Abbey's Advocate

I was standing on one leg shucking oysters when the problems began...

Don and Rosie are back in Melbourne after a decade in New York, and they're about to face their most important project.

Their son, Hudson, is having trouble at school: his teachers say he isn't fitting in with the other kids. Meanwhile, Rosie is battling Judas at work, and Don is in hot water after the Genetics Lecture Outrage. The life-contentment graph, recently at its highest point, is curving downwards.

For Don Tillman, geneticist and World's Best Problem-Solver, learning to be a good parent as well as a good partner will require the help of friends old and new.

It will mean letting Hudson make his way in the world, and grappling with awkward truths about his own identity.

And opening a cocktail bar.

Hilarious and thought-provoking, with a brilliant cast of characters and an ending that will have readers cheering for joy, The Rosie Result is the triumphant final instalment of the internationally bestselling series that began with The Rosie Project.

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Mikaela's family are fundamentalists who have little interaction with the outside world. When an accident forces her and her older brother Kurt away from the family farm and into a timber town, she is still kept isolated and locked away, apart from working in the small business Kurt has purchased. At the same time, a new ranger has come into the area. Leon is the descendant of generations of timber cutters and is looked on as a traitor to the family values. As Miki quietly and secretly starts to rebel against Kurt's strictures, and Leon struggles for acceptance in a community suspicious of conservationists, the two form a friendship that will help them both find their way in the world.

A quietly unfolding novel of resilience and growth, that captures the essence of struggling rural townships and the people who live there. The descriptions of the natural environment and the old growth forest are particularly appealing, and the big themes are handled with delicacy and conviction. Viggers is particularly beloved by readers overseas (she has sold close to half a million copies of her books in France!) and this finely crafted novel should please as well. Lindy Jones

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Sixteen-year-old Mikaela has grown up isolated and homeschooled on an apple orchard in southeastern Tasmania, until an unexpected event shatters her family. Eighteen months later, she and her older brother Kurt are running a small business in a timber town. Miki longs to make connections and spend more time in her beloved forest, but she is kept a virtual prisoner by Kurt, who leads a secret life of his own.

When Miki meets Leon, another outsider, things slowly begin to change. But the power to stand up for yourself must come from within. And Miki has to fight to uncover the truth of her past and discover her strength and spirit.

Set in the old-growth eucalypt forests and vast rugged mountains of southern Tasmania, The Orchardist's Daughter is an uplifting story about friendship, resilience and finding the courage to break free.

'He is one of the best we've ever had' Geraldine Brooks One of Australia's finest and most critically acclaimed writers returns with a powerful novel that goes back to the very beginning of the story, to bring his sweeping Glenroy series to a magnificent close.

Melbourne, 1917: the times are tumultuous, the city is in the grip of a kind of madness. The Great War is raging, and it is the time of the hotly contested second conscription referendum. Fights are raging on the streets, rallies for 'YES' and 'NO' facing off against each other on opposing corners. Men, women and children, jostling, brawling, fighting and spitting.

Through these streets walks Maryanne, forty years old, unmarried and seven months pregnant. These are uncertain, dangerous times for a woman in her position. And she is facing a difficult choice - a choice which gets more urgent by the day - whether to give her child up for adoption as the Church insists she does, or to keep her child and face an uncertain future.

An extraordinary powerful novel of a time, a city and a woman, The Year of the Beast is Steven Carroll at his best. A rhythmic, insistent and pulsing novel that tells a compelling story of mothers, families, and what it means to be an individual, standing against the surge of the crowd.

A body buried in a suburban backyard.

A suicide pact worthy of Chekhov.

A love affair born in a bookshop.

The last days of Bennelong.

And a very strange gift for a most unusual Prime Minister...

Tantalising, poignant, wry, and just a little fantastical, this subversive collection of short fiction - and one singular novella - from bestselling author Debra Adelaide reminds us what twists of fate may be lurking just beneath the surface of the everyday.

A woman overshadowed by history steps back into the light . . .

Artist Elizabeth Gould spent her life capturing the sublime beauty of birds the world had never seen before, but her legacy was eclipsed by the fame of her husband, John Gould. Now, The Birdman's Wife at last gives voice to a passionate and adventurous spirit, who was so much more than the woman behind the man.

In England's golden age of discovery, as John Gould and his peers fuelled popular imagination with their scientific findings, Elizabeth deftly navigated a world that few women were permitted to enter. Juggling an artistic life with her roles as wife, lover, helpmate and mother, she breathed wondrous life into hundreds of exotic new species. A woman ahead of her time, she continually defied convention, eventually embarking on a trailblazing expedition to collect and illustrate Australia's 'curious' birdlife.

THE BIRDMAN'S WIFE is a multi-award winning novel, and an indelible portrait of an incredible woman.

He did this amazing wall painting, this mural...

It was a city, a Paul Klee or a Max Ernst city, a city of the mind perhaps, or of antiquity. A dream city. It was a wonderful thing. It took a few days and nights to do, beautiful days and nights. All the other men who lived in the donga watched it come clear. They loved it. And then other men in the camp heard about it too and came to look.

An unknown man comes ashore at a remote beach on the New South Wales coast. He is taken into detention and sent, ultimately, to Darwin. His captors call him Thursday after the day upon which he was found. Thursday doesn't speak, but instead paints an enigmatic mural on the wall of his donga in the detention centre. It is a city, a dream city, and when he finishes he says a single word: Isinglass.

This latest offering from author Martin Edmond is a beautifully written portrayal of the shameful practices of the Australian gulag archipelago, and a compelling story of a man adrift in an unkind world.

Hepworth turns up the tension in her latest Australian-set domestic suspense novel. A masterful depiction of how much is said in the silences, accompanied by increasing unease over what happened to Diana, makes this a winner for fans of Liane Moriarty and Megan Abbott Booklist (starred review) Someone once told me that you have two families in your life - the one you are born into and the one you choose. Yes, you may get to choose your partner, but you don't choose your mother-in-law. The cackling mercenaries of fate determine it all.

From the moment Lucy met Diana, she was kept at arm's length. Diana was exquisitely polite, but Lucy knew, even after marrying Oliver, that they'd never have the closeness she'd been hoping for.

But who could fault Diana? She was a pillar of the community, an advocate for social justice, the matriarch of a loving family. Lucy had wanted so much to please her new mother-in-law.

That was ten years ago. Now, Diana has been found dead, leaving a suicide note. But the autopsy reveals evidence of suffocation. And everyone in the family is hiding something...

From the bestselling author of The Family Next Door comes a new page-turner about that trickiest of relationships.

PRAISE FOR SALLY HEPWORTH 'Sally Hepworth writes compelling, compassionate novels with characters you come to know and love. She is one of my favourite Australian writers.' Liane Moriarty 'Hepworth's novels are perfect for lovers of Big Little Lies.' Library journal (starred review)

Pearl remembers Nell's feet stretched towards the campfires on the beach, her fourth toe curled in and nestled against the middle toe like a small prawn. They all have a curled fourth toe - Diana, Lucy, Pearl.

When Pearl's grandmother Nell dies unexpectedly, Pearl and her family - mother Diana, sister Lucy - return to Kangaroo Island to mourn and farewell her. Each of them knew Nell intimately but differently, and each woman must reckon with Nell?s passing in her own way. But Nell had secrets, too, and as Pearl, Diana and Lucy interrogate their feelings about the island, Pearl starts to pull together the scraps Nell left behind - her stories, poems, paintings - and unearths a connection to the island's early history, of the early European sealers and their first contact with the Ngarrindjeri people.

As the three women are in grief pulled apart from each other, Pearl's deepening connection to their history, the island's history, grounds her, and will ultimately bring the women back to each other. Heart of the Grass Tree is an exquisite, searing and hope-filled debut about mothers and daughters and family stories, about country and its living history.

Forever entwined, Sea and Serene live isolated in the Australian alpine wilderness, together with Wren - the young man who helps care for them. Each have found peace in this wild, fierce landscape, and they live in harmony, largely self-sufficient.

One day Wren discovers a woman on the road nearby, badly injured and unconscious. He brings her back to the cottage, and he and the twins nurse her back to health. But the arrival of this outsider shatters the dynamic within, with unforeseen consequences.

Lyrical and poetic, Fusion is a unique and haunting modern-gothic tale that has at its heart questions of selfhood, dependency, difference and love. It is the compelling first novel by the award-winning author of Madness- A Memoir.

Three friends, thirty years of shared secrets, one impulsive gesture .. and a terrible accident. When friendship goes bad, someone has to pay. For fans of Liane Moriarty and Robyn Harding.

It's New Year's Eve. Three thirty-something women - Aimee, Melinda and Lou - best friends for decades, let off sky lanterns filled with resolutions: for meaning, for freedom, for money. As the glowing paper bags float away, there's a bright flare in the distance. It could be a sign of luck - or the start of a complete nightmare that will upend their friendships, families and careers.

The day after their ceremony, the newspapers report a small plane crash - two victims pulled from the wreckage, one a young boy. Were they responsible? Aimee thinks they are, Melinda won't accept it, and Lou has problems of her own. It's a toxic recipe for guilt trips, shame, obsession, blackmail and power games.

They're not bad people. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter - and he always works alone. But when he is engaged to find a child who disappeared three years ago, he must break his own rules, joining a group of eight very different mercenaries working together to find the boy.

Following the lost boy's scent from one ancient city to another, into dense forests and across deep rivers, Tracker starts to wonder- Who is this boy? Why has he been missing for so long? Why do so many people want to keep Tracker from finding him? And most important of all, who is telling the truth and who is lying?

Drawing from vivid African history and mythology, Marlon James weaves a saga of breathtaking adventure and powerful intrigue - a mesmerising, unique meditation on the nature of truth and power.

