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A collection of James' book reviews, performances, speeches about BBC, his selected verses, after dinner speeches and articles about BBC TV from 1987 - 1992. Among these gems are Billy Connolly, jet-lag in Tokyo and Frank Sinatra. -
A stunning biography of Frank Winflied Woolworth and his humble origins. After working in a dry goods store, Frank Woolworth borrowed money from his boss to open what would be the first 5-and-10 cent store in 1879. It was not an overnight success - nothing daunted, he repaid the loan to his boss and tried again. This was a more successful effort and when he wanted to open a second store, he brought his brother Charles Sumner into the business. 'Sum' as he was known, spent time on the shop floor, talking to employees and shoppers to find out what was needed or wanted. By 1904 - a scant 25 years - there were six affiliated chains in the United States and Canada. By 1910, Frank had commissioned the design and construction of a pioneering skyscraper, the Woolworth Building in New York City which was the tallest building in the world until 1930. An extraordinary biography. -
Australia was once a land where even the poorest man could own a horse. And in World War I, the Army decided that horsemen made the best aviators. Thus the Australian Flying Corps took off in frail machines of wood and wire, little more than big box kites. So began the means of conquering the vast Australian distance; but not content with just that, Hinkler, Kingsford-Smith and Larry Hargreave set out to conquer oceans, storms and the vast silent distances of Australia. -
The Australians: Peter Luck
$15.00Australians are a remarkable hybrid and this book is Peter Luck's celebration of the special breed found in our young and extraordinary nation. Looking beyond the image of the typical Aussie being a lean and laconic bushman, as big as the Outback and dry as a drought, there's a different character, one that defies definition. There's still a fair bit of the Aussie psyche in the philosophers, workers and 'lurk merchants' (taxi drivers); there's still some of the Aussie battler in sporting heroes and hustlers alike; and there's still plenty of 'guts' in the bronzed Anzacs. We are a forward-looking country - but our character is moulded by our memories. We cling to our traditions, both those inherited and those which evolved here. Here's Toots, the lady truckie; the Boorowa Debutantes; Sydney taxi drivers and some of their more unusual experiences; the old Diggers who 'did' the Kokoda Trail; Jeff St. John, hard man of Aussie rock; the Shearers; Pro Hart, the unpretentious and unpredictable artist; Eagle, the crime reporter who lives it hard and walks on the edge for a story; and much more. Illustrated with colour and 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. -
A very thorough work which - in this edition - also covers the years since Federation. Contents: The First Visitors; The Penal Settlement; The Colony Expands; The Days of Bourke; The Daughter Colonies; The Coming Of Self-Government; New Zealand In The Early Days; New Zealand 139-1851; The Gold Discoveries And Their Results; Filling In The Map; Constitutional Government; New Zealand Since 1850; Australiasia; Australian Literature: this chapter covers such luminaries as Henry Kendall, Marcus Clarke; A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson, Henry Lawson and Adam Lindsay Gordon, among others. A must for any sincere history buff. With fine colour maps, numerous black and white illustrations and useful margin notations for quick reference. -
An analysis of some of Australia's most famous writers, with excerpts from their novels, to demonstrate and trace the origins of the Australia novel. Included in this volume: Geoffrey Hamlyn, Henry Kingsley; For the Term of His Natural Life, Marcus Clarke; Robbery Under Arms, T.A. Browne; A Marriage Ceremony, Ada Cambridge; On Our Selection, Steele Rudd; Such Is Life, Tom Collins; We Of The Never-Never, Mrs Aeneas Gunn; The Escape Of Sir William Heans, William Hay; Working Bullocks, Katharine Susannah Prichard; Up the Country, 'Brent of Bin Bin'; The Mountfords, Martin Boyd; The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney, Henry Handel Richardson; A House Is Built, M. Barnard Eldershaw; The Passage, Vance Palmer; Man-shy, Frank Dalby Davison; Sun Across the Sky, Eleanor Dark; Mountain Flat, Leonard Mann; The Pea Pickers, Eve Langley. -
Roberta Cowell was the first known British trans woman to undergo sex reassignment surgery. Born Robert Marshall Cowell in 1918, she was a British racing driver and Second World War fighter pilot who was captured by the Germans and imprisoned for five months in Stalag Luft I until the prison was liberated by the Red Army in April 1945. After separating from her wife of seven years in 1948, suffering from depression and flashbacks to the war, consultation sessions with a second Freudian psychiatrist revealed that her unconscious mind was predominantly female. Between 1950 and 1951, Roberta underwent a inguinal orchiectomy and vaginoplasty and in May 1951, was able to have a new birth certificate issued showing her change of name and change of recorded sex. At this time, transsexuality had become closely associated in the public mind with male homosexuality and effeminacy amongst men, both highly taboo subjects. Cowell's story broke ground, disrupting this narrative. Although she remained active in flying and British motor racing up until the 1970s, she found it very difficult to gain employment. Roberta died in October 2011 - only six people attended her funeral and in accordance with her instructions, her death was not publicly reported until two years later. Illustrated with black and white photographs. -
Billy: Pamela Stephenson
$7.00Once in a lifetime, there strides upon the stage someone who can truly be called a legend. Such a person is the inimitable, timeless genius who is Billy Connolly. His effortlessly wicked whimsy has entranced, enthralled – and split the sides of – thousands upon thousands of adoring audiences. And when he isn't doing that…he's turning in award-winning performances on film and television. He's the man who needs no introduction, and yet he is the ultimate enigma. From a troubled and desperately poor childhood in the docklands of Glasgow he is now the intimate of household names the world over. How did this happen, who is the real Billy Connolly? Only one person can answer that question: his wife, Pamela Stephenson. Pamela’s writing combines the very personal with a frank objectivity that makes for a compelling, moving and hugely entertaining biography. This is the real Billy Connolly.
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