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Take the beauty of Sydney Harbour, add a luxury yacht, some seemingly happy and carefree people, a cat, a corpse and a murderer...Stir in some sunshine, an attractive red-head, Detective-Inspector Trevor Nichols and his friend and assistant Tom Burton...the result is a tense, fast-moving mystery ride. Wonderful retro dust jacket with Kim Novak/ Bell, Book and Candle-style image. -
Larry Adler raised the mouth-organ from children's toy and music-hall turn to big time film and show business. He appeared alongside Eddie Cantor, Fred Astaire, George Gershwin; he played at special performances for President Roosevelt, the King of Sweden and the Prince of Wales. He toured with Jack Benny and Ingrid Bergman during the war. Then came McCarthyism and the destruction of his career. He moved to England and continued into journalism, and was nominated for an Oscar for his film score of Genevieve. Billie Holliday once remarked of his talent: "Man, you don't play that f***ing thing, you SING it!" Autographed by Larry Adler. -
Explosive and controversial, Waterfront exposes, for the first time, the real story behind the bitter 1998 war on the wharves which divided Australians and changed the nature of the workplace forever. This shocking exposè reveals who was behind it and what it means for all Australians. It all began with a 'deep throat' phone call to John Coombs, the head of Australia's most militant union, the Maritime Union of Australia. The mystery caller warned him of a clandestine plot to destroy the union's hold on the waterfront. The controversial stand-off between the Patrick Stevedoring company and the Maritime Union became a battle for the hearts and minds of the average Australian. Veteran Sydney Morning Herald journalists Trinca and Davies covered the waterfront dispute from the very beginning and take us behind the headlines to tell the real story of this real-life political thriller. Illustrated with black and white photographs. A very scarce, autographed first printing; a derogatory reference to Peter Costello caused this issue to be recalled and pulped. -
David Badcock: Plein-air Painter
$120.00The son of New Zealand artist Douglas Badcock, David came to Australia in 1977 with the dream of establishing himself as an Australian landscape painter. His journey began as a commercial artist, learning a skill to rely upon between his early exploration of the the Australian landscape and light. From one such adventure his Flinder's Ranges collection drew the attention to The Elder Fine Art Gallery in Adelaide who exhibited his location paintings for the first time in 1981. By the 1980s his dream of being an Australian landscape painter was completed and he was featured in a televised documentary series Artists of the Far North. This book of his paintings charts his remarkable journey. -
On September 11, 1944, the British submarine Porpoise slipped quietly from Fremantle Harbour, bound for Indonesia. It was carrying the 23 Australian and British members of Operation Rimau who, under the leadership of the remarkable Lieutenant-Colonel Ivan Lyon of the Gordon Highlanders, intended to repeat the successful Jaywick raid of 1943 by blowing up 60 ships in Japanese-occupied Singapore Harbour, 19 days later, the preliminary part of the operation successfully completed, the submarine commander bade farewell to the raiders at Pedjantan Island, promising to return to pick them up in 38 days' time. A handful of Chinese and Malays and the conquering Japanese were the only people ever to see the 23 men again. According to the scant official post-war record, the mission was an utter failure. All of the party were captured or killed - ten of them beheaded in Singapore only five weeks before the Japanese surrender in, it was claimed, a ceremonial execution. The fate of eleven of the others remains officially unknown. After a 31 year search, Major Tom Hall, with the assistance of the author, has overturned the official version and uncovered the truth. Aided by thousands of Japanese and Allied documents and by the first-hand accounts of several Indonesians and Malays, sole witnesses to the events of 1944, they have established the fate of every member of the party and unravelled the story of The Heroes of Rimau - a story that has for 45 years been all but lost, distorted by hearsay and fantasy, by military cover-ups and conspiracy, by official bungling, ineptitude and apathy. This book not only chronicles a feat of extraordinary daring in the face of overwhelming odds - it also exposes the appalling sequence of events which has, until now, resulted in the shameful suppression of the truth about one of the most amazing stories to emerge from World War II. Illustrated with Black and white photographs. -
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The world of Ben Bartholomew...a world of standover gangs and armed terrorists, a world in which a P.I. For hire must carry a gun if he wants to live beyond lunchtime. It is a world of religious fanatics, petty tyrants, spies and nightmares, which explodes with intrigue and danger when a corpse disappears from a sealed tomb. The ultimate locked-room mystery. -