When Robert Walter, popular mayor of Amsterdam, sees his wife toss her head back in laughter while chatting to one of his aldermen at a New Year's reception, he immediately suspects the worst. Despite their long and happy marriage, Robert is convinced that Sylvia is cheating on him - and with the straitlaced alderman, no less, who is committed to the environment and wants to spoil the capital's skyline with wind turbines. Soon afterwards, a journalist produces a photograph of a police officer being beaten up by three protesters during a demonstration against the Vietnam War. She claims that the mayor is one of the protesters.

Then, out of the blue, Robert's 94-year-old father turns up on the steps of the city hall, desperate to speak to him. He and his wife want to die together. They do not want to burden their son with their deteriorating health, so why not end their own lives when the time is right?

The Ditch shows a seemingly stable man rapidly becoming entangled in his own fears and suspicions. Or is everything not what it seems, and is Robert Walter actually seeing things clearly for the very first time?

**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question.

First love has lifelong consequences, but Paul doesn't know anything about that at nineteen. At nineteen, he's proud of the fact his relationship flies in the face of social convention.

As he grows older, the demands placed on Paul by love become far greater than he could possibly have foreseen.

Tender and wise, The Only Story is a deeply moving novel by one of Britain's greatest mappers of the human heart.

Fiona Maye, a leading High Court judge, renowned for her fierce intelligence and sensitivity is called on to try an urgent case. For religious reasons, a seventeen-year-old boy is refusing the medical treatment that could save his life. Time is running out.

She visits the boy in hospital - an encounter which stirs long-buried feelings in her and powerful new emotions in the boy. But it is Fiona who must ultimately decide whether he lives or dies and her judgement will have momentous consequences for them both.

It is summer in Edinburgh and Isabel Dalhousie is once again caught between 'gossip' and significant rumour. It is none of her business that Patricia, the mother of her son Charlie's little friend Basil, is estranged from Basil's father, or that the woman has a somewhat brazen attitude to childcare. And yet, it is curious.

Isabel, however, has much else on her mind as editor of the Review of Applied Ethics. Along with the work involved for its impending next issue, she really needs to get her house in order and tend to the demands of her niece, Cat. Thankfully, the arrival of Antonia, the exuberant Italian au pair, will take care of urgent chores. And the hiring of Claire, a diligent if unsettlingly beautiful new assistant at the Review, surely means that Isabel can breathe, at least a little.

But her sharp observation and assured role as confidante soon have Isabel doubting all her recent decisions. What's more, her instinct to help others may have put her in real danger. In her desire to run both a smooth household and working life, has she simply created more chaos? Perhaps the quiet side of passion is, after all, the best side on which to be?

A captivating and magical story set in 1930s Malaysia about a dancehall girl and an orphan boy who are brought together by a series of unexplained deaths and an old Chinese superstition about men who turn into tigers.

They say a tiger that devours too many humans can take the form of a man and walk amongst us...

In 1930s colonial Malaya, a dissolute British doctor receives a surprise gift of an eleven-year-old Chinese houseboy. Sent as a bequest from an old friend, young Ren has a mission: to find his dead master's severed finger and reunite it with his body. Ren has forty-nine days, or else his master's soul will roam the earth forever.

Ji Lin, an apprentice dressmaker, moonlights as a dancehall girl to pay her mother's debts. One night, Ji Lin's dance partner leaves her with a gruesome souvenir that leads her on a crooked, dark trail.

As time runs out for Ren's mission, a series of unexplained deaths occur amid rumours of tigers who turn into men. In their journey to keep a promise and discover the truth, Ren and Ji Lin's paths will cross in ways they will never forget.

Captivating and lushly written, THE NIGHT TIGER explores the rich world of servants and masters, ancient superstition and modern ambition, sibling rivalry and unexpected love. Woven through with Chinese folklore and a tantalizing mystery, this novel is a page-turner of the highest order.

Alfred Busi, famed and beloved in his town for his music and songs, is now in his sixties, mourning the recent death of his wife and quietly living out his days alone in the large villa he has always called home. The night before he is due to attend a ceremony at the town's avenue of fame, Busi is attacked by a creature he disturbs as it raids the contents of his larder. Busi is convinced that the thing that attacked him was no animal, but a child, 'innocent and wild', and his words fan the flames of old rumour - of an ancient race of people living in the bosk surrounding the town - and new controversy: the town's paupers, the feral wastrels at its edges must be dealt with. Once and for all.

As Busi's nephew's ambitious plans for himself and the town develop, he is able to fan the flames of rumour and soon Busi and the town he loves will be altered irrevocably.

The Melody by Jim Crace is a story about grief and ageing, about reputation and the loss of it, about love and music and the peculiar way myth seeps into real life. And it is a political novel too - a rallying cry to protect those we persecute. It is lyrical and warm, intimate and epic, a powerful future classic.

Having survived the concentration camps but lost her mother and sister along the way, a sixteen-year-old Anne Frank reunites with her father, Pim, in newly liberated Amsterdam. But it's not as easy to fit the pieces of their life back together. Anne is adrift, haunted by the ghosts of the horrors they experienced, while Pim is fixated on returning to normalcy. Her beloved diary has been lost, and her dreams of becoming a writer seem distant and pointless now. As Anne struggles to overcome the brutality of memory and build a new life for herself, she grapples with heartbreak, grief, and ultimately the freedom of forgiveness. A story of trauma and redemption, Annelies honors Anne Frank's legacy as not only a symbol of hope and perseverance but also a complex young woman of great ambition and heart.

'Perfect for fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine' Hello!

`Extremely charming' Marian Keyes Baked, mashed, boiled or fried, Mr Doubler knows his potatoes. But the same can't be said for people. Since he lost his wife, he's been on his own at Mirth Farm - and that suits Doubler just fine. Crowds are for other people; the only company he needs are his potato plants and his housekeeper, Mrs Millwood, who visits every day.

So when Mrs Millwood is taken ill, it ruins everything - and Mr Doubler begins to worry that he might have lost his way. But could the kindness of strangers be enough to bring him down from the hill?

Mr Doubler Begins Again is a nostalgic celebration of food, friendship, kindness, and second chances, perfect for fans of Rachel Joyce and Joanna Cannon.

It's 1980s New York. Heady, excessive times. Alice Burns - a young book editor - is deep into a manuscript about the morass of family life. The observations resonates, perhaps because she has just watched her own family implode.

As she reads she wonders- When did the sadness start? And could it be that unhappiness is a choice?

Thus begins a great American epic which follows Alice as she navigates high school bullying, first love and sexism at an elite college, a spell in 1970's Ireland, and a tragedy that sends her stateside as the US embraces a cowboy actor named Reagan. But it is also the tale of her endlessly complex parents and brothers; how their destinies are written by the lies they tell themselves and others.

The Great Wide Open is an immensely ambitious and compulsive saga; a novel which will speak volumes to anyone who has marvelled at that pain that can only be caused by family itself.

'In his fast-paced, engrossing novels Douglas Kennedy always has his brilliant finger on the entertaining parts of human sorrow, fury, and narrow escapes.' - Lorrie Moore

'Kennedy's skill is to send you racing down the slope of sheer story.' - Esquire

Kavanagh begins his life patrolling the Wall. If he's lucky, if nothing goes wrong, he only has two years of this, 729 more nights.

The best thing that can happen is that he survives and gets off the Wall and never has to spend another day of his life anywhere near it. He longs for this to be over; longs to be somewhere else.

He will soon find out what Defenders do and who the Others are. Along with the rest of his squad, he will endure cold and fear day after day, night after night. But somewhere, in the dark cave of his mind, he thinks: wouldn't it be interesting if something did happen, if they came, if you had to fight for your life?

John Lanchester's thrilling, hypnotic new novel is about why the young are right to hate the old. It's about a broken world you will recognise as your own - and about what might be found when all is lost.

In this grim inferno, a fierce love blossomed - one that was born in pain and cruelty, and one that will live or die on this day. Estela and Epitafio too, were trafficked, they grew together in the brutal orphanage, fell in love, but were ripped apart. They have played an ugly role in the very system that abused them, and done the bidding of the brutal old priest for too long. They have traded in migrants, put children to work as slaves, hacked off limbs and lives without a thought, though they have never forgotten the memory of their own shackles.

Like the immigrants whose hopes they extinguish, they long to be free; free to be together and alone. Here in an unnamed land that could be a Mexico reimagined by Breughel and Dante, on the border between purgatory and inferno, where Paradise is the mouth of hell and cruelty the only currency, lives are spent, bartered and indentured for it. Must all be bankrupt among the lost?

Lou Clark knows too many things...

She knows how many miles lie between her new home in New York and her new boyfriend Sam in London.

She knows her employer is a good man and she knows his wife is keeping a secret from him.

What Lou doesn't know is she's about to meet someone who's going to turn her whole life upside down.

Because Josh will remind her so much of a man she used to know that it'll hurt.

Lou won't know what to do next, but she knows that whatever she chooses is going to change everything.

An impassioned plea for freedom and justice, set in a world uncomfortably like our own.

In a world uncomfortably like our own, a young woman called Amalantis is arrested for asking a question. Her question is this: Who is the Prisoner? When Amalantis disappears, her lover Karnak goes looking for her. He searches desperately at first, then with a growing realization. To find Amalantis, he must first understand the meaning of her question. Karnak's search leads him into a terrifying world of lies, oppression and fear at the heart of which lies the Prison. Then Karnak discovers that he is not the only one looking for the truth.

The Freedom Artist is an impassioned plea for justice and a penetrating examination of how freedom is threatened in a post-truth society. In Ben Okri's most significant novel since the Booker Prize-winning The Famished Road , he delivers a powerful and haunting call to arms.

'Ben Okri is that rare thing, a literary and social visionary, a writer for whom all three - literature, culture and vision - are profoundly interwoven' ALI SMITH .

'They called it the Wolfsschanze, the Wolf's Lair. Wolf was his nickname. As hapless as Little Red Riding Hood, I had ended up in his belly. A legion of hunters was out looking for him, and to get him in their grips they would gladly slay me as well.'

