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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. -
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. -
Eric Linklater, famous as novelist, playwright and historian was one of Orkney's most distinguished sons and knew the topography and the past and present of Orkney and Shetland as few other people. The author, who died in 1974, wrote about them with both understanding and affection. Orkney and Shetland have a unique place in British history. Indeed the two groups of islands did not become part of Scotland in any sense until the fifteenth century. They still retain that feeling of separation that has long since disappeared from other islands off the Scottish mainland. Both Orkney and Shetland are a delight for the archaeologist (the Stone Age remains are collectively the finest in the United Kingdom), the fisherman, and above all for anyone with a feeling for the remote and unspoilt. Here is landscape, sometimes rugged, sometimes gently undulating, but always hung between sea and sky, peopled with individualists, men of strength and endurance. Linklater saw the island communities as a product of geography and history, not as relics of the past but a society struggling to retain its identity, but at the same time moving with the twentieth century. Illustrated with black and white photographs. -
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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Although he is best remembered for his classic westerns like Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Irish-American director John Ford (1895–1973) made 136 diverse films during his 51-year career, winning Oscars for The Informer, The Grapes of Wrath, The Battle of Midway, and The Quiet Man. A master of psychological manipulation, Ford had a knack for goading brilliant performances out of his actors, albeit often through intimidation and verbal abuse. Dan Ford, John's grandson, draws on the director's personal archives and on intimate reminiscences from his family and friends - including John Wayne, whose acting career Ford had launched - Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, and George O'Brien to produce the most complete and honest portrait ever written of the man and his astonishing output. Pappy was often cantankerous, irascible, and drunk and rarely made time for his family, but few who worked with him could resist his appealing energy.
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