Florence Broadhurst
Her secret and extraordinary lives
By Helen O'Neil
Florence Broadhurst is known the world over for her flamboyant and glorious wallpaper designs. Her personal life, however, was masked by intruigue and secrecy. Mystery surrounded the aliases she adopted, the true authorship of her designs, and her murder in 1977. This exquisite volume showcases Broadhurst's popular and never-before-published designs, and paints an unforgettable and important portrait of one of Australia's most fascinating women.

Florence Broadhurst: Her secret and extraordinary lives recently won the Best Designed Book of the Year and Best Non-Fiction Book (illustrated) at the 55th Australian Publishers Association Book Design Awards (2007).

RRP $59.95, hardback

Judas Kisses
By Debbie Ritchie & Donna Carson
In April 1994 in a remote NSW town, Donna Carson was bashed, doused in petrol and set alight by her de facto partner. She suffered horrific burns to 65% of her body and spent the next six months in hospital lapsing in and out of consciousness. Throughout, what kept her alive was the thought of her two young sons, Coe and Bodean. While she recuperated, social services stepped in and took them away. Judas Kisses traces Donna's astonishing journey through the darkest days and into the light. It looks at the woman she once was, and the woman she became. It is the true story of what happens when a victim turns survivor and demands to be seen and heard. She wanted the truth. They wouldn't give it to her. When you've been on fire, you don't take no for an answer.

RRP $29.95, paperback

The End of Innocence
By Estelle Blackburn
Broken Lives, Estelle Blackburn's riveting investigation into the life and untold crimes of Eric Edgar Cooke, the last man to hang in Western Australia, revealed new evidence to indicate that two innocent men, John Button and Darryl Beamish, went to jail for one of Cooke's murders. Here, for the first time, Estelle goes behind the scenes and relates how she came to write Broken Lives – the investigative trail, the suspects and the cops involved, the families she befriended. Passionate, inspiring and compelling, The End of Innocence takes the reader on a journey to the heart of our criminal justice system – where good and evil are tightly entwined and truth is sometimes hard to find....

June 2007, RRP $29.95, paperback

How to Set His Thighs On Fire
76 red-hot lessons on life, love, men and (especially) sex
By Kate White
In her seven years as editor-in-chief of the women's bible, Cosmopolitan, Kate White has learned a lot about what women want. From landing a great job to enjoying great sex, White presents 76 lessons on having it all - complete with anecdotes and tips from her own life and the celebrities and experts she’s met. In How to Set His Thighs on Fire, Kate tells women everything they need to know to take on the world. How To Set His Thighs On Fire is hilarious, witty, helpful and serious. It is about being empowered and confident as a woman. A must read.

RRP $29.95, paperback

David Hockney Portraits
With essays by Mark Glazebrook, Marco Livingston and Edmund White
By Sarah Howgate and Barbara Stern Shapiro
David Hockney is one of the most significant artists exploring and pushing the boundaries of figurative art today. He has been engaged with portraiture since his teenage years, when he painted Portrait of My Father (1955), and his self-portraits and his portraits of family, lovers, friends and well-known subjects represent an intimate visual diary of the artist’s life. This authoritative new study examines Hockney’s portraits in all media - painting, drawing, photographs and prints - and is produced in close collaboration with the artist. Together the authors reveal how Hockney’s creative development and concerns about representation can be traced through his portrait work: from his battle with naturalism, to his experimentation with and later rejection of photography, and from his recent camera lucida drawings to his return to painting from life. Featuring over 250 works from the past fifty years, David Hockney Portraits illustrates not only the range of his creative practice but also the circular nature of his artistic pre-occupations.

RRP $90.00, hardback

Moonage Daydream
The life and times of Ziggy Stardust
Written by David Bowie
Photography by Mick Rock
Moonage Daydream is the most complete, detailed exploration of one of rock ‘n’ roll’s greatest creations: Ziggy Stardust. Featuring more than 600 photographs selected from Mick Rock’s vast archive, Moonage Daydream takes the reader from the early English concerts where Ziggy and the Spiders from Mars made their name, to Ziggy’s final swansong, the flamboyant 1980 Floor Show. Alongside Mick Rock’s reflections on these incredible images, David Bowie adds his own thoughts: discussing Ziggy’s origins and giving an unprecedented insight into the stratospheric two-year career of his alter-ego. Mick Rock’s camera caught more of the Ziggy legend than any other and followed Bowie into hotel rooms and dressing rooms, on the road and socialising with musicians and friends including Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Mick Jagger.

