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Deep in the heart of Australia’s high country, along an ancient, hidden track, lives Molly Johnson and her four surviving children, another on the way. Husband Joe is away months at a time droving livestock up north, leaving his family in the bush to fend for itself. Molly’s children are her world, and life is hard and precarious with only their dog, Alligator, and a shotgun for protection – but it can be harder when Joe’s around. At just twelve years of age Molly’s eldest son Danny is the true man of the house, determined to see his mother and siblings safe – from raging floodwaters, hunger and intruders, man and reptile. Danny is mature beyond his years, but there are some thin...
Collection of interviews with ten Aboriginal women. Covers contemporary issues such as politics, leadership, family, identity, survival, racism, culture and suffering and reveals the strength, dignity, pride and spirituality of the women. Those interviewed include actor Deborah Mailman, netballer Sharon Finnan, filmmaker Rachel Perkins, former Miss Australia Kathryn Hay, and community police warden Rosanna Angus. Includes photos and colour reproductions of painted portraits of the interviewees by Robert Hannaford. Author is an indigenous Australian singer songwriter, actor and director, and recently starred in the film 'Lantana'. This is her second book and has also been made into a documentary directed by her.
Smell the chlorine, taste the hot chips and feel the burning concrete underfoot as you read these stories of Australian childhoods at the pool. Swimming is a central part of most Australian childhoods. We idealise beaches and surf, but for many kids the local pool – whether it’s an ocean, tidal or a chlorinated pool – is where they pass summer days. Pools are places of imagination, daring, belonging, freedom, friendship and romance. For some they are places of hard-core swimming training. This delightful, nostalgic anthology brings together reflections and recollections about the swimming pools of childhood from a range of Australians of diverse ages and backgrounds, well known and not-so-famous, including Trent Dalton, Leah Purcell, Shane Gould, Bryan Brown and Merrick Watts. Evocative, funny and sometimes bittersweet, 28 people remember the pools that shaped their childhoods. Everyone who has ever dived into their local Olympic pool, bush waterhole or saltwater baths will want to submerge themselves in this beautiful book.
Ruby Langford Ginibi's bestselling first book is now back in print.With sales of over 30,000 copies since publication in 1988, Don't Take Your Love to Town is now a seminal work of Indigenous memoir. It has been set for HSC over a number of years and is one of the most important Indigenous life stories to be published in Australia.Ruby Langford Ginibi is a remarkable woman whose sense of humour has endured through all the hardships she has experienced. Her first volume of memoir is a story of extraordinary courage in the face of poverty and tragedy. She writes about the changing ways of life in Aboriginal communities - rural and urban; the disintegration of traditional lifestyles and the sustaining energy that has come from the renewal of Aboriginal culture in recent years.As a tribute to her life and work, this rejacketed edition of Don't Take Your Love to Town is being published to coincide with Ruby's new memoir, All My Mob.
Now an Amazon Original series starring Sigourney Weaver, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is the internationally bestselling novel by Holly Ringland. Perfect for fans of Where the Crawdads Sing and Kate Morton. 'A magical coming-of-age novel' - Good Housekeeping On the Australian coast, miles away from the nearest town, nine-year-old Alice Hart lives in fear of her father's dark moods. She is sheltered only by the love of her mother, Agnes, and Agnes' beautiful garden. When tragedy changes Alice's life irrevocably, she is sent to Thornfield, a native flower farm run by the grandmother she has never known. Thornfield gives refuge to women who, like Alice, are lost or broken, and it is there that Alice learns to use the language of flowers to say the things she cannot voice. But as she grows older, Alice realizes that there are things that even the flowers cannot help her say. Family secrets are buried deeper than the flowers' roots and, if she is to have the freedom she craves, she must find the courage to unearth the most powerful story she knows: her own. 'Rich, vibrant and alive . . . Holly Ringland is a writer to watch out for' - Jenn Ashworth, author of Ghosted
Beginning with new evidence that cites the presence of books in Roman villas and concluding with present day vicissitudes of collecting, this generously illustrated book presents a complete survey of British and Irish country house libraries. Replete with engaging anecdotes about owners and librarians, the book features fascinating information on acquisition bordering on obsession, the process of designing library architecture, and the care (and neglect) of collections. The author also disputes the notion that these libraries were merely for show, arguing that many of them were profoundly scholarly, assembled with meticulous care, and frequently used for intellectual pursuits. For those who love books and the libraries in which they are collected and stored, The Country House Library is an essential volume to own.
During the 1870s diamond rush in southern Africa, Clementine is left to be raised by her destitute father following the death of her mother. Her care falls largely to their companion, Joseph, and the two form an unbreakable bond. When the two men uncover a large, flawless diamond, a dark bargain is struck to ensure Clementine's return to a respectable life in northern England. Her father believes he has finally secured their future, but the discovery of the gem comes at a considerable cost. Years later, Clementine must confront long-buried memories of her childhood to solve the mystery of what happened to her loved ones all those years ago. Can she find the justice she seeks?
Explores how women playwrights illuminate the contemporary world and contribute to its reshaping
A searing new novel from leading Indigenous storyteller Tony Birch that explores the lengths we will go to in order to save the people we love.Odette Brown has lived her whole life on the fringes of a small country town. After her daughter disappeared and left her with her granddaughter Sissy to raise on her own, Odette has managed to stay under the radar of the welfare authorities who are removing fair-skinned Aboriginal children from their families. When a new policeman arrives in town, determined to enforce the law, Odette must risk everything to save Sissy and protect everything she loves. In The White Girl, Miles-Franklin-shortlisted author Tony Birch shines a spotlight on the 1960s and the devastating government policy of taking Indigenous children from their families.
Leah Purcell's play caused a sensation on performance and won the NSW Premier's Prize Book of the Year and now she is expanding that play and a film script to write a novel that while still 'Tarantino meets Deadwood' is also so much more. In the titular character The Drover's Wife, Purcell has created a figure who is as resonant and significant as Ned Kelly. Lawson's original short story is reimagined vividly to portray the drover's heroic wife as a righteous avenger - on behalf of herself, her children and her race - in a savage male world. Challenging responses to family violence and black white relations. A taut thriller of our pioneering past, The Drover's Wife is full of fury, power, family love and intimate friendships. And has a black sting to the tail, reaching from our nation's settled infancy into our complicated present.