Here is a collection of poems all based on real events, highlighting the spirit of Australians. There is humor, history, mystery; past events and characters that were part of the landscape of Australia and who, sadly, are seen no more. Just some of the titles: Mona Vale Surf Rescue; The Wilga Ghost; Outback Library Man; The Old Camp Oven; Barnado Boy; The Anzacs; Cyclone Tracy and many more. Beautifully illustrated by Jenny Colless. -
Dark Stranger: John Iggulden
$80.00James Duncan and Peter Jirapon, brought together by the search for a missing witness in a rape and murder case, they are totally opposite in age, temperament and race. Duncan is a cynical, high flying publicity man in his middle fifties; Jirapon is a young, intense, idealistic Aboriginal lawyer. In the course of the search they are swept out to sea in an open boat of the coast of Northern Australia and must find a comradeship in order to survive. -
This book brings to life superb portraits of great Australian mothers - Elizabeth MacArthur, Caroline Chisholm, Dame Mary Gilmour; the mothers of luminaries Helen Keller, Sir Don Bradman and Sir Winston Churchill; the American mothers who spurred their children to success - Barbara Guggenheim and Abraham Lincoln's TWO mothers; the mothers behind the great Australian retail names: Ann Horden and Belle Gross, mother of Mick Grace, former chairman of Grace Bros as well as creative mums, their famous children and inspirational mums. Signed by the Author, 'Mr. Movies' Bill Collins, Ita Buttrose, Imelda and Bill Roche, the founders of the Nutrimetics empire. -
Hollywood hunk and swash-buckler Stewart Granger tells of his leap to stardom in The Man In Grey and his overnight Hollywood success in King Solomon's Mines. He battled studio bosses, including Howard Hughes, experienced near-fatal accidents in film stunts that he always insisted on doing himself and had very close encounters with wild animals while filming in Africa and India - not to mention the temptation of being thrown together with some of the most beautiful women in the world. This iconic actor tells his story his way -with frankness, modesty and homeliness. Known for heroic sword fighting-roles such as The Prisoner of Zenda and Beau Brummell, Granger says: "I always thought I was big until I played opposite John Wayne in North to Alaska!" -
Marjorie Florence Deasey and her husband Dudley Rawson Deasey were missionaries with the Unevangelised Fields Mission/Asia Pacific Christian Mission. They lived and worked with the Gogodala people at Balimo, Papua New Guinea for over forty years. Marjorie's work included translating and teaching. When Marjorie and Dudley married in 1935, she had no idea of the enormous challenges ahead. With a limited education, she had to learn another language; deal with medical cases on her doorstep; cope with an enrollment of 600 students at her school; evacuate during the ear; survive cyclones and entertain troops. After Dudley died in 1993 – did she quietly retire? No, she decided to learn how to drive, at the age of 82. A fascinating life. Illustrated with black and white photographs.
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Book IV of The Great South Land Saga. The beautiful valley was lonely and remote and lovely Tilly Martin longed to leave it. Only the presence of Everitt Oliver, his flattering words and dark good looks, eased her restless heart. And she intended to have him - on her own terms. But another woman, as wild and untamed as the land, passionately longed for him too. Before their destinies were decided, the valley would know murder, madness, and disgrace...a young girl born to ill-repute would get a new chance at life...and a proud settler would be humbled by the man he despised. -
For the first time since its establishment in 1917, the Imperial War Museum has produced a substantial, fully illustrated volume of largely unpublished material from its almost endless reserve of pictures, posters, postcards, art, photographs, films, pamphlets, books, diaries, letters, and documents that detail the massive British effort to fight and win 'the war to end all wars'. This is the voice of the individual caught up in this cataclysmic conflict: the vivid experiences of the fighting fronts and the home fronts from soldiers, factory workers, nurses at the Front; early pilots, civilians in the Zeppelin raids, the gunners behind the howitzers, prisoners of war, sailors, the bereaves, the wounded, the brave, the bemused and much, much more. Illustrated with colour and black and white photographs and art. -
A 22,000 ton whaling ship steams into a broken plain of white, glimmering ice during the howling fury of an Antarctic gale. Aboard is Duncan Craig, who gave up his clerking job in London to move to South Africa. A promised job turned out to be a dead end; but he is then offered a short contract aboard the whaler. But crew on other ships in the whaling fleet are fighting amongst themselves and the fleet commander, who had a stormy relationship with the boss's son, has vanished under mysterious circumstances. What madness drives the ship forwards, deeper and deeper into the ice until its jagged edges hold her fast? Marooned amidst the pitiless, frozen wastes, the crew of the Southern Cross make a desperate attempt to survive against the odds. -
Southern Women: Lois Battle