Germany, 1943: Twenty-six-year-old Rosa Sauer's parents are gone, and her husband Gregor is far away, fighting on the front lines. Alone, she has little choice but to leave war-torn Berlin behind and live with her in-laws in a village near the Wolfschanze, the Wolf's Lair, Hitler's hidden headquarters.

Convinced that the enemy wants to poison him, Hitler conscripts ten women, including Rosa, to be his food tasters. Even though food is a luxury, eating the rich and decadent feasts Hitler will soon be served is an act of torture - after each meal, the women must wait an hour to see if they will die. Every minute seems like an eternity. None of the women are allowed to meet Hitler, none can enter the Wolfschanze, but the Fuhrer is a constant presence. He is in every conversation, in Rosa's thoughts, and forever on the radio. He looms large above them all, like some kind of deity.

As the war outside goes from bad to worse, so do the lives of the ten women trapped in the tasting room, forced to eat what may kill them. Rosa's friends are keeping explosive secrets, the vindictive SS officer put in charge of the tasters takes a special liking to her, and Rosa must figure out how she can stay alive as it becomes clear that she and her friends, her Hitler, everyone she knows, are on the wrong side of history.

1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She's also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie's parents banish her to Europe to have her little problem taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.

1915. A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she's recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she's trained by the mesmerizing Lili, code name Alice, the queen of spies, who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy's nose.

Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. That is until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn't heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth . . . no matter where it leads.

Beside Myself is the disturbing and exhilarating story of a family across four generations. At its heart is one woman?s search for her twin brother. When Anton goes missing and the only clue is a postcard sent from Istanbul, Alissa leaves her life in Berlin to find him. Without her twin, the sharer of her memories and the mirror of her own self, Ali is lost.

In a city steeped in political and social changes, where you can buy gender-changing drugs on the street, Ali?s search-for her missing brother, for her identity-will take her on a journey for connection and belonging.

Beside Myself is a brilliant literary debut about belonging, about family and love, and about the enigmatic nature of identity.

'Whitney Scharer's storytelling is utterly immersive and gorgeous in its details . . . This is a powerful, sensual and gripping portrait of the forging of an artist's soul.' Madeleine Miller, author of Circe

'I'd rather take a photograph than be one,' says Lee Miller, shortly after she arrives in Paris in 1929. Gorgeous and talented, Lee has left behind a successful modelling career at Vogue to pursue her dream of being an artist. There she catches the eye of the famous Surrealist artist Man Ray. An egotistical, charismatic force, Lee is drawn to him immediately. Though he initially wants to use her as a model, Lee is determined to become Man's photography assistant instead.

As their personal and professional lives become further entwined, Lee is consumed by two desires: to become a famous photographer and to have a healthy and loving relationship. But as Lee asserts herself and moves from being a muse to an artist, Man's jealousy spirals out of control, and their mutual betrayals threaten to destroy them both.

Richly detailed and filled with a cast of famous characters, The Age of Light is a captivating historical novel about ambition, love, and the personal price of making art. In exploring Lee's complicated and fascinating history, Whitney Scharer has brought a brilliant and pioneering artist out of the shadow of a man's story and into the light.

A haunting tale of love and loss that will make you think twice ...

What would you do if you had the chance to change a pivotal moment from your past?

How far would you go to save someone you loved?

These are just two of the fateful choices a woman must face in this highly original and hauntingly evocative detective story of love and loss.

At the core of the enigmatic Stella's story, past and present, is a mystery she is compelled to solve, a beautiful young woman who went missing fifty years ago - and a tragedy much closer to home she must try to prevent.

As Stella unravels the dark secrets of her family's past and her own, it becomes clear that everyone remembers the past differently and the small choices we make every day can change our future irrevocably.

This utterly original, gripping and mind-bending tale will stay with you long after the last page.

'A beautifully compelling book that dares to not only ask What if? but to explore that question with heart-busting yearning, wry humour and masterful storytelling.' Kate Mulvany, playwright and actor

Rome, AD 68. Vespasian is tasked with the impossible. Should he quell the revolt in Judaea, as Nero the emperor has instructed, or must he resort to the unthinkable and sabotage his own campaign? If his conquest succeeds, he risks becoming the sole object of the mad emperor's jealousy. If he fails, then his punishment will be severe. The fate of his men and his beloved son, Titus, all hang in the balance.

But unknown to Vespasian, Nero has committed suicide, catapulting Rome into political turmoil. Sabinus, Vespasian's brother, is caught between the warring factions of Aulus Vitellius, a cruel opportunist, and the noble Marcus Salvius Otho, who finds himself severely outnumbered. Seeing no aid on the horizon, Sabinus must rely on wit, and wit alone, to ensure the safety of his family.

With a contested throne and an army at his disposal, now may finally be Vespasian's time - to ascend, to conquer, to achieve what countless prophecies have foretold and take control of Rome itself. Will Vespasian, at long last, be the one to wear the purple?

AD 100: Flavius Ferox, Briton and Roman centurion, is finding it hard to keep the peace. The second instalment in the hugely authentic historical fiction series, set on the northern frontier of the Roman Empire, written by one of Britain's leading historians.

From bestselling historian Adrian Goldsworthy, a profoundly authentic, action-packed adventure set on the northern frontier of the Roman Empire.

AD 100: VINDOLANDA. A FORT ON THE EDGE OF THE ROMAN WORLD.

Flavius Ferox, Briton turned Roman centurion , is charged with keeping Rome's empire safe. But from his base at the northern frontier of Britannia, he feels enemies closing in from all sides . Ambitious leaders await the chance to carve out empires of their own. While men nearer at hand speak in whispers of war and the destruction of Rome. And now more sinister threats are reaching Ferox's ears. Stories about the sea-dwelling men of the night, who have cursed the land and only come ashore to feast on men's flesh. These are just rumours for now. But Ferox knows that rumours stem from truth. And that no one on this isle is safe from the great, encircling sea...

'An instant classic of the genre' HARRY SIDEBOTTOM. 'An authentic, enjoyable read' THE TIMES .

This is the fascinating story of Mary Maguire, a 1930s Australian ingenue who sailed for Hollywood and a fabulous life, only to have her career cut short by scandal and tragedy. Packed with celebrity, history and gossip, AUSTRALIA'S SWEETHEART is perfect for readers of SHEILA and THE RIVIERA SET.

Mary Maguire was Australia's first teenage movie star and she captivated Hollywood in the mid 1930s. Mary lived on three continents and was celebrated in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Los Angeles and London. Her life was lived in parallel with seminal incidents of the twentieth century: the Spanish Flu; the Great Depression; the Bodyline series; Australia's early radio, talkies and aviation; Hollywood's Golden Era; the British aristocracy's embrace of European fascism; London's Blitz; and post-war American culture and politics. Mary knew everyone, from Douglas Jardine, Don Bradman, Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan, to William Randolph Hearst, Maureen O'Sullivan and Judy Garland.

AUSTRALIA'S SWEETHEART in an irresistible never-before-told story that captures the glamour of Hollywood and the turbulent times of the twentieth century, with a young woman at its centre.

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- When Jacqueline Kent was a young woman, quite independent and happy in her life as a freelance editor, she met Kenneth Cook. He was nearly twenty years older, a man from a different age and mindset, formed in ways and attitudes of a differing generation to hers. He was also the author of the famous novel 'Wake in Fright' although he had written other things, dabbled in different business ventures and was generally known as a larger-than-life character. When they met again, they formed a relationship, one which challenged, sustained and fulfilled - but which ended with his sudden death less than a mere two years later.

This is not a biography of Cook, or even of Kent, but an account of a beautiful friendship and love that gave both of them something they hadn't been looking for. It is a beautifully written testament to the power of attraction of opposites, and also a window into a certain time in Australian society and literary culture, one that seems much longer ago than the mid 80s... Lindy Jones

-----

In 1985 Jacqueline Kent was content with her life. She had a satisfying career as a freelance book editor, and was emerging as a writer. Living and working alone, she relished her independence. But then she met Kenneth Cook, author of the Australian classic Wake in Fright, and they fell in love.

With bewildering speed Jacqueline found herself in alien territory- with a man almost twenty years older, whose life experience could not have been more different from her own. She had to come to terms with complicated finances and expectations, and to negotiate relationships with Ken's children, four people almost her own age. But with this man of contradictions - funny and sad, headstrong and tender - she found real and sustaining companionship.

Their life together was often joyful, sometimes enraging, always exciting - until one devastating evening. But, as Jacqueline discovered, even when a story is over that doesn't mean it has come to an end.

Photographer, filmmaker, writer, adventurer. Controversial, passionate, audacious. Frank Hurley was an extraordinary Australian, possibly most famous for his Antarctic photographs captured alongside expeditioners Sir Douglas Mawson and Sir Ernest Shackleton. From the early twentieth century until his death in 1962 Hurley created a stunning visual archive that chronicled the major events of the twentieth century, and Australia's achievements both home and overseas. This book and the Hurley Collection in the National Library of Australia make clear this outstanding contribution and the lengths to which the man would go in order to convey the gravity of events.

For Hurley, image-making and exploration went hand-in-hand and he sought out experiences as a pioneer documentary film-maker, official photographer in two world wars, early aviator, and adventure and story-seeker in both the natural environment and in rapidly disappearing non-western worlds. In his compulsion to bring the reality of the world to audiences, he clashed with many regarding his techniques. In particular, Sir Charles Bean, Australia's official war historian, objected to the use of composite pictures. The image Dawn of Passchendaele features an added cloudburst which adds a melancholic religiosity and passion of a Flemish masterpiece .

In his later years, Hurley travelled throughout the country on a mission to capture Australia for Australians: taking images of landscape, modern cities, industry and agriculture. Among other works, he made a film of the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and he also became involved with ABC radio as a frequent contributor to the children's programme The Argonauts.

Hurley was an enigmatic character, dedicated to the `perfect' picture, sometimes forsaking family and work commitments to take up another offer for overseas documentary and photographic opportunities. He saw little of the development of his four children as he travelled the world capturing the exotic for others.

