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Who'd have thought a Dublin mammy with a cream cardigan and elasticated tan tights could storm British TV screens and leave a nation helpless with laughter? Brendan O'Carroll saw his TV show Mrs. Brown's Boys become a number 1 ratings success. But he had to battle hard for success. The youngest of eleven children, his mother was Maureen O'Carroll, a former nun who went on to become the first woman to be elected to the Irish parliament. Brendan adored his strong, widowed mother - and she later became the inspiration for his indomitable character Agnes Brown. The family endured poverty reminiscent of Angela's Ashes and Brendan saw no option but to leave school at 12 to work. He married young and for decades struggled to make ends meet. Eventually, bankrupt and desperate, Brendan went to see a fortune teller who told him she could see his future achieving worldwide success as a comedian and actor. At first Brendan laughed at the notion, but then he thought of how much his friends loved his gags, and decided to give it a go...A magical story of how a lovable Irishman with a wig and with a wit as caustic as battery acid surprised everyone - most of all himself - by becoming one of the best-loved comedians in the world. It is also a story of hardship, heartbreak and talent - a reminder that sometimes facts can be even more extraordinary than fiction. -
A collections of tales of colonial rogues, scoundrels and bounders. Included in this line-up of villains: A London book-keeper named Pines; Thomas Griffiths Wainewright; Fisher's Ghost; John Boyle O'Reilly; John Knatchbull; William Buckley; Jerome Cornelis and more. -
Covering the coastal regions and parts of the hinterland from Bowen to Cooktown, chapters include: Sugar Country; Bowen To Townsville; "The World" To Ingham; Cattlemen And Chinamen; Up The Reef To Cooktown. -
The Burke and Wills expedition has become an immortal part of Australian history, but to many it remains just that - a lesson learnt in school. There is so much more to the story and this meticulously researched account captures the dramatic and enduring saga. The expedition, the first to cross Australia from south to north, travelled through some of the most inhospitable desert country on the face of the planet and from the beginning, the journey was plagued with tragedies. The bungling, greed and incompetence of some of those associated with the disastrous crossing and subsequent search caused incalculable damage. The success of the expedition is indeed immortal history but the price of its success is measured in courage, sacrifice and human life. From Burke's last message to the world: I hope we shall be done justice by... Cover art: Arrival of Burke, Wills and King at the Deserted Camp at Cooper's Creek, SUnday Evening, 21st April 1861 by Sir John Longstaff 1862 - 1941. -
Antonino is an abandoned child struggling for survival in the dark alleys of Naples. He is one of thousands whose waking hours are spent in petty crime and whose bed is a street grating above a baker's oven. At eight years old, his body is so small, his face so pinched, you would take him for five or six. Yet there is hope, in the shape of a young priest, Mario Borrelli. In a journey of self-transformation and love, Father Borrelli befriends the street children and sets up a support network for them: The House of the Urchins. Morris West spent time in the slums of impoverished postwar Naples. His chilling account of the local street urchins in his international bestseller Children of the Sun drew the world's attention to their plight, and offers a timeless insight into child poverty. West's portrayal of Father Borelli has inspired many others to follow in Borelli's footsteps. -
Here are the stories behind Australia's many, many strange, inappropriate and downright hilarious place names. From Dismal Swamp to Useless Loop, Intercourse Island to Dead Mans Gully, Mount Buggery to Nowhere Else, Australia has some of the strangest, funniest, weirdest and most out-of-place names going - now described and explained in one humorous and fascinating book. Australia's vast spaces and irreverent, larrikin history have given us some of the best place names in the world. Ranging from the less than positive (Linger and Die Hill, NSW), to the indelicate (Scented Knob, WA), the idiotic (Eggs and Bacon Bay, TAS) to the inappropriate and the just plain fascinating, this is a toponymical journey through this nation of weird and wonderful places. -
Fear lives among Everest's mighty ice-fluted faces and howls across its razor-sharp crags. Gnawing at reason and enslaving minds, it has killed many and defeated countless others. But in 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay stared into its dark eye and did not waver. On May 29, they pushed spent bodies and aching lungs past the achievable to pursue the impossible. At a terminal altitude of 29,028 feet, they stood triumphant atop the highest peak in the world. With nimble words and a straightforward style, New Zealand mountaineering legend Hillary recollects the bravery and frustration, the agony and glory that marked his Everest odyssey. -
Still convinced that the only true modern traveller is the business traveller, Peter Biddlecombe takes the reader on another irreverent global tour. He snubs his nose at the 'gimmick tourists', eschews crossing the Sahara naked on a skateboard and carries on doing what he does best - business, all over the world, with a wonderfully diverse range of characters. Power-players in Milan, storm-trooping language police in Toronto, and just general chaos in a mere selection of the obstacles the international businessman must face as he struggles to get to grips with the local way of doing things. But it's all in the name of commerce, and whether he's trapped in a luxury hotel during the riots in Bombay or working his way through a Good Food Guide to Ouagadougou in one of the poorest countries in the world, Peter Biddlecombe usually comes up trumps...not necessarily with the deal he was after, but always with a hilarious tale to tell.
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Sir Alec Guinness (1914 - 2000) makes his observations on Britain, taken from his journal at the tumultuous times of Princess Diana's death, the election of Tony Blair and comments on his quintessentially English country life with Mrs Guinness. A follow up to My Name Escapes Me, this volume covers 1996 - 1998. Sir Alec offers frank and surprising reflections on appearing in Star Wars and hilarious reminiscences of Humphrey Bogart and Noel Coward.
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