Set in the United States of the future, Dr. Joshua Christian's work as a clinical psychologist presents him with a bitter tableau of people spiritually impoverished by too much change: political, climatic, idealogical. His deep compassion and personal magnetism have created a devout following among his patients, but living and working in the backwater of a Connecticut town, he yearns to reach out and help on a larger scale. Dr Judith Carriol, a brilliant senior official from the Department of the Environment is as ambitious and career-oriented as she is Machiavellian. She recognises in Joshua the personification of her desire to influence history. Together the embark on a crusade to regenerate the country's morale by radically changing its peoples' outlook. Judith engineers the plot, Joshua must execute it and on a tour of the winter-devastated country, he turns the tour into a pilgrimage that touches and renews the despairing hearts of the people.
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Told in the form of a diary, this is the story of young Harriet's bid for freedom in the Sydney of the 1960's. She wants to have her own space, live life, learn about men and love - not get married just because everyone expects her to! And who is Mrs Delvecchio Schwarz, who runs the King's Cross boarding house where Harriet takes a room? What is her connection with Harriet? And how does Mrs Delveccvhio Schwarz's silent little girl Flo - 'Angel Puss' - accurately predict the future through crayon drawings?
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Twenty-one year old Harriet shares her room at home with Grandma... and the dreaded chamber pot - what a life! She flies the respectable suburban nest to take a room in Mrs Delvecchio Schwarz's Bohemian boarding house. Mrs Schwarz tells fortunes, and she opens Harriet's eyes to a world of excitement, passion, adventure and men. But Harriet finds that following your heart is not easy and the future isn't as obvious as Mrs Schwarz's crystal ball would suggest. And there is Flo - Mrs Schwarz's beautiful, mute four year old daughter. Harriet loses her heart to little Flo and when tragedy strikes, she fights to ensure Flo's survival - and solves the mystery of a missing family member. Told in the form of a diary and set in Sydney's colourful King's Cross of the 1960s, this is an uputdownable read. -
Antony And Cleopatra: Colleen McCullough
$12.00–$18.00Book VII of Masters Of Rome. Brutus and Cassius are dead at Phillippi, leaving two men to inherit the world: Octavian, young, brilliant and sickly-looking - or Mark Antony, a powerful war-lord in his prime. It seems like no contest. But Cleopatra, mourning the death of Julius Caesar, is determined to attain world power for her son Caesarion. She must choose to seduce either Antony or Octavian and makes Antony her choice. But Antony is first and foremost a Roman and she must first overcome his prejudices. A compelling chronicle of love, hate, defeat and victory as Antony and Cleopatra challenge Octavian for the world. -
A tale of two sets of twins - Edda and Grace, Tufts and Kitty - who battle against the restraints, prohibitions, laws and prejudices of 1920s Australia. The steely Grace yearns for marriage; sophisticated Edda burns to be a doctor; the down-to-earth Tufts wants NEVER to marry; and the too-beautiful Kitty wants a love free from male ownership. -
Caesar: Colleen McCullough
$8.00–$20.00Book V of the Rome series. The leaders of Rome grow ever more frightened and yet more obdurate: Caesar, brilliant and ruthless, must be crushed and sent into exile before he can overthrow the government and set himself up as a dictator. In Gaul, Caesar is engaged in conquest of the fierce and brave Gauls The battles are titanic and evenly matched - yet no Gallic prince has the ambition of Caesar. When Cato and the Senate refuse to give Caesar his due, he crosses the river Rubicon and marches on his country, his army prepared to die for him at his back. But between Caesar and victory stands the ageing Pompey the Great, who must marshal the forces of the Republic and pit himself against the one man he knows cannot be beaten on a field of war. This is the first recorded instance of a modern common fiasco - how impossible it is for generals to wage war while constrained by militarily inept politicians. In the midst of it all, life goes on: Caesar, his women and the personal tragedies which make his life lonelier, yet the Rubicon easier to cross; Pompey and his last two wives, a bitter contrast; Brutus and his cousin Porcia, learning to love; Gaius Cassius, fresh from saving Syria from the Parthians; and the great advocate Cicero, recording history in letters to his friends. -
Book IV of the Rome series. Here is Gaius Julius Caesar's rise to prominence, beginning with his return to Rome in 68 B.C. to make the Forum a battlefield of words, plots, schemes and metaphorical assassination. Today's friend may be tomorrow's foe with political shifts and changes. And Caesar will prove that he is master of this battlefield as well. And his victories are not limited to the Forum. He conquers Rome's noblewomen: Servilia, powerful, vindictive and mother of a youth named Brutus; his mother, his daughter and Rome's revered Vestal Virgins. He is loved, yet to Caesar, love is simply another weapon.