In this readable, definitive and wonderfully illustrated re-issued biography, Alasdair McGregor describes Hurley's life and character in all its richness. Hurley kept diaries throughout his life and McGregor uses these insights to give a picture of a truly complex and driven man.

After Frank Hurley's death, his personal collection of negatives, lantern slides, transparencies, prints, diaries scrapbooks and papers was acquired by the National Library of Australia and has been used widely in the evocative images of this book.

Hurley believed in his work and was pleased with his vocation, summing up his life in the following way:

I have lived a life that suited me best I took risks and never regretted them If I could start again, I would so everything in the same way

The incredible untold World War II story of Australian hero BARNEY GREATREX - from Bomber Command to French Resistance fighter.

A school and university cadet in Sydney, Barney Greatrex signed up for RAF Bomber Command in 1941, eager to get straight into the very centre of the Allied counterattack. Bombing Germany night after night, Barney's 61 Squadron faced continual enemy fighter attacks and anti-aircraft fire - death or capture by the Nazis loomed large. Very few survived more than 20 missions, and it was on his 20th mission, in 1944, that Barney's luck finally ran out: he was shot down over occupied France.

But his war was far from over. Rescued by the French Resistance, Barney seized the opportunity to carry on fighting and joined the Maquis in the liberation of France from the occupying German forces, who rarely took prisoners.

Later, Barney was awarded the French Legion of Honour, but for seventy years he said almost nothing of his incredible war service - surviving two of the most dangerous battlefronts. Aged 97, Barney Greatrex revealed his truly great Australian war story to acclaimed bestselling author Michael Veitch.

Here, Rudiger Safranski sets his sights on the writer considered the Shakespeare of German literature. Goethe (1749-1832) awakened a burgeoning German nation and the European continent with his electrifying novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. Safranski scoured Goethe's oeuvre, relying on primary sources as well as his correspondence with contemporaries and their comments to one another, to produce an illuminating portrait of the avatar of the Romantic era. Set against the cultural and political turmoil of Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Goethe, who intersected with almost every great figure of his age, is thrillingly re-created here. As Safranski shows, Goethe's greatest creation, even in comparison to his masterpiece Faust, was his own life.

Mikhail Sholokhov is arguable one of the most contentious recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature. As a young man, Sholokhov's epic novel, Quiet Don, became an unprecedented overnight success.

Stalin's Scribe is the first biography of a man who was once one of the Soviet Union's most prominent political figures. Thanks to the opening of Russia's archives, Brian Boeck discovers that Sholokhov's official Soviet biography is actually a tangled web of legends, half-truths and contradictions. Boeck examines the complex connection between an author and a dictator, revealing how a Stalinist courtier became an ideological acrobat and consummate politician in order to stay in favour and remain relevant after the dictator's death.

Stalin's Scribe is remarkable biography that both reinforces and clashes with our understanding of the Soviet system. It reveals a Sholokhov who is bold, uncompromising and sympathetic-and reconciles him with the vindictive and mean-spirited man described in so many accounts of late Soviet history.

Shockingly, at the height of the terror, which claimed over a million lives, Sholokhov became a member of the most minuscule subset of the Soviet Union's population-the handful of individuals whom Stalin personally intervened to save.

From Alexandria to York, this unique illustrated guide shows us the great centres of classical civilization afresh.

The book's key feature is 120 specially-drawn maps tracing each city's thoroughfares and defences, monuments and places of worship. Every map is to the same scale, allowing readers for the first time to appreciate visually the relative sizes of Babylon and Paris, London and Constantinople. There are also clear, incisive commentaries on each city's development, strategic importance, rulers and ordinary inhabitants. This compelling and elegant atlas opens a new window on to the ancient world, and will transform the way we see it.

Murder, manslaughter, suicide, mishap - the very public business of determining death in colonial Sydney.

Murder in colonial Sydney was a surprisingly rare occurrence, so when it did happen it caused a great sensation. People flocked to the scene of the crime, to the coroner's court and to the criminal courts to catch a glimpse of the accused.

Most of us today rarely see a dead body. In nineteenth century Sydney, when health was precarious and workplaces and the busy city streets were often dangerous, witnessing a death was rather common. And any death that was sudden or suspicious would be investigated by the coroner.

Henry Shiell was the Sydney City Coroner from 1866 to 1889. In the course of his unusually long career he delved into the lives, loves, crimes, homes and workplaces of colonial Sydneysiders. He learnt of envies, infidelities, passions, and loyalties, and just how short, sad and violent some lives were. But his court was also, at times, instrumental in calling for new laws and regulations to make life safer.

Catie Gilchrist explores the nineteenth century city as a precarious place of bustling streets and rowdy hotels, harbourside wharves and dangerous industries. With few safety regulations, the colourful city was also a place of frequent inquests, silent morgues and solemn graveyards. This is the story of life and death in colonial Sydney.

PRAISE 'Catie Gilchrist draws back the veil on death in nineteenth-century Sydney to reveal life - ordinary, tragic and hopeful' David Hunt, author of Girt and True Girt

Donald Maclean was a star diplomat, an establishment insider and a keeper of some of the West's greatest secrets. He was also a Russian spy...

Codenamed 'Orphan' by his Russian recruiter, Maclean was Britain's most gifted traitor. But as he leaked huge amounts of top-secret intelligence, an international code-breaking operation was rapidly closing in on him. Moments before he was unmasked, Maclean escaped to Moscow.

Drawing on a wealth of previously classified material, A Spy Named Orphan now tells this story for the first time in full, revealing the character and devastating impact of perhaps the most dangerous Soviet agent of the twentieth century.

'Superb' William Boyd 'Fascinating... An exceptional story of espionage and betrayal, thrillingly told' Philippe Sands 'A cracking story... Impressively researched' Sunday Times 'Philipps makes the story and the slow uncovering of Maclean's treachery a gripping narrative' Alan Bennett

In 1939, Gustav Kleinmann, a Jewish upholsterer in Vienna, was seized by the Nazis. Along with his teenage son, Fritz, he was sent to Buchenwald in Germany. There began an unimaginable ordeal that saw the pair beaten, starved and forced to build the very concentration camp they were held in.

When Gustav was set to be transferred to Auschwitz, a certain death sentence, Fritz refused to leave his side. Throughout the horrors they witnessed and the suffering they endured, there was one constant that kept them alive- the love between father and son.

Based on Gustav's secret diary and meticulous archive research, this book tells his and Fritz's story for the first time - a story of courage and survival unparalleled in the history of the Holocaust.

In the past few years there has been a decided rise in acts and expressions of antisemitism worldwide. No one could have predicted the contemporary situation- a Labour Party in the UK whose leadership has condoned expressions of overt antisemitism and debated whether to condemn Holocaust denial; a white supremacist/nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, with chants of 'Jews will not replace us' and the murder of a counter protestor; the prime minister of Hungary using blatantly antisemitic imagery to win a political campaign; and a former mayor of London and a major UK trade union leader claiming that discussions about antisemitism were nothing more than an attempt by Israel to cover up its wrongdoings.

In Antisemitism, Deborah Lipstadt argues that this is a problem that comes from both ends of the political spectrum.

She exposes those who use classic antisemitic imagery to attack Israel, and challenges those supporters of Israel who automatically equate criticism with antisemitism.

Antisemitism is based on countless conversations Lipstadt has had over the past few years about definitions of antisemitism, types of antisemites, and the current troubling situation. Written as an exchange of letters with an imagined college student and imagined colleague, both of whom are perplexed by this resurgence, Lipstadt gives us her own superbly reasoned, brilliantly argued, and sure- to-be-controversial responses to these troubling questions.

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Like many a girl of my schoolyears, I learnt embroidery and needlecraft. I can probably still do a row of chain stitch, or whip over stem stitch, or sew french knots if I had to, but mostly I remember being rapped over the knuckles for my untidy work... So if you told me I would enjoy a book about the social, emotional and political significance of sewing, I might have looked at you askance! But this book transcends my expectations and prejudices, and is one of those literary treasures you want everyone to know about.

Divided into chapters such as Power, Frailty, Connection, Protest and Place, this is a journey through the ages and various societies, full of fascinating, revelatory and engaging stories and anecdotes that beg to be shared. Did you know that embroidery was done around seams and openings to protect the wearer from devils in certain Asian cultures? That WWI veterans were encouraged to needlework as a form of successfully managing what we now call PTSD? That women in medieval times might have done the work, but only men could be in the powerful guilds (embroidering vestments for priests was a richly rewarding business). That Mary Queen of Scots embroidered as a form of declaring her status and power, despite her long captivity?

Whether the secret language of ethnic stitches, or the secret wishes sewn into prisoner-of-war works, or the bonding that comes from sewing political banners or the comfort gained from commemorative works, this really is a rich and rewarding history, and one that makes me want to find my old sewing basket and create my own piece of (probably still untidy!) embroidery as a link to the needleworkers before me... Lindy Jones

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A history of sewing and embroidery, told through the stories of the men and women, over centuries and across continents, who have used the language of sewing to make their voices heard, even in the most desperate of circumstances.

From the political storytelling of the Bayeux tapestry's anonymous embroiderers and Mary, Queen of Scots' treasonous stitching, to the sewing of First World War soldiers suffering from PTSD and the banner-makers at Greenham Common, THREADS OF LIFE stretches from medieval France to 1980s America, from a Second World War POW camp in Singapore to a family attic in Scotland. It is as much about identity, protest, memory and politics as craft and artistry.

In an eloquent blend of history and memoir with a unique understanding of craft, Clare Hunter's THREADS OF LIFE is an evocative and moving book about the need we all have to tell our story.

