At the age of six, Kerry McGinnis lost her mother. Her father, left with four young children to raise, gathered up his family and left the city to go doving. For the next fifteen years, the McGinnis clan traveled the continent, droving, horse breaking and living off the land. Kerry grew up in the harsh outback, and the animals that inhabit the land became her closest friends. With the memory of her absent mother ever present, Kerry begins her difficult journey into young womanhood. https://cosmiccauldronbooks.com.au/p/heart-country-kerry-mcginnis/
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Amanda Barrie was a star of the English stage, screen and the occasional Carry On film. She was believed to be a slow learner for years as she could not read, so she would have a friend repeat her lines over and over to her until she was word perfect and completely cued-in! She was finally diagnosed with dyslexia. Here she recounts anecdotes from her packed professional life and talks frankly and without self-pity about her disrupted childhood, disastrous schooldays and her relationships with both men and women, including remarkable threesomes with her husband Robin Hunter. An ideal piece for any Carry On fan. Illustrated with black and white and colour photographs.
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An erudite guide to twelve of the most famous sites of myth and legend: Atlantis; Pyramid Hill; Stonehenge; Troy; the Queen of Sheba; King Solomon's Mines; Tintagel and the Round Table; Angkor; Tikal and the Feathered Elephants; Machu Piccu; Nan Matol and Rapa Nui. Each site is described, factual and legendary history is reviewed and theories and controversy examined. Illustrated with black and white photographs. -
Mayada was born into a powerful Iraqi family. When Saddam Hussein and his Ba'ath party seized power, the devastation on her life made her a divorced mother of two alone in Baghdad, earning a meagre living printing brochures - until one morning, in 1999, she was arrested by Saddam's Secret Police and taken to the notorious Baladiyat Prison, accused of producing anti-government propaganda. She and seventeen other women were imprisoned, tortured without trial and threatened with execution. Illustrated with black and white photographs. -
The life and times of Billy Connolly. Billy was a battered and neglected child and he turned himself into the classroom clown as a way of survival. As an adult he built on that early experience, his provocative and outrageous brand of humour making him one of the best loved comedians of his generation. On the way up, Connolly has collided with trendies, booze, women, the press, the Royals and even Fyffes bananas. Although he now enjoys that status of a comic institution, Glasgow pundits accused him of 'selling out' and forgetting his roots amid the big houses, smart cars, friendships with royalty and Hollywood. Illustrated with black and white photographs. -
From the author of I Can Jump Puddles. It's time to visit Alan Marshall's Australia: sitting on the sliprail exchanging yarns, driving a buggy down long dusty trails. And meet such wonderful characters as Lance Skuthorpe, who tethered a bull in Bourke Street and offered five quid to anyone who could ride him for half a minute and Binjarrpooma, the terror of Arnhem Land. Make a visit to an Australia that is now gone. -
Previews of the coming space age...The universe is full of voices, calling from star to star in myriad tongues. One day we shall join that cosmic conversation, though it may be ages before we cross the mega-mega-miles sundering us from our equals, and our masters. This is Clarke's log of a voyage which has only just begun - Man's odyssey from Earth, his first home, among the planets, to the stars, and across the universe. There are also plenty of snippets of his life slipped into the essays. -
The word freak can easily conjure up the image of a squalid Victorian side show exhibit; yet behind the peep-show curtains, the medical textbooks and screaming headlines, these are people who were thrust into a prying, probing limelight because they were different. In this volume: John Merrick, the Elephant Man; Tony Albarran, the Elephant Boy; Maurice Tillet; David Lopez, the 'Devil Boy'; Alice, The Faceless Child; Helen Keller, who possessed the ability of 'eyeless sight'; Matthew Manning, who progressed from bending cutlery and automatic writing to psychic healing; Greta and Freda Chaplin, who spent 20 years in pursuit of the love of a lorry driver; Louise, the Four Legged Woman; Siamese twins Daisy and Violet Hilton, who married and lived with their husbands successfully, as well as featuring in Tod Browning's famous film Freaks; Norman Green, the Human Mole who lived beneath his family's home for eight years unbeknownst to all except his wife; wild children and many more. Black and white photographs. -
From the pacific to the belligerent, the warrior queens include Catherine the Great, Elizabeth I, Isabella of Spain, the Rani of Jhansi and the formidable Queen Jinga of Angola - all women who have ruled and led in war and who have wrested power from their male adversaries. Taking Boadicea as the definitive example, Fraser's champions from other ages make an awesome assembly. If Boadicea's apocryphal chariot has ensured her a place in history, then what myths surround the others? Illustrated with black and white photographs. -
In Ballad of a Thin Man in 1965, Bob Dylan launched an attack on the myopic critic of culture: "Something is happening here/But you don't know what it is/Do you, Mr. Jones?' In this collection of essays, poets and professors explore different aspects of Dylan's works - his impact on their own intellectual and artistic lives as well as his wider influence. Contributors include Mark Ford, poet; Lavinia Greenlaw, poet; Aidan Day, Professor of British Literature and Culture, University of Aarhus, Denmark; Daniel Karlin, Professor of English, University College, London and many other luminaries from the academic world. -
Cats and dogs are both domestic pets, but cats are infinitely more mysterious. What do they want? What are they thinking? How do they see us? This is all about house cats and their wild siblings, big and small - and the bonds they form with each other and with us. Beautiful illustrations throughout by Jared Taylor Williams