RRP $49.95, hardback

Dreams of Hope
By Lily O’Connor
A sequel to her successful first book, Can Lily O’Shea Come Out to Play?, this sparkling memoir is a remarkable personal account of the emigrant lives of one Irish couple amongst the hundreds upon thousands forced to leave their homeland in the 1950s.
The book centres on Lily O’Connor’s married life with Paddy in Dublin, Luton and Australia, and at its heart is the story of a man who always wanted too much and a woman whose resilience saw her coping courageously, often on her own, with a large family and difficult circumstances. Dreams of Hope is a funny, upbeat story of one feisty, indomitable woman’s life in three countries with a man torn between the contentment of family life and the pursuit of ambition and adventure.

RRP $29.95, paperback

The Andrew Gaze Story
A kid, a ball, a dream
By Andrew Gaze
Now in paperback, this book reveals the highs and the lows of a sensational career and an inspiring life. Warm, candid and written with his trademark wit, the Andrew Gaze story is one of triumph and determination; and how in a sport of giants, he stood head and shoulders above the rest.

RRP $24.95, paperback

With The Beatles
By Lewis Lapham
Halfway between the summer of love and the Tet offensive, the Beatles went to India to study with the Maharishi — and Saturday Evening Post reporter Lewis Lapham, now the esteemed editor of Harper's Magazine, was the only journalist allowed inside the ashram. It was the ultimate ‘60s scene: the Beatles, Donovan, Mia Farrow, a stray Beach Boy and other 60's icons gathered along the shores of the Ganges—amidst paisley and incense and flowers and guitars—to meditate at the feet of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The February 1968 gathering received such frenzied, world-wide attention that it is still considered a significant, early encounter between Western pop culture and the mystical East. Meanwhile, Beatles aficionados say that it was the beginning of the end for the fabled rock band. What went on inside the compound has long been the subject of wild speculation and rampant rumor. The Beatles said they wrote some of their greatest songs there... and yet they also came away bitterly disillusioned. In With The Beatles Lewis Lapham finally tells the whole story.

RRP $22.95, paperback

Sidney Myer
A life, a legacy
By Stella Barber
Myer is a household name Australia-wide but little is known about the man behind this retail empire. Sidney Myer migrated to Australia in 1899, largely to escape the persecution he faced as a Jew in Russia. He spent his first five years in Australia as a pedlar in country Victoria before establishing the first Myer store, with his brother Elcon, in Bendigo. Sidney Myer: A life, a legacy tells the story of this Australian identity, drawing on many never previously published records and sources. It depicts a life of courage, conviction, great passion and fulfilment.

RRP $29.95, paperback

On the Road Again
Australians and their cars
By Kevin Norbury
Fast, slick, aerodynamic cars rule the highways today, but the cars of yesteryear had personality. Humbers and Hotchkisses, Cadillacs and Hispano-Suizas, Ballots and Chandlers – through luck or good management, some of these cars have remained in the same family since new. Others have been saved from the scrapheap and brought back to life. But just as interesting as the cars themselves are the people who own them. Travel with Kevin Norbury as he meets cars and their owners, young and old, male and female, each with a story to tell. On the Road Again, the sequel to the bestselling King of the Road, is a fascinating visual and written portrait of 56 Australian and their cars.

RRP $27.95, paperback

Darren Lehmann
Worth the Wait
By Darren Lehmann
One of Australian cricket's biggest names and most entertaining characters, Darren Lehmann talks candidly about his life - friends, enemies, team mates, tragedies, regrets and the incredible highs and lows of an astounding career in cricket - in this refreshingly honest and engaging autobiography. Two World Cup triumphs, a notorious outburst that saw him banned amid a media frenzy, missing the opening matches of the 2003 World Cup, the tragic death of his close friend David Hookes, and countless centuries and now long-overdue recognition as one of the most powerful batsmen in this current Australian side make Darren Lehmann's story an absolutely fascinating one. He has it all: Experience. Talent. Fire. Knowledge. Trust. And plenty of dues.

RRP $35.00, hardback

Chapters & Chances
By Reg Livermore
Widely acknowledged as one of the most significant figures of the Australian theatre in the twentieth century, Livermore has enjoyed a career spanning more than fifty years; in his time on stage, on television and in life, he provides an important link with performers and performances during that evolutionary period. Livermore's journey in the theatre has been phenomenal, and his achievements unique - it is hard to imagine such a career as his being constructed these days. Chapters & Chances is a chronicle and a celebration of a time of extraordinary ferment in Australian arts.

