly grew up with her mother everywhere - on television, in the c...

In her early 30s, Katie Treble felt stuck - in her life, in her career as an emergency doctor, and in a dead-end relationship. Moving from her home in England to sunny Byron Bay hadn't been the answer she was hoping for. Wanting to kickstart her life and put her starry-eyed idealism into action, ...

Learn about the world of Steph Curry - one of the best point guards in basketball for the Golden State Warriors and master of the 3-point shot!

The story of Arthur Leggett, a young man growing up in Australia's developing years, patriotically serving his country in World War II, and surviving four and a half years in the hands of the Germans as a Prisoner of War. Australian larrikanism shines throughout Arthur's journey from boyhood to m...

This is a story of Jelena Dokic's survival. How she survived as a refugee, twice. How she survived on the tennis court to become world No. 4. But, most importantly, how she survived her father, Damir Dokic, the tennis dad from hell.

For years, Amy Thunig thought she knew all the details about the day she was born, often demanding that the story of her birth be retold. Years later, heavily pregnant with her own first child, she learns what really happened that day. It’s a tale that exemplifies many of the events of her early ...

In her memoir, Melania reflects on her Slovenian childhood, the pivotal moments that led her to the world of high fashion in Europe and New York, and the serendipitous meeting with Donald Trump, a chance encounter that forever changed the course of her life. Melania opens up about their courtship...

Being a mother. Being an entrepreneur. Yes, these two sides of a person's life can not only coexist successfully but actually elevate each other, as evidenced by this inspirational and empowering celebration of more then sixty women who wear both hats. Filled with the stories of designers, makers...

Recovery is the longest road toward a better future. So says Joe Calendino, former full-patch Hells Angel and now youth community leader. In The Longest Road, Calendino remembers his journey to rock bottom, when he spiralled out of control, consumed by drugs and alcohol, ending up strung out and ...

Bill Bailey always had dogs, including a Patterdale terrier called Rocky who would travel with him in the van to his first shows and occasionally join him on stage. Fast forward a few decades and Bill has shared his home with a variety of birds, dogs, frogs, chameleons, and an armadillo called To...

Skin cancer is this country's most common cancer, and melanoma the deadliest form of it. Richard, together with his colleagues at Melanoma Institute Australia, has dedicated years to groundbreaking research and succeeded in transforming even the most advanced forms of melanoma into a largely cura...

From the beloved, bestselling, Oscar-nominated author of Taste: What I Ate in One Year is a funny, poignant, heartfelt and deeply satisfying serving of memories and meals and an irresistible celebration of the profound role that food plays in all our lives. 'Sharing food is one of the purest huma...

John and Elizabeth Gould sailed into Australia on a cold spring day in 1838, prepared for the most astonishing adventure of their lives. They had crossed three oceans from their London home to find the treasures of Australia's birdlife and showcase them to the outside world. Elizabeth had fallen ...

From S Club 7 pop star to Hollywood starlet, Hannah Spearritt has been on the stage, screen and airwaves since her teens. As one seventh of an iconic pop band that provided the soundtrack to so many childhoods, she has spent most of her life in the limelight. Now, for the first time, she's ready ...

After spending their early years together in conflict zones as foreign correspondents, and living in Sydney, Geraldine Brooks and Tony Horwitz settled down to raise two boys on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. The life they built was one of meaningful work, good humour, and tenderness, as they s...

"Early in her radio career Susie Ferguson became a war correspondent. The only woman among hundreds of soldiers, in a helmet and flak jacket she was one of the boys. None of them knew she was taking fifteen painkillers a day and relying on opioids to stem the burning and stabbing pain in her uter...