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Book III of Masters of Rome series. Sulla returns from exile and is installed as dictator of Rome. Pompey, designating himself 'Magnus' (the Great) is determined at the ripe age of 22, to leapfrog the accepted path of Roman politics by any means necessary. There is also Spartacus and his doomed slave revolt. Finally, there are Caesar's exploits as a young soldier and advocate, testing and enhancing the talents with which fate destiny has equipped him. Colleen McCullough took the research for her Rome series so seriously that she and her husband were almost flooded out of the house by reference books. She also worked out how to make a toga by factoring in aspects of basic daily Roman life and proved that most Hollywood representations of this garment are wildly inaccurate. -
Book III of the Rome series. Here is the power, mastery and cunning of two enigmatic rulers of Rome: Sulla, returning from exile, and Pompey, who designates himself Magnus - The Great. Behind them both, the young soldier Caesar, who begins to show the expert qualities that will one day culminate in him becoming a leader of ancient Rome. At the heart of the story is the unforgettable Spartacus and the doomed slave rebellion, told as it has never been told before. -
Colleen McCullough was always resistant to the idea of writing an autobiography, believing that books about the self tend to be 'stuffed to pussy's bow with boring bits.' So she left those out and wrote a series of essays, some of which touch on events in her adventurous life. Here are the clues, the philosophy of life and the beliefs that shaped the mind of Australia's most brilliant author: the impulsive, confused, thoughtlessly cruel mother; the miserly absentee father the brother she loved dearly and what Colleen thought about all manner of things including the Crucifixion, Midsomer Murders, William Shakespeare, the journalist who believed cat farts harmed the planet and unelected power. -
It was one of the greatest human experiments undertaken - to populate an unknown land with the criminal, the unloved and the unwanted of English Society. Amid horrendous conditions of brutality, the First Fleet was sent to a place that no European - except Captain Cook - had ever seen and there they were left to live or die on the hostile Australian continent. Richard Morgan - convicted felon and educated, intelligent, resourceful man - finds the will to survive, experience the joy of love and finally make an indelible mark on the new frontier. Meticulously researched and epic. -
Amid conditions of brutality, the First Fleet was sent to a place no European but the legendary Captain Cook had seen. The convicts and their guards were left to live or die on the hostile Australian continent. Richard Morgan - convicted felon, educated and intelligent - finds the will to survive, experience the joys of love and make an indelible mark on the new frontier. A thoroughly researched historical saga.
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1968: America is in turmoil and the leafy Hoplloman suburb of Carew is being terrorised by a series of vicious and systematic rapes. When one victim finally finds the courage to speak out and go to the police, the rapist escalates to murder. For Captain Carmine Delmonico, it seems to be a case with no clues. And it comes as the Holloman Police Department is troubled: a lieutenant is out of his depth, a sergeant is out of control and into this mix comes the beautiful, ruthlessly ambitious new trainee, Helen MacIntosh, daughter of the influential president of Chubb University. s the killer plots, Carmine and his team must use every resource available - including a highly motivated neighbourhood watch - the Gentlemen Walkers...