$60.00Eunnonia: tough, widowed, loyal and at 83, still a pillar of Savannah society, the matriarch still guiding her brood. Lucille: Nonnie's youngest and prettiest daughter, now an aging Southern belle, ever hungry for male adoration, yet whose secret resentments and unfulfilled yearnings threaten to destroy her charmed life. Cordy: Lucille's restless daughter who had accepted the standards of womanhood with which she was raised; then at 30, and now a mother, she faces a cheating husband she must leave, a career she must build, a self she must find - but will she find it at home, in Savannah? This is not only a story about the bonds of family; it is a story of the struggle for personal freedom; of rebellion and tradition; of reality versus the myths of gentility, kinship, allegiances and love; and the modern issues of marriage, sex and love clashing with the Southern society image of ladies and family. -
Dragonlinks: Paul Collins
$60.00Book I of the Jelindel Chronicles. An all-powerful, enchanted mailshirt from the stars...and six links are missing. An orphan, a streetwise urchin and a swordsman must find the links before the greatest evil known descends upon Qzar. Jelindel dek Mediesar led a charmed life until Lindrak assassins murdered her family. Fleeing to the markets, Jelindel dresses as a boy to avoid detection. Here she teams up with Zimak, a street-wise urchin, and Daretor, a warrior on a quest to destroy an alien artifact. Murder, betrayal and deceit are just some of the hurdles they must face in order to find the missing links from a star-dwellers' mailshirt six powerful links, whose individual powers are nothing compared with that of the complete mailshirt. Cover art by Cathy Larsen. -
I.Q.: Mark Clark
$60.00Book I of I.Q.: The Trilogy. In a future world,m where people can buy and sell I.Q.,two men set out on a quest to find out who they really are. This is the story of a 100, who never gambled; a 160 who has been reformatted and a I.Q. 1000 president who controls their world. -
Laurie Lawrence is a remarkable Australian - a maker of champions, capable of lifting the spirits of those around him to soaring heights. As a swim coach possessing the gift of inspiration he is without peer, and his line-up of champions - Steve Holland, Tracey Wickham, Jon Sieben, Duncan Armstrong, Julie McDonald - bears gold medal testimony to his qualities. But Laurie Lawrence is very many other things too - extrovert, patriot, poet, humorist, singer and, in the 1990s, the most sought-after motivational speaker in Australia. Lawrence of Australia captures the essence of the man through 24 remarkable stories of sport and its champions. In these deeply personal, funny and very often inspiring tales, Lawrence uncovers profound secrets of success which translate to all walks of life. It is a book for everyone - entertaining, revealing and vastly uplifting. -
Maverick: Robert J. Serling
$60.00The story of Robert Six - ex-sailor, ex-truck driver and ex-pilot - the man behind one of America's more dramatic success stories. Six’s career began in the buccaneering days of aviation, when every flight was an adventure - and has continued into the age of jets and supersonic transports. Tough, scrappy and a gambler, Six set out to beat the big airlines at their own game, and made Continental into one of the most profitable and reliable 'big little' airlines in the world. The results are almost a legend in the circles of commercial aviation and American business. A lively view of the history of commercial airlines in America, full of anecdotes and regarded as entertaining. -
For 2000 years, since it pierced the side of Christ, the Spear of Destiny has been invested with amazing occult power. This is the legend and its continuing fulfillment through the decline of the Roman Empire, the Dark Ages and into the twentieth century. It tells the story of the chain of men who possessed the Spear, from Herod the Great to Adolf Hitler and how they sought to change the face of history by wielding its occult powers for good or evil. The Spear of Destiny is identified as the Spear of the Holy Grail mentioned in the sagas of the Dark Ages and shows the Grail to be a uniquely Western path to mind expansion. For the first time the Satanic occult development and faculties of Adolf Hitler are described in authentic and documented detail, demonstrating how he furthered his aims and his conquest of the world by black magic practices. The final chapters describe a Manichean battle of worlds behind the changing scene of modern times. With black and white photographs. -
Poet and author Colleen Burke’s memoir takes the reader into the post World War II decades of the 20th century and a working-class Irish-Catholic background in Bondi, at a time when strict social, religious and family prohibitions were particularly onerous to women. To escape a problematical childhood, Colleen immersed herself in books and stories of lives in worlds far removed from her own. Leaving school at 15, she worked as a shorthand typist in the Public Service as she questioned everything and sought an education, both formal and informal. She explores the stimulating yet confronting era of the Sixties, encountering a broadening political sphere, folk music, poetry and literature which expressed the frustration of the young against injustice. Racism, popular sentiment, American commercialisation, feminism and of course, the Vietnam War. It was during this turbulent times she met her future husband, Declan Affley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declan_Affley. This memoir includes a selection of Colleen’s poems.
