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Coronation: Paul Gallico
$10.00June 2, 1953. It's a great day for the Commonwealth - it's the coronation day of the young, beautiful Elizabeth II. Will Clagg, steelworker, his wife Violet, their two children Johnny and Gwinny and Grumbling Granny are determined to see this wondrous event. No matter how long the day, nor the obstacles to be encountered...Each member of the family learns a great deal on this important day, and returns home laden with life-long gifts they never expected. -
South Australian Matilda Jane Evans, writing under the pseudonym Maud Jeanne Franc, published 14 novels between 1859 and 1885 set in South Australia. These domestic, religious and temperance novels represent a significant contribution of literature to the young colony and demonstrated it was possible to live a worthy spiritual life, dispelling the preconcieved idea that all colonials were necessarily rough and degenerate. Women were represented as being particularly influential in the religious and moral life of the community. The 'Golden Gifts' of the title are their talents and the rich earth of the new country. -
A story of a German spy in the Great War. -
David is the art student son of the Minister for Communications. He knows his father has a chance of becoming Prime Minister but he also knows that his father's brother is a homosexual living with a flamboyant young actor. Even a touch of scandal will bring ruin. So it strikes David as odd when his battle to live away from home is successful on condition that he becomes his uncle's lodger. Set in the England of the late 1960's. The author, Martyn Goff, was one of the creators of the Booker Prize and he wrote several novels on the theme of homosexuality at a time when homosexuality in Britain was a criminal offence. -
Or: Twenty Reasons Why Growing Old is Great! Virginia takes the reader on a wacky journey where growing old is not a loss but a gain. If your memory's going, you can forget all the ghastly men you slept with...you can have the fun of comparing all your ailments with other oldies...and you can be a legitimate bore since you're in your 'anecdotage'. Includes fun little verses as well. A really good guide to growing old disgracefully. -
A guide book for those things that could only be found in Australia: Snake Gully's 'Dad and Dave' statues near Gundagai; the famous 'Dog on the Tuckerbox'; The Big Cod at Tocumwal and the Big Yabby at Wentworth; The Big Sapphire near Anakie and much more...and not forgetting the infamous 'Furphy.' This book is definite proof that Australians really are a 'weird mob'. Illustrated with cartoons and colour and black and white photographs. -
Captain Albert Ebbs - M.B.E - expecting to be fired from his job captaining Pole Star company's line freighter the Martin Luther for some unvarnished speaking, is pleasantly surprised to find himself promoted to Captain of the luxury passenger liner Charlemagne. This being a long-held dream since his cadet days, he is confident of handling his duties - after all, all ships float on water, contain machinery and sleep and feed people. It's only the people who differ...and he finds out how very much they do differ! Now he must host cocktail parties, dance with lady passengers, cope with amorous widows, deal with a Chief Officer who's a serial womaniser and a Purser making money on the side by stealing ships supplies - and if all that weren't enough, a lot of unruly children and a crusty British Army officer who claims to know the Chairman of the Board. Subtle and sly British humor. -
Spartacus: Howard Fast
$20.00Spartacus, the third generation slave who was taken from the Nubian gold mines and trained as a gladiator...He planned and led the great slave rebellion of 71 B.C. against the might of Rome. The rebellion was crushed and more than six thousand slaves were crucified as an example to those who would defy the power of Rome. Cover illustration shows an artist's rendition of Kirk Douglas in the role of Spartacus in the all-star film. -
The story of Judah Ben-Hur did not end with the Crucifixion. In its terrible aftermath, Judah joins with the gentle Joseph of Arimathea to bring Christianity to the Romans. Fate intervenes again, and Judah must fight and strive through adventure, heartbreak and danger before he finds peace and love again. The cast of characters include Nero, his incestuous mother Agrippina, the passionate Leah and General Seutonius in the settings of Rome, Ancient Britain and the Mediterranean. https://cosmiccauldronbooks.com.au/p/ben-hur-lew-wallace-2/ -
