Biography & memoir 2016

Hardback

Stroke of Genius

Gideon Haigh

Australia’s favourite cricket writer on how one player - and his photograph - changed a sport and a nation.

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Paperback

Reckless Daughter: A Joni Mitchell Anthology

Barney Hoskyns

An anthology of the most incisive commentary on the extraordinary career of Joni Mitchell.

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Paperback

D.A.A.S.: Their Part in My Downfall

Paul Livingstone

The inside story of The Doug Anthony All Stars then and now. The no-holds-barred true story behind how the bad boys of Australian comedy reunited - weaker, sicker, funnier, older…but…

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Paperback

Tove Jansson: Work and Love

Dr Tuula Karjalainen

The definitive biography of one of the most unique and beloved children’s authors of the 20th century, the creator of the Moomins. Tove Jansson (1914-2001) led a long, colourful and…

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Paperback

The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion

Tracy Daugherty

In The Last Love Song, Tracy Daugherty, the critically acclaimed author of Hiding Man (a New Yorker and New York Times Notable book) and Just One Catch, delves deep into…

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Paperback

The Newsman: 60 Years of Television

Mal Walden

Memoirs of one of Australia’s most respected and longest-serving TV news presenters, offering exclusive behind-the-scenes insights into sixty years of news headlines.

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Paperback

Blood Mystic

George Gittoes

The illustrated autobiography of Australian peace warrior and artist George Gittoes.

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Paperback

Not All Superheroes Wear Capes

Quentin Kenihan

Quentin Kenihan is living proof that superheroes don’t need capes, just the right attitude. FOREWORD BY RAY MARTIN

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Paperback

Who gave you permission? The memoir of a child sexual-abuse survivor who fought back

Manny Waks

‘Who gave you permission to speak to anybody?’ Rabbi Telsner, the leader of the Yeshivah Centre, thundered during his regular weekly sermon. It was a question directed to Manny Waks’s…

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Hardback

You Must Change Your Life: The Story of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin

Rachel Corbett

The extraordinary story of one of the most fruitful friendships in modern arts and letters.

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Hardback

Cynthia Nolan: A Biography

M.E. McGuire

This biography studies the making of writer and artist’s wife Cynthia Nolan, born Violet Cynthia Reed. She was almost forty when she married Sidney Nolan and consigned her past to…

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Hardback

The Boy Behind the Curtain

Tim Winton

The remarkable true stories of The Boy Behind the Curtain reveal an intimate and rare view of Tim Winton’s imagination at work and play.

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Paperback

A Tear in the Soul

Ms Amanda Webster

An honest and deeply personal story of how a privileged white woman deals with the realisation that the children she grew up with were part of the Stolen Generation. A…

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Paperback

Maggie Smith: A Biography

Michael Coveney

The definitive biography of Maggie Smith, grande dame of stage and screen, and a national treasure; a Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4.

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Paperback

Finding A Way

Graeme Innes

I learned from my family that most things could be achieved - the challenge was finding a way.

Blind from birth, Graeme Innes was blessed. Blessed because he had a…

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Paperback

The Unknown Judith Wright

Georgina Arnott

Judith Wright (19152000) remains a giant figure within Australian art, culture and politics. Her 1946 collection of poetry, The Moving Image

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Hardback

Evatt: A life

John Murphy

John Murphy’s Evatt: A life is a biography of Australian parliamentarian and jurist HV Evatt. Remembered as the first foreign minister to argue for an independent Australian policy in the…

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Paperback

Celeste: The Parisian Courtesan Who Became a Countess and Bestselling Writer

Roland Perry

The true story of the Countess Celeste de Chabrillan is a rich and tempestuous tale of an extraordinary woman. Born in the gutters of Paris in 1824, Celeste made her…

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Paperback

I’m Supposed to Protect You From All This: A Memoir

Nadja Spiegelman

A memoir of mothers and daughters, traced through four generations, from Paris to New York and back again.

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Paperback

Heat: Extreme Adventures at the Highest Temperatures on Earth

Ranulph Fiennes

Synopsis coming soon…….