Magic was everywhere in the ancient world. The supernatural abounded, turning flowers into fruit and caterpillars into butterflies. Magic packed a cloud of water vapour with energy enough to destroy a house with one well-aimed thunderbolt. It was everyday magic, but it was still magical. Philip Matyszak takes readers into that world. He shows us how to make a love potion or cast a curse, how to talk to the dead and how to identify and protect oneself from evil spirits. He takes us to a world where gods, like humans, were creatures of space and time; where people could not just talk to spirits and deities, but could even themselves become divine; and where divine beings could fall from - or be promoted to - full godhood.

Ancient Magic offers us a new way of understanding the role of magic, looking at its history in all of its classical forms. Drawing on a wide array of sources, from Greek dramas to curse tablets, and lavishly illustrated throughout, and packed with information, surprises, lore and learning, this book will offer an engaging and accessible way into the supernatural for all.

As with everything else, there were good and bad Roman emperors. The good, like Trajan (98-117), Hadrian (117-138), Antoninus Pius (138-161) and Marcus Aurelius (161-180) were largely civilized and civilizing. The bad, on the other hand, were sometimes nothing less than monsters, exhibiting varying degrees of corruption, cruelty, depravity and insanity. It is a sobering thought that these ogres were responsible for governing the greatest civilization in the world, simultaneously terrorizing, brutalizing and massacring. Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Domitian, Commodus, Caracella, Elagabalus, Septimius Severus, Diocletian, Maximinus Thrax, Justinian and Theodora all had more bad days than good; they are all covered in this book.

Their exploits have, of course, been well documented since classical times but much of the coverage can only be called gratuitous, sensationalist or tabloid. This book is different because it is based on primary sources and evidence - and attempts to balance out the shocking with any mitigating aspects in each of their lives. Many of our monsters have some redeeming factors and it is important that these are exposed if a true record of their lives is to be conveyed. The book also examines how each of the twelve has been treated for posterity in literature, theatre and film, and the lessons intended to be drawn from popular culture through the ages.

Between 1942 and 1943, Qantas lost eight aircraft during its involvement in Australia's war against the Japanese. Over sixty passengers and crew died as a result. Yet Qantas' exemplary contribution to Australia's war effort and the courage of its people in those difficult times has been forgotten.

Courage in the Skies is the remarkable story of Qantas at war and the truly heroic deeds of its crew and ground staff as the Japanese advanced towards Australia. Flying unarmed planes through war zones and at times under enemy fire, the airline supplied the front lines, evacuated the wounded and undertook surprising escapes, including carrying more than forty anxious civilians on the last aircraft to leave besieged Singapore.

Absorbing, spirited and fast-paced, above all this is a story of an extraordinary group of Australians who confronted the dark days of World War II with bravery, commitment and initiative. They just happened to be Qantas people.

'In this most readable book, Jim Eames captures the experiences of a small band of brave, professional and pioneering aircrew who confronted the dangers of war, the challenges of unforgiving oceanic and tropical weather and the uncertainty of navigation in unarmed flying boats and conventional aircraft.' - Air Chief Marshal Sir Angus Houston AK, AFC (Ret'd)

A Times History Book of the Year Valentine's Day, 1613. Elizabeth Stuart (1596-1662), the sixteen-year-old granddaughter of Mary, Queen of Scots, marries Frederick V, a German count and ally of her father, James I of England. In just five years a terrible betrayal will ruin 'the Winter Queen', as Elizabeth will forever be known, imperil the lives of those she loves and launch a war that lasts thirty years.

In a sweeping narrative encompassing political intrigue, illicit love affairs and even a murder mystery, Nancy Goldstone tells the riveting story of a queen in exile, and of her four defiant daughters.

Located at the intersection of Asia and the Middle East, Afghanistan has been strategically important for thousands of years. Its ancient trade routes and strategic position between India, Inner Asia, China, Persia and beyond has meant the region has been subject to frequent invasions, both peaceful and military. As a result, modern Afghanistan is a culturally and ethnically diverse country, but one divided by conflict, political instability and by mass displacements of its people. Afghanistan: A History from 1260 to the Present Day tells the story of how a small tribal confederacy became a modern nation state.

Jonathan L. Lee places the current conflict in Afghanistan in its historical context and challenges many of the West's preconceived ideas about the country. Lee chronicles the origins of the region's monarchic rules and the Durrani dynasty, while focusing on the reigns of each ruler, their efforts to balance tribal, ethnic, regional and religious factions, the struggle for social and constitutional reform and the rise of Islamic and Communist factions. He offers new cultural and political insights from Persian histories, the memoirs of Afghan government officials, British government and India Office archives, recently released CIA reports and Wikileaks documents. Lee also sheds new light on the country's foreign relations, its internal power struggles and the impact of foreign military interventions such as the `War on Terror'.

TERRACOTTA WARRIORS provides an intriguing, original and up-to-date account of one of the wonders of the ancient world. Illustrated with a wealth of original photographs, this is the first book available for the general reader. In one of the most astounding archaeological discoveries of all time, the Terracotta Warriors were discovered by chance by farmers in 1974. We now understand that the excavated pits containing nearly eight thousand warriors and hundreds of horses are only part of a much grander mausoleum complex. There is a great deal still to be discovered and understood about the entire area whichis now thought to cover around 100 square kilometres. And there is the tantalising possibility of the opening of the imperial tomb.

Part memoir, part reflection, this book will bring to life central Europe during the last ten years of the Cold War. It begins in Trieste in 1979 where the embers of the Habsburg Empire still burnt brightly. The second part moves to the darker, claustrophobic world of Vienna in 1985, where the atmosphere of the Cold War seemed to infiltrate every brick of a city hovering between two worlds, and even the most seemingly harmless of culinary establishments masked the game of espionage between east and west. In the third part, the story shifts to Prague in 1989 during the dramatic, intoxicating days of the velvet revolution and the long-awaited opening up of the east. Revolution, when it came was from above rather than below- Moscow was far more engaged with events during those turbulent November weeks than is generally appreciated. Throughout the book we encounter a diverse array of glittering characters- penniless aristocrats, charming gangsters, even Amazonian blondes in the service of eastern European spy agencies; fractious diplomatists and disinherited royalty supply a colourful supporting cast.

With enormous charm, wit and insight, Richard Bassett recreates through his personal encounters the elegy, farce and tragedy of Central Europe in the last days of communism.

In the wake of the terrible shock of 9/11, the C.I.A. scrambled to work out how to destroy Bin Laden and his associates. Superficially the invasion was quick and efficient, but Bin Laden's successful escape, together with that of much of the Taliban leadership, and a catastrophic failure to define the limits of NATO's mission in a tough, impoverished country the size of Texas, created a quagmire which has now lasted many years. At the heart of the problem lay 'Directorate S', a highly secretive arm of the Pakistan state which had its own views on the Taliban and Afghanistan's place in a wider competition for influence between Pakistan, India and China, and which assumed that the U.S.A. and its allies would soon be leaving. Steve Coll's remarkable new book tells a powerful, bitter story of just how badly foreign policy decisions can go wrong and of many lives lost.

With exclusive insider status as Nikita Khrushchev's great grand-daughter, and an ex-pat living and reporting on Russia and the Soviet Union since 1983, Nina Khrushcheva and Jeffrey Tayler offer a poignant exploration of the largest country on earth through their recreation of Vladimir Putin's fabled New Year's Eve speech planned across all eleven time zones.

After taking over from Yeltsin in 1999, and then being elected president in a landslide, Putin traveled to almost two dozen countries and a quarter of Russia's eighty-nine regions to connect with ordinary Russians. His travels inspired the idea of a rousing New Year's Eve address delivered every hour at midnight throughout Russia's eleven time zones. The idea was beautiful, but quickly abandoned as an impossible feat. He correctly intuited, however, that the success of his presidency would rest on how the country's outback citizens viewed their place on the world stage.

Today more than ever, Putin is even more determined to present Russia as a formidable nation. We need to understand why Russia has for centuries been an adversary of the West. Its size, nuclear arsenal, arms industry, and scientific community (including cyber-experts), guarantees its influence.

After the guns fell silent in May 1945, the USSR resumed its clandestine warfare against the western democracies. Stalin installed secret police services in the satellite countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Trained by his NKVD officers of the Polish UB, the Czech StB, the Hungarian AVO, Romania's Securitate, Bulgaria's KDS, Albania's Sigurimi and the Stasi of the German Democratic Republic spied on and ruthlessly repressed their fellow citizens on the Soviet model. When the resultant hatred exploded in uprisings they were put down by brutality, bloodshed and Soviet tanks. Not so obvious was that these state terror organisations were also designed for military and commercial espionage in the West, to conceal the real case officers in Moscow. Specially trained operatives undertook `wet jobs', including the assassinations. Perhaps the most menacing were the sleepers who who married and raised families in the west while waiting to strike against their host countries; many are still among us. In Moscow Rules Douglas Boyd explores the relationship between the KGB and its ghastly brood - a family from hell.

'Superb, enthralling and necessarily terrifying... every step feels spring-loaded with tension... extraordinary.' The New York Times Early in the morning of April 26, 1986, Reactor Number Four of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station exploded, triggering history's worst nuclear disaster. In the thirty years since then, Chernobyl has become lodged in the collective nightmares of the world- shorthand for the spectral horrors of radiation poisoning, for a dangerous technology slipping its leash, for ecological fragility, and for what can happen when a dishonest and careless state endangers not only its own citizens, but all of humanity. But the real story of the accident, clouded from the beginning by secrecy, propaganda, and misinformation, has long remained in dispute.

Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of more than ten years, as well as letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently-declassified archives, Adam Higginbotham has written a harrowing and compelling narrative which brings the disaster to life through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed it firsthand. The result is a masterful non-fiction thriller, and the definitive account of an event that changed history- a story that is more complex, more human, and more terrifying than the Soviet myth.

Midnight In Chernobyl is an indelible portrait of one of the great disasters of the twentieth century, of human resilience and ingenuity, and the lessons learned when mankind seeks to bend the natural world to his will--lessons which, in the face of climate change and other threats-remain not just vital but necessary.

