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Officer Rhea's autobiographical volume is the origin of the TV series Heartbeat. Policeman Nick Rhea has been posted to the country with his wife Mary and their three small children. They move into the police house, high on a ridge overlooking the moors. It sits on the edge of the village of Aidensfield. In the beautiful North Yorkshire countryside of the 1960s, Constable Nick's roles are as varied as the eccentric villagers. He handles every encounter with his characteristic humour, humanity and professionalism. His investigations include the case of a clever pony who keeps escaping, a woman running through town naked and a pack of Canadian timber wolves hanging out in a bus shelter. He soon gets to know all the characters on his beat, from his superior officer Sergeant Blaketon to the ever-resourceful Claude Jeremiah Greengrass and his lurcher Alfred; Aud George, who informs the village of local deaths by using his own coded system; the Annual Coursing Meeting and village greyhound racing. There are mischevious mutts: Rufus, who loves dustbins and Emperor the Alsatian whose favourite lavatory is Stumpy Syke's flower beds. There is local femme fatale Mrs Dulcimer, who likes policemen to inspect her credentials, the dotty Mrs Fraser and the lady who complains when the policeman parks his car outside other ladies' houses. A fascinating and hilarious real life story of police work in a small English village. -
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. -
Michael Balfour investigates strange stories from the country’s moors, forests, rivers, holy wells and lochs - as well as the old legends and dark secrets of palaces, castles and cathedrals. Roaming a land where the past is mirrored in the present, he explores standing stones, mermaid beaches and magic springs; seeks out new theories about Celtic and Pictish stones, carvings and tombs; and finds monsters, ghouls and ancient cures. Not forgotten are the great historical figures who throng the pages, each making a unique contribution to Mysterious Scotland. Lavishly illustrated with colour and black and white photographs. -
Bill Bryson has the rare knack of being out of his depth wherever he goes - even (perhaps especially) in the land of his birth. This became all too apparent when, after nearly two decades in England, the world's best-loved travel writer upped sticks with Mrs Bryson, little Jimmy et al, and returned to live in the country he had left as a youth. Of course there were things Bryson missed about Blighty - the Open University, Boxing Day, Branston pickle, and irony, to name a few. But any sense of loss was countered by the joy of rediscovering some of the forgotten treasures of his childhood: the glories of a New England autumn; the pleasingly comical sight of oneself in shorts, and motel rooms where you can generally count on being awakened in the night by a piercing shriek and the sound of a female voice pleading, "Put the gun down, Vinnie, I'll do anything you say." When an old friend asked him to write a weekly dispatch from New Hampshire for the Mail on Sunday's Night & Day magazine, Bill firmly turned him down. So firm was he, in fact, that gathered here is eighteen months' worth of his popular columns about that strangest of phenomena - the American way of life. Whether discussing the dazzling efficiency of the garbage disposal unit, the exoticism of having your groceries bagged for you, the jaw-slackening direness of American TVV or the smug pleasure of being able to eat beef without having to wonder if when you rise from the table you will walk sideways into the wall, Bill Bryson brings his inimitable brand of bemused wit to bear on the world's richest and craziest country. -
This warm , frank and hilarious account of Margaret Powell's mother is a vivid account of Victorian and Edwardian working class life, recalled by a woman who never lost her humourous approach to the problems of survival. It was a recognised thing that the Germans spent all their free time raping. When I said to my father, 'It would take a very intrepid German that would attempt to get in a clinch with our Mum,' he was far from amused... -
Complete dagg John 'Nobby' Clarke (1948-2017) claimed a PhD in Cattle and held important positions with Harrods, Selfridges and Easibind; was sacked by ABC Radio and worked for various defunct newspapers; he enjoyed such recreations as reading theological works and dog trials. His address was care of the people next door. (Or just pop it inside the door of fuse box for Friday collection.) He really was the complete dagg. Chapters include: Australia - A User's Guide; Celebrity Interviews - luminaries include the late Bob Hawke, Prince Charles and Meryl Streep; Farnarkeling; The Resolution of Conflict; Golf (extensively covered...) This Week On ABC Television; Australiaform; Australia And How To Repair It (with a section on Troubleshooting); Very Worrying Developments. -
Once it was the wandering 'swaggie' tramping the bush tracks, who learnt the most about the unusual places and people of Australia. Now it's done in a specially equipped vehicle by Jeff Carter and his wife, who are on the lookout for the off-beat characters, incidents and features. He met the late Sir Donald Campbell, streaking across the Lake Eyre in the Bluebird and Charley King, travelling the outback in a tiny caravan pulled by a donkey team. They saw cattle musters, opal gouging, charcoal burning, limpet-eating star fish and man-eating leeches. They travelled from the mountains of the south to the deserts of the north and everywhere saw something new and strange. Illustrated with many black and white photographs. -
The Antarctic tragedy of Captain Oates. On March 17, 1912, he crawled from a tent to his death in blizzard conditions of -40 degrees Celsius. He had always been an outsider on Scott's Polar expedition. He died on his 32nd birthday, unaware that his daughter had been born. This is the first major biography of Lawrence Edward Grace "Titus" Oates, who became a dashing cavalry officer and hero in the Boer War, a successful jockey and, having paid £1,000 to join Scott's doomed South Pole expedition, became a national hero for sacrificing himself to save his comrades. Fresh analysis is offered of his military career, both as hero in the Boer War, where he was denied a VC, and later in Ireland. This book tells of his early life and school days; and the role of his austere mother who exerted a powerful influence during his life and who continued to control her son long after his death: on her deathbed she ordered the destruction of his letters and diaries that she had hidden and believed to have been destroyed long since...all of which sheds new light on his possible motives for joining the expedition. -