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Australian actor and comedian Slim DeGrey (1918 - 2007), known for his roles in They're A Weird Mob, You Can't See Around Corners and many other Australian film and T.V. productions was a member of the A.I.F. Prisoners' Concert Party in the infamous Changi Gaol. There was a funny side; not often and not always, but hilarious and absurd incidents did occur and together with the infamous style of Australian dry humour, helped sustain morale and relieve the drab lives of the P.O.Ws. Littered with fabulous Australianisms and droll sketches, Slim DeGrey definitely found Changi's funny side. -
What do you do with the rest of your life, after you’ve achieved brilliance at an early age? This is the question posed by celebrated journalist Chris Wright to some of the most renowned adventurers, athletes and politicians of the twentieth century. What happens if you are an athlete or gymnast and your career peaks at 14, like Nadia Comaneci, who scored the first perfect 10 in Olympic competition – and the second, and the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh. What is the next challenge for the likes of adventurer Reinhold Messner, when you have climbed all the really tall mountains? Where do you take your career, when you’ve achieved the impossible and walked on the moon? In this far-reaching and illuminating book, Chris Wright travels the globe, talking to Apollo astronauts, record breakers, world leaders and prisoners of war, people whose defining moments came early in their life, and asks a rare but captivating what happened next? Those interviewed in this book are: Don Walsh; the Moonwalkers; Nadia Comaneci; Reinhold Messner; Gloria Gaynor; United 232; Apollo 8; John McCarthy; Ray Wilson; Russ Ewin, The Sandakan Survivor; Chuck Yeager. -
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 -
"If people turn to look at you in the street, you are not well dressed, but either too stiff, too tight, or too fashionable." So said Beau Brummell, the first metrosexual, 200 years before the word was even invented. His name has become synonymous with wit, profligacy, fine tailoring, and fashion. A style pundit, Brummell was responsible for changing forever the way men dress - inventing, in effect, the suit. He cut a dramatic swath through British society, from his early years as a favorite of the Prince of Wales and an arbiter of taste in the Age of Elegance, to his precipitous fall into poverty, incarceration, and madness, creating the blueprint for celebrity crash and burn, falling dramatically out of favor and spending his last years in a hellish asylum. But for nearly two decades, Brummell ruled over the tastes and pursuits of the well heeled and influential - deemed more important than Napoleon and the inspiration for Byron's Don Juan. Through love letters, historical records, and poems, Ian Kelly reveals the man inside the suit, unlocking the scandalous behavior of London's high society while illuminating Brummell's enigmatic life in the colorful, tumultuous West End. A rare rendering of an era filled with excess, scandal, promiscuity, opulence, and luxury, 'Beau Brummell' is the first comprehensive view of an elegant and ultimately tragic figure whose influence continues to this day. -
So, Anyway…..John Cleese
$50.00So, anyway...how did a tall, shy youth from Weston-super-Mare become a self-confessed legend? These things happen. And en route, John Cleese describes his nerve-racking first public appearance at St Peter’s Preparatory School at the age of eight and five-sixths; his endlessly peripatetic home life with parents who seemed incapable of staying in any house for longer than six months; his first experiences in the world of work as a teacher who knew nothing about the subjects he was expected to teach; his hamster-owning days at Cambridge; and his first encounter with the man who would be his writing partner for over two decades, Graham Chapman. And so on to his dizzying ascent via scriptwriting for Peter Sellers, David Frost, Marty Feldman and others to the heights of Monty Python. Punctuated from time to time with John Cleese’s thoughts on topics as diverse as the nature of comedy, the relative merits of cricket and waterskiing, and the importance of knowing the dates of all the kings and queens of England, this is a masterly performance by a former schoolmaster. With fabulous black and white photographs.
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