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All This in 60 Minutes

Nicholas Lee

For more than thirty years Nicholas Lee was a cameraman on 60 Minutes, Australia’s most respected and watched current affairs program, alongside Ray Martin, George Negus, Ian Leslie, Richard Carleton…

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Hardback

Brett Whiteley: Art, Life And The Other Thing

Ashleigh Wilson

The first authorized biography of this iconic twentieth-century artist, illustrated with classic artworks, rare notebook sketches and candid family photos.

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Hardback

The May Beetles: My First Twenty Years

Baba Schwartz

Baba Schwartz’s story began fifteen years before the Holocaust could have been imagined. It is the story of a spirited girl in a warm and loving Jewish family, living a…

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Paperback

The Auctioneer: A memoir of great art, legendary collectors and record-breaking auctions

Simon de Pury,William Stadiem

In this groundbreaking work, the legendary Simon de Pury offers an intimate look at the art world and its most famous collectors.

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Paperback

Not Right In The Head: How one family facing Alzheimers discovered laughter may just be the best medicine

Michelle Wyatt

A light-hearted, heart-warming account of how one family faced Alzheimer’s and how the almost comical events within the secure walls of the nursing home made them realise that humour was…

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Paperback

Wasted: A Story of Alcohol, Grief and a Death in Brisbane

Elspeth Muir

In 2009 Elspeth Muir’s youngest brother finished his last university exam and went out with some mates to get drunk. Later that night he wandered to the Story Bridge. He…

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Paperback

In Order To Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom

Yeonmi Park

Yeonmi Park was not dreaming of freedom when she escaped from North Korea. She didn’t even know what it meant to be free. All she knew was that she was…

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Paperback

Still Life With Teapot

Brigid Lowry,Brigid Lowry

Still Life with Teapot is an essential brew for people who love to make lists, for people who love to write and for people who love to read about writing.

…

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Paperback

Chasing Asylum

Eva Orner

Filmmaker Eva Orner takes us on a personal, gripping and compelling journey to show us how she came to make her documentary about Australia’s asylum seeker policies.

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Paperback

Avalanche

Julia Leigh

At the age of 38 acclaimed novelist Julia Leigh made her first visit to the IVF clinic, full of hope. So started a long and costly journey of nightly injections…

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Paperback

Pictures From My Memory: My Story as a Ngaatjatjarra Woman

Lizzie Marrkilyi Ellis

I want our past to be recorded for future generations to read and know and understand how life was for us desert Aboriginal people and how we live our lives…

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The Fighter: A True Story

Arnold Zable

Henry Nissen was a champion boxer, the boy from Amess Street in working-class Carlton who fought his way up to beat some of the world’s best in the 1970s. Now…

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Paperback

Whole Wild World: A Memoir

Tom Dusevic

In this exuberant and compelling memoir of family and childhood, readers will be swept away by Tom Dusevic’s verve, warmth and honesty. Suburban Sydney in the 1970s is an adventure…

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Paperback

How (Not) To Start an Orphanage

Tara Winkler

Tara Winkler first arrived in Cambodia in 2005 and was taken to visit a small orphanage in Battambang. The children were living in extreme poverty, which had a huge impact…

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Of Ashes and Rivers That Run to the Sea

Marie Munkara

Heartbreaking, darkly funny and deeply moving, Of Ashes and Rivers that Run to the Sea is a fearless account of being a young woman caught between two worlds.

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Hegel’s Owl: The Life Of Bernard Smith

Sheridan Palmer

Bernard Smith began life as a ward of the State; he would go on to become the father of Australian art history. In 2008, Smith invited writer and art historian…

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Paperback

Life As I Know It

Michelle Payne,John Harms

Michelle Payne rode into history as the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup. She and her 100-to-1 local horse Prince of Penzance took the international racing world by…

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Paperback

How I Met Your Father

Arminah Hart

Born in London to an Australian mother and West Indian father, Aminah Hart was brought up in Melbourne by her gutsy single mum, Helen, and devoted grandparents. Despite their loving…

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Paperback

After Before Time

Robbi Neal

Stories of life from a remote Aboriginal community that sing with vivid and simple life, truth and power. At the end of 2008, Robbi Neal and her family travelled to…

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Paperback

The Bauhinia Tree: The Life of Kankawa Olive Knight

Yuwali

The memoir of Olive Knight (Kankawa Nagarra), a Wangkajungka woman who has led the most extraordinary life.