The late film historian Ted Sennett takes the reader on a trip from the beginning of film to the 1980s. He covers all genres: comedy, musicals, romances, westerns, adventure, war, mystery, horror, sci-fi, crime - even society's outcasts. There is also a section on those films that stand alone and those made from books and plays. With over 100 colour stills and images, this is really one for the serious film history buff. -
Titanic: Anton Gill
$25.00A fascinating look at the making of the Titanic in vivid, colorful detail. A skilled workforce of thousands spent years building the ship in a remarkable feat of design and engineering. From the engine room to the ball room, here is the story of the riveters, engineers, electricians, carpenters, cabinet makers, and artisans who designed, built, and fitted the “ship of dreams.” A companion book to the English television series Titanic: The Mission. Illustrated with archival photographs. -
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. -
Dear M: Jack Pollock
$15.00Or, Letters from a Gentleman of Excess. Until 1983, Jack Pollock was the owner of the Pollock Gallery of Toronto, where he exhibited new Canadian artists. Then, abruptly, he lost both his business and his health. Twenty years of flashy flamboyancy had led to drug addiction, open heart surgery, bankruptcy - and a profound spiritual and psychological malaise. Broken, he retreated to the south of France, expecting to die. Instead, he began to come to terms with himself and his life, confiding his deepest feelings in a torrent of letters to M., a psychiatrist he had consulted briefly before his departure. The letters tell of his everyday life in France, his encounters with David Hockney and other artists, of religion and the power of sexuality: a courageously honest assessment of his life.
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A secular bible history that examines the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalen, Eve, Sarah, Lot’s wife, Potiphar’s wife, Ruth, Delilah, the ‘witch' of Endor as well as Herodias and Jezebel, written in such a way as to throw clarity, insight and understanding of their roles and contributions to the kingdom. -
A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson is one of the first, foremost and most influential figures in Australian literary history. He was a member of the group of writers and artists gathered around the "Sydney Bulletin" in the 1890s; went to the South African War as a newspaper correspondent; he visited China at the time of the Boxer Rebellion; was an ambulance driver in France in WW1; a noted horseman and an authority on racehorses and horse breeding and much more. Illustrated with black and white photographs. -
Skymen: Larry Forrester
$15.00A beautiful commemorative of the heroes of the early days of flight. Those remarkable pioneers - men and women - are honoured in personal stories containing a wealth of fascinating information on their backgrounds, careers and characters. Without them, who knows when Man would have conquered the skies? Among the book's Roll of Honour are Orville and Wilbur Wright; Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier; "Daredevil' Samson, the first man to take off from the deck of a moving ship; Germany's suave, monocled 'Red Baron'; and many other heroes from all over the world. -
Everything You Learnt At School, But Have Since Forgotten...Perplexed by Pythagoras? Undone by famous dates? Can't tell your Magnesium from your Manganese? Then this is the book for you. Divided into classroom subject-themed chapters, The Universal Crammer is packed full of key lessons that easily slip the mind once O-levels and GCSEs become a distant memory. Flex your dormant brain muscles and see how much you can remember from those days of staring at the white board/black board (depending on whether you're from the era of computers or exercise books). The ideal nostalgia present for any know-it-all in the family. Re-discover facts and theories, from geography to history, from maths to English, including: Remember LSD? No, not the illegal drug, but the geological process of long shore drift of course. Then there's osmosis, meiosis, photosynthesis... All those similar sounding biological processes that ring a distant bell. Is carpe diem the limit of your Latin? Declensions, conjugations and those Latin tables you were made to learn. Mean, median and mode...is that someone who's stingy, mediocre, yet stylish? I kicked the ball. A classic S.V.O. sentence. S.V.O? Elementary, my dear - the basics of the linguistic typology: subject; verb; object. Loads of fun for anyone.
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How did Max Krilich get to meet the Killer Rabbit? Why was Andy Gregory glad to get the hell out of Australia? Who was the Man in the Bowler Hat? How did Ronny Gibbs get on Sale of the Century? What was Johnny Raper doing in ladies underwear...and what was the miracle at Lang Park? How did Fatty Vautin save Steve Mortimer's life? What did Freddie Jones say that shocked the PM? And what was Allan Langer doing in the USA with all those big oily men??? The answers to these and many more questions are all here in the most hilarious collection of sporting stories ever assembled in Australia. Cartoons by Scott Rigney. -
Or Why I Don't Steal Towels from Great Hotels Anymore. This is not a travel book, exactly, and it's not a book about hotels. It's a book about obsessions and the need to let our obsessions guide us to discoveries...Travel can be the supreme pleasure in life but only if we undertake an interior journey along with our exterior voyage.Among other topics, Dale covers: Why men want to read maps and women want to ask the way; how to stop a taxi driver from talking to you; where to find the guidebook that suits your personality; the how, what and why of souveniring from Great Hotels; whether you should be in love with your travelling companion; where to go star-spotting for dead celebrities; how to enjoy fake travel and pseudo nostalgia; the best and worst waiters, streets, train dining cars, restaurants and small museums in the world; and why shopping is a waste of good siesta time. With amusing sketches by Matthew Martin.
