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. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
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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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. -
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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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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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 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!