A collection of not-so-tall stories collected in the course of eighteen years in the rugged outback of the Northern Territory, where distances are measured in pints of water and time is hardly noticed. There's gold diggers, old men some of them, still fishing for their buckets of ore at the bottom of deep shafts; you should never to go see them without a 'calling card' - they come in bottles from the brewery. There are also the stock drovers, whose job it is to drive thousands of cattle across the country for up to a thousand miles or so. These and many various characters, white men, aboriginals, and half castes are the author's neighbours. But even such a bare and primitive area is not immune from the troubles of the world, and, just after Pearl Harbour in 1942, the Japanese brought the war to Darwin. Lockwood was there to write an eye-witness account for his paper. Then in 1954, came the world shaking bombshell of the Petrov story. Once again, the author was on the spot, in Darwin, to broadcast it to the world. These, and many other stories, some historical, some tragic, some amusing, some supernatural, but all of them fascinating - and fair dinkum. Illustrated with black and white photographs. -
An omnibus edition of thirteen Conan tales adapted by Roy Thomas and presented as graphic novels. This volume includes: Cimmeria; The Jewels Of Gwahlur; Beyond The Black River; The Children Of Jebbhel Sag; The Blood Of The Gods; Child Of Sorcery; The Scarlet Citadel; The Flame Knife; The Ghouls Of Yanaidar; The Curse Of The Monolith; The Lair Of The Ice Worm; Black Tears; Hawks Over Shem; The Hyborean Age. Artists: Barry Windsor-Smith; Dick Giordano; John Buscema; Tony Dezuniga; Alfredo Alcala; Ernie Chan; Frank Brunner; Gene Colan; Pablo Marcos; Carmine Infantino and Tim Conrad. Adapted from the stories by Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter and Christy Marx. Front cover art by Earl Norem. Back cover art by Keith Parkinson. -
The irrepressible Wolfe has a satiric 'go' at the pretensions of Bauhaus art, attitudes and architecture. 'Starting from zero', 'bourgeois', the Cubists, Fauvists, Secessionists and every 'ism' comes under the gun, including Post-Modernism. Wolfe follows architectural design from Europe to America where Bauhaus was embraced in earnest and explores, with due irony, the vast contradiction between the bare, spare impersonal and abstract Bauhaus architecture and the exuberant, muscle-flexing populace that it serves. Illustrated with black and white photos
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A fabulous collection of over two dozen of Joyce Grenfell's well-known sketches and song lyrics, including Stately As A Galleon, Shirley's Girlfriend, Thought For Today, At The Laundrette and I'm Going To See You Today. Often cheeky, sometimes sly and satirical, often poking fun at the sacred cows of the English and all have a point to make. -
The son of the chief of Maia Island has taken Ati Manu, a jewelled collar which is their only valuable, to exchange for food for its starving people. Two men follow him through the jungle but he manages to hide the collar in a hollow tree before he is cornered and killed. The Brevitt family take up the search for the valuable collar despite the armed murderers who wait for them in the jungle. They are robbed of vital skin diving equipment and are attacked by sea creatures in their efforts to find Ati Manu and help the natives. Danger stalks the family as they search for the treasure, with plenty of adventures before the hunt ends. Illustrated by Stuart Tresilian. -
Mr Chipping, the new teacher at Brookfield School in 1870, finds that he must be a conventional and firm disciplinarian in the classroom to keep the boys in line. This does not make him exactly popular - but his views broaden and his pedagogical manner breaks down after he meets Katherine, a young woman, while he is on holiday. They marry and Katherine charms the Brookfield teachers, the Headmaster and quickly wins the favour of Brookfield's pupils through her kind good humour. She gives her husband the nickname of 'Chips' to the delight of the boys and she teaches Chips how to have a joke with the boys and to close his eyes to some of their minor misdemeanours. Chips' popularity soon rises and his career at Brookfield is very long - but he sees his 'boys' grow to become fine men who can meet the challenges of the sweeping world changes that occur over his long life. A simple, unforgettable and evergreen story that continues to win hearts today. -