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Lydia Laube, an outspoken Australian nurse, went to work in Saudi Arabia, a society that does not allow women to drive, vote, or speak to a man alone. Wearing head to toe coverings in stifling heat, and fighting administrative apathy, Lydia kept her sanity and got her passport back. Her battle against the odds is surprisingly hilarious. Some rather mixed reviews on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1236221.Behind_the_Veil?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_29 -
When John Baker died of cancer, many of his friends in the small Yorkshire village of Cracoe were devastated. During his illness, Tricia had joked with him about creating an alternative W.I. calendar - she and his wife Angela were members - but she had no notion of the events she would set in motion. Expecting only local interest, the ladies were stunned by the media frenzy when the calendar was launched in 1999. Over the next two years, the calendar girls found themselves in newspapers, on television, chosen as Women of the Year and touring America. They raised £500,000 for leukaemia research. This is NOT a film novelisation - this is the true story of the highs, lows, funny moments and sad ones too. 'It's not naked - it's nude!"
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In 1931, Charlie Chaplin's film City Lights turned 20-year-old newcomer Virginia Cherril into the most famous girl in the world. She went on to become the adored first wife who broke Cary Grant's heart when she left him; she turned down the very eligible Maharajah of Jaipur to befriend his Indian wife; and in the 1940s she became the Countess of Jersey. All that eluded her was love. And when she found it, she gave up everything she had to marry a handsome, Polish flying ace whose dream it was to become a cowboy. Illustrated with black and white photographs.
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A profoundly original and thought-provoking book - a critical appraisal of the evolution of science fiction and the part it plays in society today. Intelligent and highly credible, a glimpse of a future in which science fiction has become science fact. An extraordinary blend of memoir, critical analysis of SF, utopian thinking and essays on the nature of dream and the brain, all of which come together brilliantly. Aldiss writes clearly and with conviction and though this book was written in the early 60s, this is taken into account by Aldiss himself. -
Kenneth Williams, star of stage, radio and Carry On, gives us, 'A Year in the Life Of...': in which he has trouble with the installation of a new 'loo, catches a cold, travels to Australia and has a wonderful time, investigates a novelty window washing device and gets into trouble over his interpretation of a recipe for gooseberry cup. Laurence Olivier, playwright Alan Bennett, Bill Kerr, Maggie Smith and even the ubiquitous Maudie 'Fun With A Frankfurter' Fittleworth make appearances, as well as many others. -
The sequel to Below Stairs. From the grand houses of Brighton to imposing London mansions, life as a kitchen maid could be exhausting and demoralising. It’s not just being at the beck and call of the people upstairs, when even the children of the family can treat you like dirt, but having to deal with temperamental cooks, starchy butlers and chauffeurs with a roving eye. Marriage is the only escape, but with one evening off a week Margaret has no time to lose. Between Perce the bus conductor (who brings his mother on dates) and Mr Hailsham the fishmonger (who looks – and smells – a bit like his wares), her initial prospects are hardly the stuff of dreams. But then she meets Albert; a butcher boy-turned-milkman. Could he be the perfect husband? And can she make the perfect wife when, as she soon discovers, years spent serving others don't prepare you for managing your own life? Soon Margaret begins to wonder – how can someone like her ever improve their station? Told with her trademark sharp wit and warmth, Climbing the Stairs is a uniquely observant autobiography of a time when the idea of masters and servants began to lose its sway and of a remarkable woman who grasped the opportunities of this brave new world with both hands. -
The star of stage, screen and Carry On gives us humourous pages from his diary, including his trip to Australia in 1983 (which he enjoyed very much) and his life long friendships with the other members of the Carry On gang. -
A complicated childhood in Australia, a bold move to London, being a woman in a man's world on Not the Nine O'Clock News, becoming Mrs Billy Connolly, motherhood, career changes and then Strictly Come Dancing - told in her own inimitable style, The Varnished Untruth is Pamela Stephenson's own story: a challenging story and one that can only engender respect and admiration. Illustrated with colour and black and white photographs. -
Twas the night before Christmas when a self-described curmudgeon rescues a bedraggled feline from a snowy New York City alley. Thus begins this tale of a man and his cat or, rather, of a cat and his man as told by Amory in The Cat Who Came For Christmas. This is the sequel and Book II of The Compleat Cat. Despite his hard-knock beginnings, Polar Bear is finicky about his newfound fame. Will nine lives be enough for him to answer all his fan mail? This tale of two curmudgeons will tickle the fancy of everyone who has ever been owned by a cat. Cleveland Amory has devoted a tremendous amount of his time and energy to The Fund for Animals. -
The Darwin Awards, for the uninitiated, are given to those who have removed themselves from the human gene pool in a variety of unusual ways. Such as... the guy who playfully pulled a stripper's pastie off with his teeth - then choked to death on it; the two blokes who found conventional fishing a bit slow and decided to liven it up using dynamite; and the missionary who fearlessly forged into the jungle depths with his wife and two daughters to convert a tribe of satan-worshippers and ended up treating them to lunch. (Detectives on that case say the banquet was quite a lively one.) Plus 177 more stories you would think are tall tales, but are actually true. Walt Disney said that the animal kingdom is the wackiest kingdom of them all, but after reading this, we at the Cauldron think he had it wrong!