When we talk about human history, we focus on great leaders, mass migration and decisive wars. But how has the Earth itself determined our destiny? How has our planet made us?

As a species we are shaped by our environment. Geological forces drove our evolution in East Africa; mountainous terrain led to the development of democracy in Greece; and today voting behaviour in the United States follows the bed of an ancient sea. The human story is the story of these forces, from plate tectonics and climate change, to atmospheric circulation and ocean currents.

How are the Himalayas linked to the orbit of the Earth, and to the formation of the British Isles? By taking us billions of years into our planet?s past, Professor Lewis Dartnell tells us the ultimate origin story. When we reach the point where history becomes science we see a vast web of connections that underwrites our modern world and helps us face the challenges of the future.

From the cultivation of the first crops to the founding of modern states, Origins reveals the Earth?s awesome impact on the shape of human civilizations.

Birds of prey spend most of their time in flight and, when viewed from the ground, they are notoriously hard to identify. Australian Birds of Prey in Flight is a photographic guide to the eagles, hawks, kites and falcons flying high above you. Individual species profiles describe distinguishing features and the text is supported by detailed images showing the birds at six different angles and poses, using photographs from many of Australia's leading bird photographers. Annotated multi-species comparison plates highlight key features that can help differentiate birds of prey in flight.

This book will be of value to anyone who wants to learn more about Australia's birds of prey, and will provide a useful reference for identifying soaring birds in the field, and also while trying to identify images from your own camera.

The ground-breaking scientific photographs of Australian Museum curator Gerard Krefft and taxidermist Henry Barnes are revealed for the first time.

In the mid-nineteenth century, some of the earliest adopters of the revolutionary new art form of photography were scientists. Museums around the world were quick to see the huge potential for capturing fleeting moments of life, death and discovery. At the Australian Museum, curator Gerard Krefft and taxidermist Henry Barnes began to experiment with photography in the 1860s, preparing and staging their specimens - from whales and giant sunfish to lifelike lyre bird scenes and fossils - and capturing them in thousands of beautiful and arresting images. Capturing Nature reveals this fascinating visual archive for the first time, profiling the remarkable partnership of Krefft and Barnes, their innovative work and the Australian Museum's urgent quest to become more scientific in its practices.

How does life create order from chaos? And just what is life, anyway? Leading physicist Paul Davies argues that to find the answers, we must first answer a deeper question- 'What is information?' To understand the origins and nature of life, Davies proposes a radical vision of biology which sees the underpinnings of life as similar to circuits and electronics, arguing that life as we know it should really be considered a phenomenon of information storage. In an extraordinary deep dive into the real mechanics of what we take for granted, Davies reveals how biological processes, from photosynthesis to birds' navigation abilities, rely on quantum mechanics, and explores whether quantum physics could prove to be the secret key of all life on Earth.

Lively and accessible, The Demon in the Machineboils down intricate interdisciplinary developments to take readers on an eye-opening journey towards the ultimate goal of science- unifying all theories of the living and the non-living, so that humanity can at last understand its place in the universe.

A radical, provocative argument that the global population will soon begin to decline, dramatically reshaping the social, political and economic landscape.

For half a century, statisticians, pundits and politicians have warned that a burgeoning planetary population will soon overwhelm the earth's resources. But a growing number of experts are sounding a different kind of alarm. Rather than growing exponentially, they argue, the global population is headed for a steep decline.

Throughout history, depopulation was the product of catastrophe: ice ages, plagues, the collapse of civilizations. This time, however, we're thinning ourselves deliberately, by choosing to have fewer babies than we need to replace ourselves. In much of the developed and developing world, that decline is already underway, as urbanisation, women's empowerment, and waning religiosity lead to smaller and smaller families. In EMPTY PLANET, Ibbitson and Bricker travel from South Florida to Sao Paulo, Seoul to Nairobi, Brussels to Delhi to Beijing, drawing on a wealth of research and firsthand reporting to illustrate the dramatic consequences of this population decline - and to show us why the rest of the developing world will soon join in.

They find that a smaller global population will bring with it a number of benefits: fewer workers will command higher wages; good jobs will prompt innovation; the environment will improve; the risk of famine will wane; and falling birthrates in the developing world will bring greater affluence and autonomy for women. But enormous disruption lies ahead, too. We can already see the effects in Europe and parts of Asia, as aging populations and worker shortages weaken the economy and impose crippling demands on healthcare and vital social services. There may be earth-shaking implications on a geopolitical scale as well.

EMPTY PLANET is a hugely important book for our times. Captivating and persuasive, it is a story about urbanisation, access to education and the empowerment of women to choose their own destinies. It is about the secularisation of societies and the vital role that immigration has to play in our futures.

Rigorously researched and deeply compelling, Empty Planet offers a vision of a future that we can no longer prevent - but one that we can shape, if we choose to.

'A great guide to the many things you can do to reduce your plastic footprint.' - Craig Reucassel, ABC TV's War on Waste Where do you start if you want to reduce the plastic in your life? Especially when most of us are wearing it, eating and drinking from it, sitting on it, walking on it, and probably even ingesting it. Anywhere you go, plastic is within easy reach - even in Antarctica and the North Pole.

We didn't quit plastic overnight. In fact, it's still a work in progress. But along the way, we have learnt a lot by researching the issue from the grass roots up, speaking to people, and finding out what works and what doesn't. We answer the tricky questions, like 'How will I wash my hair?', 'Do I have to give up crackers?', 'What about my bin liner?' and 'Is this going to be expensive?' As we continue to remove throw-away plastics from our daily lives, we've discovered we're friendlier with our local communities, we're eating healthier food, and de-cluttering happens by itself. It feels great!

'The simple, practical tips in this inspiring guide will help you reduce plastic in your daily life and help the planet too - every little bit counts!' - Rebecca Prince-Ruiz, Plastic Free July Foundation

To most of us, liberal values mean respect for openness, progress, tolerance and the rule of law. But in Australia, these values are increasingly under threat. It is not just on the fringes of our community or body politic that we find liberal values challenged. The decline of liberal values in this nation is also reflected by members of the conservative political force that ironically calls itself the Liberal Party. Additionally, our print and electronic media are dominated by partisan advocates for an Australia that is decidedly illiberal.

To those who think of Australia as a highly successful democracy that has built a diverse society with respect for liberal values, a proposition that this is all at risk might seem alarmist. But the history of the past two decades in this country's political and social narrative, and now the global trend towards isolation, protectionism and authoritarianism, as well as the 'them and us' fear-mongering happening around the world, ought to raise the question as to whether the foundations of Australian liberal democracy are so secure that we are immune to the threats without and within.

Rise of the Right is a fascinating account from one of Australia's leading political journalists and is essential reading for anyone interested in Australian politics.

`Without free speech there is no true thought.' -Jordan Peterson

`If you're white, this country is one giant safe space.' -Michael Eric Dyson

The Munk debate on political correctness.

Is political correctness an enemy of free speech, sparking needless conflict? Or is it a weapon in the fight for equality, restoring dignity to the downtrodden? How should we talk about the things that matter most in an era of rapid social change? Four thinkers take on one of the most heated debates in the culture wars of the twenty-first century.

Women over fifty-five are of the generation that changed everything. We didn't expect to. Or intend to. We weren't brought up much differently from the women who came before us, and we rarely identified as feminists, although almost all of us do now. Accidental Feminists is our story. It explores how the world we lived in - with the pill and a regular pay cheque-transformed us and how, almost in spite of ourselves, we revolutionised the world. It is a celebration of grit, adaptability, energy and persistence. It is also a plea for future generations to keep agitating for a better, fairer world.

How we speak of and to the world we live in requires us to make sense of where we are and where we're going; it requires us to describe, interrogate and analyse our places from the smallest to the grandest of scales.

In the second issue of Griffith Review, published fifteen years ago, Melissa Lucashenko wrote of 'earthspeaking, talking about this place, my home?. All these years later, the need to hear all sorts of earthspeak has perhaps never been more urgent. Co-edited by Julianne Schultz and Ashley Hay, Griffith Review 63 - Writing the Country features contributions from writers including Tony Birch, Kim Mahood, Jane Gleeson-White and Charles Massy. This edition of Griffith Review is supported by The Nature Conservancy.

The Sunday Times bestseller.

'Eye-opening, damning and hilarious' Tim Shipman, author of All Out War and Fall Out.

I'm a barrister, a job which requires the skills of a social worker, relationship counsellor, arm-twister, hostage negotiator, named driver, bus fare-provider, accountant, suicide watchman, coffee-supplier, surrogate parent and, on one memorable occasion, whatever the official term is for someone tasked with breaking the news to a prisoner that his girlfriend has been diagnosed with gonorrhoea.

Welcome to the world of the Secret Barrister. These are the stories of life inside the courtroom. They are sometimes funny, often moving and ultimately life-changing.

How can you defend a child-abuser you suspect to be guilty? What do you say to someone sentenced to ten years who you believe to be innocent? What is the law and why do we need it?

And why do they wear those stupid wigs?

From the criminals to the lawyers, the victims, witnesses and officers of the law, here is the best and worst of humanity, all struggling within a broken system which would never be off the front pages if the public knew what it was really like.

Both a searing first-hand account of the human cost of the criminal justice system, and a guide to how we got into this mess, The Secret Barrister wants to show you what it's really like and why it really matters.

Merchants of Truth by Jill Abramson, former editor of The New York Times, is the gripping and definitive in-the-room account of the revolution that has swept the news industry over the last decade and reshaped our world.

Drawing on revelatory access, Abramson takes us behind the scenes at four media titans during the most volatile years in news history. Two are maverick upstarts- BuzzFeed, the brain-child of virtuoso clickbait scientist Jonah Perretti, and VICE, led by the booze-fuelled anarcho-hipster Shane Smith. Their viral technology and disregard for the long-established standards of news journalism allow them to build game-changing billion-dollar businesses out of the millennial taste for puppies and nudity.