Frederic Slaney Poole (1845-1936), son of Judge Thomas Slaney Poole, stepped off the St. Vincent at Port Adelaide on November 30, 1867 to work at the Poonindie Native Institution, was priested in 1869, and became incumbent of Robe, a vast parish. Before becoming headmaster Christ Church Grammar School, Mount Gambier, he travelled to London and married Rebecca Scott. In 1874 be became incumbent of St John's, Halifax Street, Adelaide. Tall, thin, bearded and a keen sportsman, Poole was a popular preacher, fearless in denouncing commercial and sexual immorality, and with 'the reputation of being a man without cant … who is not above taking an occasional glass of whisky, and who would not express unbounded indignation if asked to participate in a game of billiards or cards'. He was a lecturer in the classics; he conducted a school for choirboys; was chaplain to the Adelaide hospital, gaol and destitute asylum; and was one of South Australia's first clerical Freemasons, helping to establish the Grand Lodge of South Australia in Adelaide in 1884. His descendant Cynthia has told his incredible story of his life, from horseback priest to Canon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Slaney_Poole -
The Falcon: E.V. Timms
$10.00A tale set in the reign of Charles II - kings and princes, cavaliers and courtesans, flashing blades and raking shot from tall ships. There are plots and counter-plots simmering under the glittering mask of court life and all Englishmen see a deadly threat in the ambitions of Louis XIV pf France. First published as Whitehall in 1931. -
A treasury of all things Australian. Chapters include: Popular Sayings, Jests, Rhymes and Anecdotes: Game?! He's as game as Ned Kelly! No more sense than a koala bear, an' not half as good-lookin'. Or: He's as mad as a gum tree full o' galahs! Heroes and Rebels: Ben Hall and Ned Kelly, of course - and Peter Lalor, The Man With The Donkey and Les Darcy; The Yarn-Spinners: Silent Australians, Casual Australians, Bullockies, Shearers, Station Cooks, Swaggies and yet more characters but also including: Soldier Yarns, Bush Directions, Bushmen's Dogs and of course, Dad and Dave; Superstitions and Fallacies: Craig's Dream, Snake-Fallacies, The Town That Lost and more; Place Lore: Place names including - naturally - Fisher's Ghost Creek, Bread and Dripping Valley, The Never-Never and some local anomalies - The Man Who Rode The Bull Through Wagga, the Dog on the Tucker Box; The Man from Snowy River and humorous signs; Australianisms: The Larrikin, the Push, Buckley's Chance, Furphy, Wowsers, Sundowners, Bunyips, Diggers and Drongoes; Perspectives: Contemporary accounts of Convicts and Governors, The Gold Diggings, Squatters and Selectors, Immigrants, Early Trade Unionism and Republicanism and Nationalism. -
There's many favourites here: retellings of Mary Poppins, The Sword In The Stone, Alice in Wonderland Meets The White Rabbit, 101 Dalmations, Peter Pan, The Adventures of Robin Hood...and there's other lands to explore: Goliath II, Beside The Sea; An Island Apart; The Blue Men; The People Of The Reindeer; Scotland's Crown;The River Highway Of Central Europe; The People Of The Mountains; The Swiss Family Robinson; Bambi; Big Red and Zorro. With colour illustrations from Disney's classic animated films and colour stills from 'live' films and documentaries. -
Tony: Patrick Dennis
$25.00Tony makes an impression wherever he goes - he knows all the right people, wears all the right clothes, is seen in all the right places and is always in the society columns. Yet there are some odd stories also circulating...a messy divorce case...blackmail and Mob involvement...a very peculiar wedding...He's a rogue, a rascal and a reprobate. Patrick Dennis tells a good story and has a sly dig at society pretensions and the cult of so-called celebrity at the same time. -
Meet Nigel Molesworth and his 'grate frend' Peason, veteran pupils at St. Kustards School for Boys. Between them they cover all aspects of boarding school life: Masters At a Glance, Kanes I Have Known; Skool Prospectus; How to Torture Parents and other survival skills. This volume 'contanes the full lowdown on skools, swots, sneeks, cads, prigs, bulies, headmasters, criket, foopball, dirty roters, funks, parents, masters, wizard wheezes, weeds, aple pie beds and various other chizzes...' (That's Nigel's and Pearson's spelling, by the way - not mine...) Written specifically as a 'guide to school life for tiny pupils and their parents' From the creators of St. Trinians and with hilarious illustrations by Ronald Searle. -