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Paperback

On the Move: A Life

Oliver Sacks

An impassioned, tender and joyous memoir by the author of Musicophilia and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.

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The Beautiful Struggle: A Memoir

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Coates is the essential chronicler of black America, and his first memoir is a small and beautiful epic of growing up in 1980s Baltimore

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Paperback

My Fight Your Fight: The Official Ronda Rousey autobiography

Ronda Rousey

Reveals how we can all be at our best, even on our worst days, and how we can turn our limitations into opportunities. This book enables you to face your…

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Raising Ryland: Our Story of Parenting a Transgender Child with No Strings Attached

Hillary Whittington

A moving story - which has already touched more than seven million through a viral video created by the Whittington family - Raising Ryland is a mother’s first-hand account as…

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Road Series

Hugo Race

In the spirit of Patti Smith's M Train , Road Series is both love story and elegy. Renowned musician Hugo Race's evocations of Melbourne, Sydney, the USA, Europe and Mali…

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Hardback

Mick: A Life of Randolph Stow

Suzanne Falkiner

Randolph Stow was one of the great Australian writers of his generation. His novel To the Islands -

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The Passion of Mademoiselle S.: Letters to a Lover

Mademoiselle S, identified here only as Simone, was a well-educated and cultured lady living in Paris at the height of the glamorous roaring twenties. This title opens a window into…

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Paperback

The Shock of Recognition: The books and music that have inspired me

Barry Jones

In a long and generously lived life, Barry Jones has been on an endless quest to share the extraordinary and the beautiful, to encourage the pursuit of an abundant life…

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Biography & memoir 2016

Stroke of Genius

Reckless Daughter: A Joni Mitchell Anthology

D.A.A.S.: Their Part in My Downfall

Tove Jansson: Work and Love

The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion

The Newsman: 60 Years of Television

Blood Mystic

Not All Superheroes Wear Capes

Who gave you permission? The memoir of a child sexual-abuse survivor who fought back

You Must Change Your Life: The Story of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin

Cynthia Nolan: A Biography

The Boy Behind the Curtain

A Tear in the Soul

Maggie Smith: A Biography

Finding A Way

The Unknown Judith Wright

Evatt: A life

Celeste: The Parisian Courtesan Who Became a Countess and Bestselling Writer

I’m Supposed to Protect You From All This: A Memoir

Heat: Extreme Adventures at the Highest Temperatures on Earth

All This in 60 Minutes

Brett Whiteley: Art, Life And The Other Thing

The May Beetles: My First Twenty Years

The Auctioneer: A memoir of great art, legendary collectors and record-breaking auctions

Not Right In The Head: How one family facing Alzheimers discovered laughter may just be the best medicine

Wasted: A Story of Alcohol, Grief and a Death in Brisbane

In Order To Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom

Still Life With Teapot

Chasing Asylum

Avalanche

Pictures From My Memory: My Story as a Ngaatjatjarra Woman

The Fighter: A True Story

Whole Wild World: A Memoir

How (Not) To Start an Orphanage

Of Ashes and Rivers That Run to the Sea

Hegel’s Owl: The Life Of Bernard Smith

Life As I Know It

How I Met Your Father

After Before Time

The Bauhinia Tree: The Life of Kankawa Olive Knight

On the Move: A Life

The Beautiful Struggle: A Memoir

My Fight Your Fight: The Official Ronda Rousey autobiography

Raising Ryland: Our Story of Parenting a Transgender Child with No Strings Attached

Road Series

Mick: A Life of Randolph Stow

The Passion of Mademoiselle S.: Letters to a Lover

The Shock of Recognition: The books and music that have inspired me