The two others are among the world's most venerable news institutions- The New York Times, owned and run for generations by the Sulzberger dynasty, and The Washington Post, also family-owned but soon to be bought by the world's richest merchant of all, Jeff Bezos. Here Abramson reveals first-hand the seismic clashes that take place in the boardrooms and newsrooms as they are forced to choose between their cherished principles - objectivity and impartiality - and survival in a world where online advertising via Facebook and Google seems the only life-raft.

We are with the deal-making tycoons, thrusting reporters and hard-bitten editors, the egomaniacs, bullshitters, provocateurs and bullies, as some surf and others drown in the breaking wave of change. And we watch as the survivors confront the horrifying cost of their success- sexual scandal, fake news, the election of President Trump, the shaking of democracy.

Exposing the people and decisions that brought us to now, Merchants of Truth is a major book that breaks the ultimate news story of our times.

In 2013, journalist Ginger Gorman was trolled online. She received scores of hateful tweets, including a death threat. She was terrified, but once the attack subsided, she found herself curious. Who were these trolls? How and why did they coordinate such an attack? And how does someone fight back?

Over the next five years, Gorman spoke to psychologists, trolling victims, law enforcement, academics and, most importantly, trolls themselves, embedding herself into their online communities and their psyches in ways she had never anticipated. She uncovered links between trolling, cyberhate and real-life crimes. She mapped out a cohort of men - mostly angry, young and white - who rightly or wrongly feel marginalised and disenfranchised and use the internet to express this. She encountered the frequently extreme personal costs endured by trolling targets, not to mention the very real financial and economic costs of cyberhate.

A gripping read, Troll Hunting is a window into not just the mindset of trolls, but also the profound changes in the way we live and work in a post-internet world. Trolls didn't appear from thin air - they are real people, and reflect a real aspect of our society. This remarkable investigation will change the way you think about the internet, and what it means to be a human online.

'Compelling. What does it mean to be a man? Finally, we're talking about it. This book is the conversation we need to have-with each other, our sons and fathers.' Peter FitzSimons, bestselling author of Kokoda 'A terrific read-gutsy, plain-speaking and personal, addressing almost every aspect of Australian men's lives today . . . This book will greatly help the growing avalanche of masculine change.' Steve Biddulph, psychologist and bestselling author of Manhood The performance of being a man, from the moment we open our eyes, until we gasp our last breath, is damaging us, and those around us.

Phil Barker has written thousands of words about being a man in these strange and terrible times. As a journalist, he has spent years investigating the modern epidemics of suicide, domestic violence, pornography and misogyny, but also the essential bonds of male friendship, fatherhood and men's relationships with women. During this time, Phil found himself seeing what it is to 'be a man' in a completely new light.

Men are forced into a performance of masculinity that is suffocating, limiting and damaging. The Revolution of Man shows us how to rethink what it means to be a man and urges men to reconnect with their emotions so they, and the people they love, can start leading happier, healthier and more meaningful lives.

'Phil Barker skewers toxic masculinity and provides a manifesto for modern manhood. This well-researched, engaging and thought-provoking book explains why positive masculinity is good for men, women and children. We need more male allies like Phil to create a safer future for the post #MeToo generation.' Tracey Spicer, journalist and bestselling author of The Good Girl Stripped Bare

The hacker now known as Alien entered MIT in 1998, intending to major in aerospace engineering. Almost immediately, she was recruited to join a secret student group scaling walls, breaking into buildings, pulling elaborate pranks, and exploring computer systems. Within a year, one of her hall mates was dead, two others were on trial, and three had been institutionalised. And Alien?s adventures were only beginning. Breaking and Entering is a whirlwind history of the last 20 years of hacking and cybersecurity. As Alien develops from teenage novice to international expert, she joins the secret vanguard of our digitised world, and reveals the forces at work behind our everyday technology.

A welcome dose of dark humor for these dark times, The Book of Extraordinary Deaths introduces readers to the bizarre demises of thinkers, writers, monarchs, artists, and notable nobodies throughout history. Beginning in the fifth century BC with the morbidly unusual death of Aeschylus and journeying chronologically to identical twins-who died on the same day-in the present day, readers will learn of people they may or may not have ever heard of, but will forever remember for their memorable final moments. With Ruiz's sharply witty descriptions and compellingly beautiful illustrations, her characters come to life on the page even as they reach their demises. If you are unfamiliar with the Dancing Plague of Strasbourg, the strange duel that claimed balloonist Monsieur de Pique's life, or the fatal wardrobe malfunction of famed dancer Isadora Duncan, then you are in for a treat.

A jargon-free guide to your child's education and how you can help them thrive at school For Australian children to achieve their full potential in a rapidly changing world, they need a high-quality education. However, experts and teachers can't do it alone. In fact, all the research shows that parents and carers have a big part to play.

In 12 Ways Your Child Can Get the Best Out of School, Professor Adrian Piccoli, Director of the Gonski Institute for Education and former NSW education minister, sets out clearly what you need to know to ensure your child receives the quality education they deserve. Jargon-free and easy to understand, this book will empower you with the knowledge and advice you need to make a difference, including:

What to look for when choosing a school What questions to ask at parent-teacher interviews What is NAPLAN and does it matter Homework - why, why not, and how much Supporting children with special needs What does the ATAR really mean Setting high expectations and handling stress Managing screen time and the role of technology at school.

With clear and concise advice, case studies and more, 12 Ways Your Child Can Get the Best Out of School is for every parent and carer who wants to help their child flourish and do well. And, surely, that's all of us.

Depression and anxiety are now at epidemic levels. Why? Across the world, scientists have uncovered evidence for nine different causes. Some are in our biology, but most are in the way we are living today.

Lost Connections offers a radical new way of thinking about this crisis. It shows that once we understand the real causes, we can begin to turn to pioneering new solutions - ones that offer real hope. 

Amal Awad's life changed when her father was diagnosed with kidney failure. It was a shock to see the impact it had on him, both physically and mentally, and the way the side effects trickled onto those around him. Work had always made him feel whole and retirement was a challenge.

On a mission to help her father and support her mother, Amal began spending every Friday with her parents. She saw the gaps in discussion around ageing and sickness. Amal's personal experiences prompted her to explore how Australians are ageing, how sickness affects the afflicted and those around them, and what solutions exist when hope seems lost.

So many people are similarly navigating a new reality - weeks dotted with doctor appointments; conversations that deplete and reveal at the same time; reshaped family relationships. Amal speaks with doctors, nurses, an aged care psychologist, specialists, politicians, ageing people living alone and others in a retirement village, to gain insights and to consider solutions.

At a time when ageism and health is high on the public's radar, what we're not always talking about is how to deal with the anxiety, depression and overall challenges that come with someone you love facing their mortality and a decline in health.

Fridays with My Folks shares heartfelt, honest stories that will help others who are in similar positions. People who are having to reorient themselves when the boat has taken a battering and they have to take a new direction.

This book stems from personal experiences, but it expands to a much wider, more universal discussion about life, suffering, coping and hope.

Back in 1930, the economist John Maynard Keynes prophesied that by the century's end, technology would see us all working fifteen-hour weeks. But instead, something curious happened. Today, average working hours have not decreased, but increased. And now, across the developed world, three-quarters of all jobs are in services or admin, jobs that don't seem to add anything to society- bullshit jobs. In Bullshit Jobs, David Graeber explores how this phenomenon - one more associated with the 20th-century Soviet Union, but which capitalism was supposed to eliminate - has happened. In doing so, he looks at how we value work, and how, rather than being productive, work has become an end in itself; the way such work maintains the current broken system of finance capital; and, finally, how we can get out of it.

Now, more than ever, we all need to invest wisely and prudently.

Want to invest in shares but don?t know where to start? Worried about how to make the most of your super? Need a financial adviser but don?t know how to find someone reliable?

In It?s Your Money, Alan Kohler, one of Australia?s most trusted financial experts, offers practical guidance for investors of all ages. He shares his investing philosophy and offers advice on all aspects of financial planning, including engaging an adviser; building a property portfolio; investing in shares, bonds or managed funds; growing your superannuation; and ethical investment. It?s Your Money is an indispensable guide for anyone who wants to do more with their money. Alan shows how, with a few careful steps and some practical wisdom, anyone can invest sensibly and successfully. He gives you the tools to be confidently in charge of your money and your future, your way.

Good leadership. Why is it so elusive? Are there successful traits that can be transferred from one field to another, or is it a constant application of imagination to the changing challenges? How do you take others with you?

Now more than ever we need leaders who can be strong yet humble, bold and assertive when it counts but have the capacity to listen and learn, who can motivate and influence, and who can get the best out of those around them.

Twenty-five outstanding Australian leaders-from diverse worlds such as science, the police force, a netball team, a spy agency, emergency medicine, business, politics and unionism-share their insights and lessons on the essence of inspiring leadership.

Who knew frugality could be so much fun?

Australians are amongst the wealthiest people on the planet, but for some reason we don't like to think or talk about money. Once upon a time, thrift and frugality were celebrated as virtues - not anymore. When did 'frugal' become such a dirty word? It's time to reclaim it!

When you respect and understand money, it almost magically transforms itself into something that grows exponentially. In The Joyful Frugalista, Money Magazine's Serina Bird shares myriad practical tips for saving money in small ways every day for a better, brighter future.

Discover inside: * Ideas and resources for saving on everything from energy bills to weddings, clothing and eating out *Clever ways to cut down your waste *Tips for embracing the joy of minimalism *Ways to wring every drop of pleasure from the money you have *Challenges to help you live life better, including how to feed your family well on $50 per week.

The Joyful Frugalista is the essential handbook to living frugally, mindfully and with real joy on any budget.

The United States was once the hope of the world, a beacon of freedom and the defender of liberal democracy. Nations and peoples on all continents looked to America to stand up for the values that created the Western world, and to oppose autocracy and repression. Even when America did not live up to its ideals, it still recognized their importance, at home and abroad.