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The story of four young men from the wrong side of the tracks in New Jersey who came together to form the iconic group Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Their trials and triumphs are accompanied by the hit songs that influenced a generation: Sherry, Big Girls Don't Cry, Walk Like A Man, Dawn, Rag Doll, Bye Bye Baby and more. Also stars Michael Lomenda, Vincent Piazza and Christopher Walken. -
This volume covers the creation myths, the legends of the birth and lives of the Olympians, the Thesus, Oedipus and Heracles cycles, the Argonaut voyage, the tale of Troy and much more in a harmonious narrative. Contains full references from classical sources, making this a valuable book to the scholar as well as the reader, with full commentaries on each myth that explains and interprets the classical version in the light of today's archeological and anthropological knowledge -
In this volume: How To Be An Alien: 'In England, everything is the other way round. On a continental bus approaching a stop the conductor rings the bell if he wants the bus to go on without stopping; in England you ring the bell if you want the bus to stop.' How To Be Inimitable: With chapters on how to be prosperous, how to be class conscious and offers advice on sopping and wine snobbery. How To Be Decadent: 'Having joked for decades about how the English worship the cat, like the ancient Egyptians only more so, I have fallen for the cat myself.' George Mikes (pronounced Mik-esh) studied the British for a long time; here in one volume are his major works, in which he unstintingly offers the fruits of forty years of field research to all aspirant Brits. Having himself been born abroad himself, Mr. Mikes was in the ideal position to counsel others in the same unhappy state - and even Brits born and bred may pick up a few tips from his blend of laconic humour and sharp observation. Illustrated by Nicolas Bentley. -
Ukrainian-born Irène Némirovsky was already a successful writer in the early 1940s and living in Paris. She was also Jewish and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz: a month later she was dead at the age of thirty-nine. She intended Suite Française to be a five-part novel but at the time of her death, she had only completed the first two parts. The handwritten manuscripts were hidden in a suitcase that her daughters would take with them into hiding and eventually into freedom. A Storm In June: In the chaos of the massive 1940 exodus from Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion, several families and individuals are thrown together under circumstances beyond their control. They share nothing but the harsh demands of survival - some try to maintain lives of privilege, others struggle simply to preserve their lives - but soon they will be forced to face physical and emotional displacement and the annihilation of the world they know. Dolce: Life in a German-occupied provincial village becomes increasingly complex and uneasy as the villagers - from aristocrats to shopkeepers to peasants - cope as best they can with the soldiers billeted amongst them. Some choose resistance, others collaboration - and lives are transformed by each and every choice. Irène Némirovsky saw that true nobility and love did exist but often in the most surprising places. -
This is the first book in which Michael Palin has agreed to be interviewed. He talks about his life as a Python and his subsequent work. He lets the reader in on his favourite Python sketch; reveals why he is fascinated with Hemingway; tells which places have affected him the most on his globetrotting journeys and whether or not he was really expecting the Spanish Inquisition. With colour and black and white photographs. -
'Where do you come from? It's one of the most basic human questions of all. But there is another question, which might sound a wee bit similar but is actually very different: What do you come from? And, let me tell you, that question can take you all sorts of strange places...' You can hear him saying it, can't you? Legendary comic and national treasure Billy Connolly returns to his roots, reflecting on his life, his homeland and what it means - then and now - to be Scottish. Full of Billy's distinctive humor, this is no ordinary travel-book; it's a hilarious and heartfelt love letter to the place and the people that made him. With fabulous colour and black and white photos, not only of Billy then and now - but Scotland as it was for Billy and Scotland as it is now.