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1965, Holloman, Connecticut, and someone is preying on the innocent. At a prestigious research centre for neurosciences comfortably called 'The Hug', parts of a body are discovered. Lt. Carmine Delmonico of the Holloman Police learns that a string of horrifying disappearances, each fitting the same modus operandi as the body at The Hug, has been occurring throughout the state. Then another body is found, again linked to The Hug. As Delmonico delves deeper, it seems everyone at The Hug has something to hide but he is determined to solve this case - even though the killer is a monster who leaves no clues and is always two steps ahead. A page turner that will keep you in until the very last page. -
Roden Cutler's list of honours is long and impressive, but it is his sole decoration, the Victoria Cross, that marks him as a hero. Over 800,000 men and women served in the Australian armed forces during the Second World War, but only twenty were awarded the V.C. Here are is the vivid life and times of the young soldier with the dashing good looks, the laconic humour and dislike of pretension who came back from the war determined to continue to support his mother, but, having lost a leg, with no idea how to do so. Yet by the age of 29 he was the Australian High Commissioner to New Zealand and his future diplomatic career would include stints to Ceylon, Egypt during the Suez crisis of 1956, Pakistan and New York. In 1966 he was appointed Governor of New South Wales; during his 15 years in the office he shared with Captain Arthur Phillip and Lachlan Macquarie, he earned his own niche among them as the `people's governor'. Much loved, still remembered as a man equally at home in the company of royalty or trade unionists. His story is embedded in Australian history, and part of it. But it is also the story of a man who pulled himself up by his bootstraps to serve his country with courage and dignity in the face of all obstacles. -
Book I of the Masters of Rome series. On New Tear's Day in 110 B.C., two very different men watch the latest Roman mediocrities assume the coveted mantle of consul. One is Sulla, handsome and debauched son of an impeccably aristocratic house. prevented by penury from claiming his birthright; the other is Marius, a wealthy rustic barred by his low birth from grasping his prophesised destiny - to become the First Man in Rome. But the Goddess Fortune favours them both. They are brought together by war in distant lands to battle the enemies of Rome - and the enemies within Rome - in the quest to become the First Man. A meticulously researched and accurate historical novel. -
Book I of the Masters Of Rome series. On New year's Day in 110 B.C. two very different men watch the latest Roman mediocrities assume the coveted mantle of consul. One is Sulla, handsome and debauched son of an impeccably aristocratic house prevented by penury from claiming his birthright and the other is Marius, a wealthy rustic barred by his low birth from grasping his prophesised destiny - to become the First Man in Rome. But the Goddess Fortune favours them both. They are brought together by war in distant lands to battle the enemies of Rome - and the enemies within Rome - in the quest to become the First Man. A meticulously researched and accurate historical novel. Cover art by Tom Hall. -
Book II of the acclaimed Rome series. Marius, the general who saved Rome from barbarian invasion and became consul an unprecedented six times has fallen into decline. Sulla, his closest associate, has withdrawn himself from the commander's circle in preparation for his own bid for power. As a deadly enmity develops between the two men, Rome must fight its own battle for survival - first against the neighbouring Italian states, then against a barbaric Asian conquerer. -
Book II of the acclaimed Rome series. Marius, the general who saved Rome from barbarian invasion and became consul an unprecedented six times has fallen into decline. Sulla, his closest associate, has withdrawn himself from the commander's circle in preparation for his own bid for power. As a deadly enmity develops between the two men, Rome must fight its own battle for survival - first against the neighbouring Italian states, then against a barbaric Asian conquerer. -
The Independence Of Miss Mary Bennet: Colleen McCullough
$30.00–$45.00Jane and Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice are well-known - but what of their sister Mary, of the staidly religious mind and awful singing voice? Colleen McCullough imagines a life for Mary, twenty years after the close of Jane Austen's novel. Each of Mary's sisters is settled in one way or another; Jane is happily married and the mother of many children; Elizabeth has to cope with unwelcome social pre-eminence; Lydia is still enchanted with military officers; and Kitty is a star of the fashionable London salons. When circumstances free Mary from her family obligations she is fired with zeal by the newspaper letters of the mystery man 'Argus' and she resolves to publish a book about the plight of London's poor - a goal which has her plunging from one predicament to another and ultimately to the surprising identity of 'Argus'. -
