Australian Memoir

Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All is the story of the cultural collision between Westerners and the Maoris of New Zealand, told partly as a history of the complex and bloody period of contact between Europeans and the Maoris in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and partly as the story of Christina Thompson's marriage to a Maori man.

Toby Price has lived a truly remarkable life, filled with ups, downs and every bump in the road imaginable: a childhood racing prodigy from the tender age of two - there was hardly a paddock that could contain him. After tearing through the junior ranks, taking out titles in both dirt track and motocross, Toby was living the dream, turning pro at 16 and joining the formidable KTM Racing team. Soon he was turning heads internationally and tapped to take on the most forbidding enduro courses the sport could throw at him.

The Truro Murders presents the shocking true story of Christopher Worrell and his accomplice, James Miller. The events in this audiobook unveil one of the worst serial killing sprees in Australian history. Over the course of two months 1976-1977, seven young women were brutally raped and murdered. Worrell and Miller met in prison and upon release developed a dominant and submissive relationship that centered around feeding Worrell's sadistic urges towards women.

Why did transportation occur, why did it end and what was it like living in Australia from 1788 to 1870? Skilfully researched and told in Jim Haynes's warm and witty style, Heroes, Rebels and Radicals of Convict Australia answers these questions and brings to life well-known and unknown figures from Australia's history as a penal settlement. This is the true story of the colonisation of Australia.

The Fighter is the compelling life story of Australian Muay Thai legend 'John' Wayne Parr - a fighter's odyssey full of twists, turns, world titles, personal challenges and triumphs. This is the story of a man who knows what it is to test himself, physically and mentally, and the life lessons he learnt along the way, all told with Wayne's characteristic sense of humour.

Sir Hubert Wilkins is one of the most remarkable Australians who ever lived. The son of pioneer pastoralists in South Australia, Hubert studied engineering before moving on to photography, then sailing for England and a job producing films with the Gaumont Film Co. Brave and bold, he became a polar expeditioner, a brilliant war photographer, a spy in the Soviet Union, a pioneering aviator-navigator, a death-defying submariner - all while being an explorer and chronicler of the planet and its life forms that would do Vasco da Gama and Sir David Attenborough proud.

Christopher Wilder was about as bad as they get. A predator and serial killer, he first came to the attention of police in Sydney when, as a teenager in 1963, he was charged with rape. A good behaviour bond was not a deterrent, and over the years his crimes escalated. After moving to the USA in his early 20s, Wilder continued to perfect his vile and deadly trade. He was a chameleon with a modus operandi refined over the decades, luring young teenage girls with the promise of a career as a photographic model.

As a young girl growing up in a strict ultra-Orthodox family, Dassi's life was preordained - marry young, live a devout life and raise children within the Adass community's religious rules. This righteous path would keep her safe from the immodest, secular world just a few blocks away in suburban Melbourne. But the Adass community was not safe for Dassi. She was fifteen when her revered school principal, Malka Leifer, started to single her out. Dassi's cloistered and harsh upbringing meant she didn't have the words for what was happening to her, but she knew it was very, very wrong.

On the morning of 10 December 2015, Owen Wright entered the water at Pipeline, Hawaii, determined to become a world champion. But after being pounded by a set of monstrous waves, he ended up fighting for life and facing extensive brain trauma. In this inspirational memoir, Wright chronicles the events leading up to that fateful day, as well as the months and years that followed as he battled to regain basic functioning, and eventually the capacity to compete again at the apex of surfing.

In January 1889, Louisa Collins, a 41-year-old mother of 10 children, became the first woman hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol and the last woman hanged in New South Wales. Both of Louisa's husbands had died suddenly and the Crown, convinced that Louisa poisoned them with arsenic, put her on trial an extraordinary four times in order to get a conviction, to the horror of many in the legal community. Louisa protested her innocence until the end.

Through the intimate writing of critically acclaimed autistic author Kay Kerr, Love & Autism presents an uplifting celebration of neurodivergent love, the search for it and a deeper look into the lives of autistic Australians.

In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.

The incredible account of Sister Betty Jeffrey OAM and the Australian war nurses who survived the bombing of evacuation ship SS Vyner Brooke in February 1942, and subsequently spent three years in Japanese prison camps in Sumatra. During those perilous years surviving in squalid conditions, Sister Jeffrey kept a secret diary of day-to-day events which, after the war, was turned into a hugely successful book and radio serial: White Coolies. Sisters in Captivity builds on those diaries.

The understory is where I live, alongside these plants and creatures. I tend the forest, stand at the foot of trees and look up, gather what has fallen. This is the story of a tree-change, of escaping suburban Brisbane for a cottage on 10 acres in search of a quiet life. Of establishing a writers' retreat shortly before the global financial crisis hit, and of losing just about everything when it did. It is also the story of what the author found there: the beauty of nature and her own path as a writer.

Damien Cave and his wife Diana thought they understood what it meant to take risks. As two journalists who traveled the world covering pressing international stories, they were convinced they had seen it all; that is, until they moved to Australia. Suddenly, their kids were being thrown into giant Pacific waves in intensive lifeguard bootcamps, and they were expected to be present and participating instead of obsessing about work or politics. They soon noticed what seemed to be a societal surrender of control to nature and community.

Jamila Rizvi and Rosie Waterland have each suffered significant, debilitating brain injury - one through rare disease and the medical interventions that followed, the other through deep childhood trauma. In this brave and honest book, Jamila and Rosie share their parallel stories of becoming and being sick, alongside the experience and advice of those who've been there before. They reveal that their 'broken brains' have more in common than they initially realised, proving how mental and physical health are inextricably entwined.

‘Stop screaming, I'm scared too!' is not what you'd expect to see on the back of a loadmaster's helmet in a Chinook helicopter flying over southern Afghanistan, but for Rod Henderson it sums up his 22 years of service as a soldier in the Australian Army. This is not the story of a general or a Special Forces hero. It is the extraordinary memoir of a regular Australian soldier. Like so many others who have served their country with honour and distinction, the little-known stories of ordinary soldiers deserve to be told.

Nedd Brockmann isn’t afraid to dream big. Fresh after running fifty marathons in fifty days, the twenty-three-year-old had an idea: a 4000-kilometre run across Australia, averaging 100 kilometres per day with the aim of completing it in the fastest known time of 43 days. He wasn’t chasing fame or public recognition. He just wanted to test his limits and raise a million dollars for homelessness in the process.

Growing up in London and Melbourne, music was always part of John Farnham's world. But the young John never dreamed of what was to come. Pop stardom in the 1960s. The release of Whispering Jack, the critically acclaimed and highest-selling Australian album of all time. A decades-long touring career. Twenty-one ARIA awards. Australian of the Year. The list of accolades and achievements is long - so, at first glance, the John Farnham story is one filled with remarkable highs.

For 650 days Sean Turnell was held in Myanmar's terrifying Insein Prison on the trumped-up charge of being a spy. In An Unlikely Prisoner he recounts how an impossibly cheerful professor of economics, whose idea of an uncomfortable confrontation was having to tell a student that their essay was 'not really that good', ended up in one of the most notorious prisons in South-East Asia. And how he not only survived his lengthy incarceration, but left with his sense of humour intact, his spirit unbroken and love in his heart.