Cop This Lot: Nino Culotta: Book II of They're A Weird Mob. Nino, now an Australian with the help of his mates and Kay, his missus, has a chance to get a few laughs at the expense of workmates Joe and Dennis as they accompany him on a trip to Italy to visit Nino's parents. Joe and Dennis have never left Sydney and the plan is to go by 'plane and cargo ship then buy a cheap car in Germany to drive to Italy. At the Culotta family villa, Nino's father, a crusty and misbehaving patriarch who loves to conduct local feuds, is only concerned that Nino and Kay have not been 'properly' married by an Italian priest. Nino's mother is worried that the children will be eaten by kangaroos. By the time they return to Sydney, Joe and Dennis have learnt a smattering of several European languages and despite their working-class 'Ocker' background, have acquired a veneer of European sophistication, preferring wine to beer and Italian suits to Jack Howe singlets - a veneer, of course, that doesn't last too long! Illustrated by 'Wep'. There Was A Kid: John O'Grady: Author John O'Grady's (Nino Culotta) father, with no practical experience and very little money, threw up city life and became a farmer - he bought his land, worked hard, applied the latest scientific methods - and went broke. Yet O'Grady has wonderful memories of growing up on the farm near Tamworth and recounts them all here with his usual wry humour. Illustrated by Collinridge Rivett. -
For decades, we’ve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "F**k positivity," Mark Manson says. "Let’s be honest, shit is f**ked and we have to live with it." Manson doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is - a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth. He makes the argument, backed both by academic research and well-timed poop jokes, that improving our lives hinges not on our ability to turn lemons into lemonade, but on learning to stomach lemons better. Human beings are flawed and limited - "Not everybody can be extraordinary, there are winners and losers in society, and some of it is not fair or your fault." Manson advises us to get to know our limitations and accept them. Once we embrace our fears, faults, and uncertainties, once we stop running and avoiding and start confronting painful truths, we can begin to find the courage, perseverance, honesty, responsibility, curiosity, and forgiveness we seek. There are only so many things we can give a f**k about so we need to figure out which ones really matter, says Manson. While money is nice, caring about what you do with your life is better, because true wealth is about experience. -
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In the reign of James II, rejected love turns the exquisite, soulful Anthony Armadale into the grim, misogynistic outlaw Captain Midnight, the terror of the wealthy autocrats who consider themselves above the law. Encouraging him in his daring interventions between tyranny and and its victims, the little parson Aeneas Wade never guesses his identity. But the lovely Lady Clarissa Fane sees through the bitterness to the true man. This was Farnol's last book, finished in rough form before his death and edited for publication by his widow, Mrs. Phyllis Farnol.
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Mary and Tony's parents do not take them to the seaside as usual for their holiday. Instead, they are going to have their holiday at Fallow Farm where they'll learn about animals both tame and wild. This would not be a story with enough sophistication for modern children, but the illustrations alone make this a very worthwhile book. -
Our story open thus: In the first quarter of the thirteenth century, the evil doings of King John were yet fresh in the minds of men all over England, and the indirect consequences of his evil deeds were still acutely felt, and nowhere more than in Bedfordshire, where the scene of our story is laid. The county itself has much altered in appearance since that period. Great woods, intersected by broad, soft green lanes, overran its northern portion. Traces of these woods and roads still survive in Puddington Hayes and Wymington Hayes, and the great broad "forty-foot." South of this wild wooded upland, one natural feature of Bedfordshire remains unchanged. Then, as now, the Great Ouse took its winding, sluggish course from southwest to north-east across the county, twisting strangely, and in many places turning back upon itself as though loath to leave Bedfordshire. Some fifteen miles from point to point would have taken it straight through the heart of the little county, whereas its total course therein is more like fifty. One poetic fancy likens the wandering stream to a lover lingering with his mistress...