The Ladies of Missalonghi: Missy Hurlingford is a poor, plain spinster and she's sick of her life. She's tired of being plain, poor, pitied and most of all, having to wear brown. Then she finds a new friend, Una, whose radical and rebellious ideas begin to work a change in Missy and in the lives of her mother and aunt until they, and the other genteel and poor ladies of the Hurlingford family set out for revenge against the men of the Hurlingford clan who have kept them down and poor. Set in the Blue Mountains in the imaginary town of Byron in the early 1900s. Tim: Mary Horton is content with her comfortable, solitary existence... until she meets Tim - a beautiful young man with the mind of a child; a gentle outcast in a cruel, unbending world. Tim, in his own special and wonder-filled way, illuminates the darkness of Mary's days with his boyish innocence. And he will shatter the lonely, middle-aged spinster's respectable, ordered life with a forbidden promise of a very special love. -
Masters of Rome VI. Caesar is in the prime of his life and the height of his powers. A man of contradictions, he is happily married and at the same time the lover of Cleopatra. He is a great general but wishes to bring an end to Rome's endless civil and external wars. He is respectful of the Republic and is determined not to be worshipped as a god, but his very greatness attracts dangerous envy. -
The Prodigal Son: Colleen McCullough
$10.00–$20.00Holloman, Connecticut, 1962. A very rare and lethal toxin, extracted from the blowfish, is stolen from a laboratory at Chubb University. It kills in minutes and leaves no trace behind - unless a doctor knows what to look for - and worried biochemist Dr. Millie Hunter reports the theft at once to her father, Medical Examiner Dr. Patrick O'Connell. Patrick's cousin, Captain Carmine Delmonico, is therefore quick off the mark when the bodies start to mount up. A sudden death at a dinner party and another at a gala black-tie event seem only to be linked by the poison and Dr. Jim Hunter, Millie's husband and scientist on the brink of greatness. A black man married to a white woman, Dr. Jim has faced scandal and prejudice for most of his life, so what would cause him to risk it all now? Is he being framed for murder, and if so, by whom? Carmine and his team of detectives must navigate the competitive world of academic publishing, fraught with politics and prestige. The stakes are high: a valuable art collection, a large inheritance, old and upstanding local families, a gold-digging wife, jealous relatives and a young couple's future. -
The tale of Helen and Paris, the immortal lovers who doomed two great nations to war. It is told through the eyes of the main characters: the sensuous and self-indulgent Helen; the equally self-indulgent Prince Paris; the subtle, brilliant Odysseus; the noble Hektor; the sad, elderly King Priam; the tormented warrior-prince Achilles and King Agamemnon, who consents to the unspeakable in order to launch his thousand ships incurring the fury of his wife Klytemnestra. Cover art by Sarah Perkins. -
The tale of Helen and Paris, the immortal lovers who doomed two great nations to war. It is told through the eyes of the main characters: the sensuous and self-indulgent Helen; the subtle, brilliant Odysseus; the sad, elderly King Priam; the tormented warrior-prince Achilles and King Agamemnon, who consents to the unspeakable in order to launch his thousand ships. -
The robust and romantic novel of the Cleary family in the early 1900s. Paddy Cleary moves his wife, Fiona, and their seven children to Drogheda, the vast Australian sheep station owned by his autocratic and childless older sister. The central characters are Meggie, the only Cleary daughter, and the one man she truly loves, the stunningly handsome and ambitious priest Ralph de Bricassart. Ralph's course takes him from a remote Outback parish to the halls of the Vatican; and Meggie's heart - except for a brief and miserable marriage - is fixed to Drogheda, but distance does not dim their feelings though it shapes their lives. Paddy and Fiona, both carrying their secrets, and their hard-working sons, together with Meggie and Father Ralph span over half a century - until the only survivor of the third generation, the brilliant actress Justine O'Neill, sets a course of life and love halfway around the world from her roots. -
Set in the latter half of the nineteenth century on the New South Wales goldfields. Alexander Kinross is remembered in his native Scotland as a shiftless apprentice and a Godless rebel. But when he writes to summon his bride, his relatives realise he's made a fortune on the goldfields. His sixteen year old bride is frightened and repelled by him, yet she marries him and is isolated in wild country in a big house with only Chinese servants for company. And she has no idea her husband still has a mistress. Kinross sees no reason not to have both women - he's rich, powerful and has the Midas Touch. But power costs more than even Kinross can pay.