RRP $29.95, paperback

A Test of Will
One man's extraordinary story of survival
By Warren Macdonald
Warren Macdonald, a fit and experienced hiker, set out to make the gruelling climb to the top of Australia's spectacular Mount Bowen. But what had begun as a two-day adventure suddenly turned into a nightmare when MacDonald found himself lying in a creek bed with both his legs pinned by a giant boulder. While his companion made the solitary eight-hour journey to find help, the trapped hiker fought to stay alive. But this was only the beginning. Warren captures the terror and high drama of his hours alone in the wilderness and eloquently portrays details of his life both before and after the accident: his training as an adventure tour guide, and his vow to continue his life in the outdoors even after both his legs are amputated. In 2003, MacDonald became the first doubt above-knee amputee to reach the summit of Africa's tallest peak, Mt Kilimanjaro.

RRP $22.95, paperback

Stages of the Revolution
By Desmond O'Grady
Most Australians owe what they know of the Eureka Stockade to Raffaello Carboni, the Italian chronicler of the uprising, yet they know little about Carboni himself. Variously described as 'quaint' and 'braggart' he has remained an enigma. How many are aware that the high treason charge he faced after Eureka was not his first? That he was naturalised in Victoria? That he associated with the composer Rossini in Rome? In this, the first book-length biography of the exuberant Italian, Desmond O'Grady tracks Carboni from Italy through Germany and England to Ballarat, and then follows him to Calcutta and on to home where he participated in Garibaldi's campaign for a united Italy.

RRP $29.95 paperback

Off the Beaten Track
Three centuries of women travellers
By Dea Birkett
Off the Beaten Track takes us on an exhilarating journey through three centuries of travel, in the company of such women voyagers as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Vita Sackville-West, Isabella Bird and Rebecca West. Not only did women from the West travel to the Americas, Russia and Turkey, Arabia and the Middle East, Africa and South-east Asia, but women from all corners of the globe also visited the West. This book records their experiences and reveals where they travelled, what they looked like, how they described new landscapes and cultures in both words and images, and what they brought back with them.

RRP $49.95, hardback

King of the Road
By Kevin Norbury
This book is as much about people as it is about the cars they own: some rare, some unusual, some amazingly original. All these people have one thing in common: they own a part of automotive history, cars from a bygone era, and they are passionate about them, spending years in some cases looking for original parts to restore them. There's the Richmond man who rebuilds his home just so that he can keep his beloved 1929 Hudson Landau inside the house; the South Melbourne man so smitten with the Citroen Goddess of the 1970s that he keeps a scrapbook of every one he sees advertised; the blind Bendigo mechanic who restores cars in the dark; and the fruit grower who rebuilt the wreck of a TT Ford truck, bought new by his grandfather in 1927. These glimpses into the lives of car afficionados not only offer an interesting slice of automobile history, but they also provide a colourful cross-section of Australians, both past and present.

RRP $24.95, paperback

The Fall & Rise of Derryn Hinch
By Derryn Hinch
The Fall & Rise of Derryn Hinch is the story of a man who had it all, lost it all, and got it together again to be at the top of his profession. He was mentored by Christopher Skase and headed a successful national television current affairs show. Married an Australian sweetheart, Jacki Weaver. Had houses in Hawaii and Australia. But by the mid-1990s, Derryn Hinch was sacked - for the fourteenth time in his career - from his television show and ended the decade doing it tough on the slopes of Mount Macedon. The Toorak mansion, Hawaiian retreats, wife and career were all gone. How Hinch survived this bleak period to come out on top - he is once again ruling the airwaves through his radio show on 3AW - is the stuff of Frank Sinatra songs and tabloid fodder.

RRP $35.00 hardback & paperback $19.95

Baghdad's Spy
A personal memoir of espionage and intrigue from Baghdad to London
By Corinne Souza
Baghdad's Spy is the story of Britain's foreign intelligence service 1958-2001 as told from the unique perspective of the daughter of a senior spy. Corinne Souza breaks the last taboo of British espionage as she describes the impact that Crown service can have on a spy's family. Souza's story begins in Iraq, where, after the murder of the 'Boy King' in 1958, her father was recruited for the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6. This revealing memoir is an extraordinary account of a family's secret life, the involvement of children in espionage and a man's struggle to balance loyalty to the Crown with the increasingly amoral demands of what became an incompetent and renegade service.

RRP $29.95, paperback

The Beatles Anthology
By The Beatles
This official history of The Beatles is warm, frank and funny, and is as engrossing to look at as it is to read. It contains 1300 or so images, including family snapshots, handwritten lyrics, internal memos, behind-the-scenes shots, covers-in-progress, personal letters and illustrations. Created with the full cooperation of George, Paul, Ringo and Yoko Ono, The Beatles Anthology is, in effect, like reading The Beatles' autobiography. At last, here is their own story in paperback.

RRP $59.95, paperback

Two Prayers to One God
By George Szego
This enthralling autobiography is an exploration of the possibilities of self-analysis as well as a journey through turbulent decades and across continents. Born in Hungary, Szego's childhood was both idyllic and bewildering, punctuated by eccentric relatives, harsh Catholic boarding schools, a rigid social order and the deteriorating relationship of his parents. Szego paints a picture of a youth that is fast obliterated when Nazi tanks invade Hungary in 1944. His deportation to the Nazi camps is depicted with assurance and attention to detail. Szego drifts between analysis and cinematic narration even as he walks through hell itself, diving deeper into fantasy and memory as a means of survival.

RRP $26.95, hardback

Black Sheep
Journey to Borroloola
By Nicholas Jose
Roger Jose had lived in Borroloola in an upside-down water tank with his Aboriginal wife Maggie for most of the twentieth century. An eccentric bush philosopher, and the last custodian of the famous Borroloola Library before it was eaten by termites, he practised reconciliation long before the idea became a political football. In this highly original book, novelist Nicholas Jose mixes biography, history, travel and politics to enter the world of Roger Jose. Could he be the mystery relative, the black sheep that the family never speaks of?

RRP $22.95 hardback

Why Are You Creative?
By Hermann Vaske
'It is time to awaken our positive human potential by making the lives we lead meaningful. The answers collected in this book to the question Why Are You Creative? are evidence of people trying to do just that.' His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Almost everyone is creative in some way or another. Creativity is expressed in all sorts of ways, and Why are you Creative? interviews 56 actors, authors, designers, politicians, advertising art directors, and movie directors, including David Bowie, Steven Speilberg, Mel Gibson, Salman Rushdie, and Nelson Mandela.

RRP $90.00, paperback

Black and Whiteley
Barry Dickins in Search of Brett
By Barry Dickins
There has never been anyone like him in the history of art in Australia or anywhere else. The brief life that once belonged tantalisingly to Brett Whiteley is as bizarre and droll as it is tragic. When he was only twenty-two, his paintings made him a household name in London. The Fleet Street press called him 'Whiteley the Wonder Boy' because he was as young as he was brilliant, and the Australian newspapers followed suit. Brett Whiteley once famously said, 'I paint in order to see.' In Black and Whiteley, Barry Dickins felt he had to write about Brett in order to see him, to learn to appreciate him not so much as an artist but as a man.

RRP $29.95, paperback

Ned Kelly
The authentic illustrated history
By Keith McMenomy
Ned Kelly: The authentic illustrated history is the ultimate book for anyone interested in Kelly and his life. Self confessed horse thief, a bank robber who admitted shooting down policemen, and the leader of a gang of outlaws, Ned Kelly is a character that generates fascination and controversy in both Australia and the world. Author Keith McMenomy spent twenty years assembling this unrivalled selection of Kelly paraphernalia - with over 330 illustrations - piecing together authentic accounts to form a complete picture of Kelly and his associates. McMenomy's book uses hundreds of original photographs and words from the protagonists themselves, and details Kelly's life from start to finish.

RRP $49.95, paperback

One Step Beyond
By Warren Macdonald
Warren Macdonald, bushwalker and environmental activist, tells of both the tragic hiking accident in Queensland where he lost both legs, and his inspirational recovery after which he climbed Cradle Mountain in Tasmania. His website provides a spectacular insight into the workings of this remarkable man who calls himself ‘part animal, part machine’.

RRP $20.95, paperback

Hope and History
Making peace in Ireland
By Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams has brought his revolutionary movement on an extraordinary journey from armed insurrection to active participation in government. An author as well as an activist, he brings a vivid sense of immediacy and a writer's understanding of narrative to this story of the triumph of hope in what was long considered an intractable bloody conflict. Both a personal and a political narrative, Hope and History continues the story begun in Before the Dawn. He reveals previously unpublished details of the secret origins of the peace process; covert talks between Republicans and the British government; the Irish-American role and meetings in the White House; the South African role; differences within the Republican movement and the emergence of "dissidents"; the breakdown of the first IRA cessation; the final negotiations: what was agreed and what was promised. He paints revealing portraits of the other leading characters in the drama that was acted out through ceasefires and stand-offs, discussions and confrontations. Amongst these are Tony Blair, Mo Mowlam, Martin McGuinness, Bill and Hilary Clinton, Jean Kennedy Smith, David Trimble, John Hume, Nelson Mandela and George Mitchell.

RRP $45.00 hardback & $22.95 paperback