But as Bernard-Henri Levy lays bare in this powerful and disturbing analysis of the world today, America is retreating from its traditional leadership role, and in its place have come five ambitious nations, former empires eager to assert power and influence. Levy shows how these five nations - Russia, China, Turkey, Iran, and the Sunni Arab world - are taking steps to undermine the liberal values that have been a hallmark of Western civilization.

The Empire and the Five Kings is a cri de coeur that draws upon lessons from history and the eternal touchstones of human culture to reveal the stakes facing the West as America retreats from its leadership role, a process that did not begin with Donald Trump's presidency and is not likely to end with him. The crisis is one whose roots can be found as far back as antiquity and whose resolution will require the West to find a new way forward if it - and its values - are to survive.

The idea that war is sometimes justified is deeply embedded in public consciousness. But it is only credible so long as we believe that the ethical standards of just war are in fact realizable in practice.

In this engaging book, Christopher Finlay elucidates the assumptions underlying just war theory and defends them from a range of objections, arguing that it is a regrettable but necessary reflection of the moral realities of international politics. Using a range of historical and contemporary examples, he demonstrates the necessity of employing the theory on the basis of careful moral appraisal of real-life political landscapes and striking a balance between theoretical ideals and the practical realities of conflict.

This book will be a crucial guide to the complexities of just war theory for all students and scholars of the ethics and political theory of war.

Part of the new Ladybird Expert series, Plato's Republic is an accessible, authoritative, and timely introduction to the influential dialogue that helped shape all Western literature and philosophy.

Written by distinguished philosopher and professor Angie Hobbs, Plato's Republic explores the age old dilemma- Why should I be just? What is a just society, and how can it be created?

With strikingly relevant questions such as- How can women's potential be actualized? How are democracies subverted by demagogues and tyrants? How dangerous are 'alternative facts' and what can we do about them? This text is still essential reading.

Now in its 20th anniversary edition, world-renowned philosopher Anthony Kenny's highly acclaimed survey of Western philosophy has been updated to provide essential coverage of contemporary Anglophone analytic and continental philosophy, and features a brand-new introduction on the history of philosophical sub-disciplines.

20th anniversary edition of Sir Anthony Kenny's acclaimed survey of over 2,500 years of Western philosophical thought, featuring new chapters on Anglophone analytic and continental philosophy Offers the most concise and compelling story of the complete development of philosophy available Written by one of the most learned and pedigreed philosophers alive in Britain New to this edition is an array of significant female thinkers and continental figures such as Heidegger, Sartre, Beauvoir, Derrida, Foucault, Habermas, Popper, Anscombe, Austin, Geach, Foot, Quine, Davidson, Kripke, and Rawls Sets itself apart from competing volumes with Kenny's distinctive voice and approachable style, making it accessible for students and curious general readers Now features 70 illustrations, many new to this edition

Known as the 'four horsemen' of New Atheism, these four big thinkers of the twenty-first century met only once. Their electrifying examination of ideas on this remarkable occasion was intense and wide-ranging. Everything that was said as they agreed and disagreed with one another, interrogated ideas and exchanged insights - about religion and atheism, science and sense - speaks with urgency to our present age. Questions they asked of each other included- 'Is it ever possible to win a war of ideas? Is spirituality the preserve of the religious? Are there any truths you would rather not know? Would you want to see the end of faith?' The dialogue was recorded, and is now transcribed and presented here with new introductions from the surviving three horsemen. With a sparkling introduction from Stephen Fry, it makes essential reading for all their admirers and for anyone interested in exploring the tensions between faith and reason.

In this accessible and important follow up to The Art of Happiness His Holiness the Dalai Lama teaches us how to live a happier and more spiritual life by fostering compassion and wisdom.

Filled with his trademark honesty and warmth, this book explains how practically applying the values of Buddhism can help you find answers to both the everyday problems we face - relationships, health, work and happiness - and the major issues and changes facing humanity today including globalisation, technology and terrorism.

Drawn from the Dalai Lama's teachings during his fourth visit to Australia and New Zealand, which focused on gaining strength through compassion, Lighting the Path reminds us that we each have the ability to change our own life for the better, and the power to improve the lives of others as well.

Explaining the central tenets of Buddhism, including the Four Noble Truths, Atisha's Lamp for the Path of Enlightenment and the Eight Verses of Mind Training, this book will give you the practical guidance you need to deal with life's challenges and help you develop inner peace.

Judaism is by some distance the oldest of the three Abrahamic religions and, despite the extraordinarily varied forms it has taken and diverse beliefs it has contained over three millennia, it has been generally understood by both Jews and gentiles as a single entity. There have been many histories of the Jewish people but remarkably few attempts to relate the history and evolution of Judaism itself. In this book, the first comprehensive, single-volume work of its kind in English, Martin Goodman explains how Judaism came to be and how it has developed from one period to another, as well as the ways in which its varieties have related to each other.

Proving that there is still more to learn from Joseph Campbell, this volume shares his personal letters vibrantly curated in a way that highlights not only Campbell's mastery of fields as diverse as anthropology, literature, depth psychology, religious studies, and of course comparative mythology but also his hands-on approach to experiencing, rather than simply studying, subjects such as Kundalini Yoga and Buddhism. The editors arrange Campbell's personal writings to friends, colleagues, and fellow thinkers in a way that illuminates an intellectual point in time that continues to resonate in contemporary culture. Anyone who has ever been counseled to follow your bliss, knows Campbell and will benefit from learning more about his thinking here.

Janet Malcolm's previous collection, Forty-One False Starts- Essays on Artists and Writers, was 'unmistakably the work of a master' (New York Times Book Review). Like Forty-One False Starts, Nobody's Looking at You brings together previously uncompiled pieces, mainly from The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books.

The title piece of this wonderfully eclectic collection is a profile of the fashion designer Eileen Fisher, whose mother often said to her, 'Nobody's looking at you.' But in every piece in this volume, Malcolm looks closely and with impunity at a broad range of subjects, from Donald Trump's TV nemesis Rachel Maddow, to the stiletto-heel-wearing pianist Yuju Wang, to 'the big-league game' of Supreme Court confirmation hearings. In 'Socks', the Pevears are seen as the 'sort of asteroid that has hit the safe world of Russian Literature in English translation', and in 'Dreams and Anna Karenina', the focus is Tolstoy, 'one of literature's greatest masters of manipulative techniques'.

Nobody's Looking at You consolidates Jane Malcolm's reputation as one of the greatest non-fiction writers at work today.

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2018 Shortlisted for The Goldsmiths Prize 2018 Winner of The Roehampton Poetry Prize 2018 A noir narrative written with the intensity and power of poetry, The Long Take is one of the most remarkable - and unclassifiable - books of recent years.

Walker is a D-Day veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder; he can't return home to rural Nova Scotia, and looks instead to the city for freedom, anonymity and repair. As he moves from New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco we witness a crucial period of fracture in American history, one that also allowed film noir to flourish. The Dream had gone sour but - as those dark, classic movies made clear - the country needed outsiders to study and dramatise its new anxieties.

While Walker tries to piece his life together, America is beginning to come apart: deeply paranoid, doubting its own certainties, riven by social and racial division, spiralling corruption and the collapse of the inner cities. The Long Take is about a good man, brutalised by war, haunted by violence and apparently doomed to return to it - yet resolved to find kindness again, in the world and in himself.

Watching beauty and disintegration through the lens of the film camera and the eye of the poet, Robin Robertson's The Long Take is a work of thrilling originality.

Age range 12+ Do you ever think about the structure and arrangement of what you say and write? And why it's said and written like that and not some other how?

Has anyone ever asked you to catch a red big ball? No. Because in English we would say `big red ball'. Why is that? After the success of her bestselling The Australian Schoolkids' Guide to Debating and Public Speaking, Claire Duffy turns her hand to helping students write well. In this easy-to-use and fun guide to writing and grammar, children (aged 12+), their parents and teachers will learn all they need to know about the elements of grammar, punctuation, spelling and sentence construction. With practical tips and helpful step-by-step examples, this book will help students master everything from apostrophes to essay writing.

`Any mention of grammar, punctuation and spelling can make students take fright. This clear and cheerful guide makes writing easy and will soothe any fear or dread.' - Sue Butler AO, former editor of Macquarie Dictionary

The Innocence of Memories is an important addition to the oeuvre of Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk. Comprised of the screenplay of the acclaimed film by Grant Gee from 2015 (by the same name), a transcript of the author and filmmaker in conversation, and captivating colour stills, it is an essential volume for understanding Pamuk's work.

Drawing on the themes from Pamuk's best-selling books, The Museum of Innocence, Istanbul and The Black Book, this book is both an accompaniment to the author's previous publications and a wonderfully revelatory exploration of Orhan Pamuk's key ideas about art, love, and memory.

For D. H. Lawrence the novel was the pinnacle, 'the one bright book of life', yet his non-fiction shows him at his most freewheeling and playful. This is a selection of his brilliantly varied essays, on subjects including art, morality, obscenity, songbirds, Italy, Thomas Hardy, the death of a porcupine in the Rocky Mountains and the narcissism of photographing ourselves. Arranged chronologically to illuminate the patterns of Lawrence's thought over time, and including many little-known pieces, they reveal a writer of enduring freshness and force.

A vital new non-fiction collection from one of the most celebrated and revered writers of our time 'Word-work is sublime, she thinks, because it is generative; it makes meaning that secures our difference, our human difference-the way in which we are like no other life. We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.' The Nobel Lecture in Literature, 1993 Spanning four decades, these essays, speeches and meditations interrogate the world around us. They are concerned with race, gender and globalisation. The sweep of American history and the current state of politics. The duty of the press and the role of the artist. Throughout A Mouth Full of Blood our search for truth, moral integrity and expertise is met by Toni Morrison with controlled anger, elegance and literary excellence.

The collection is structured in three parts and these are heart-stoppingly introduced by a prayer for the dead of 9/11, a meditation on Martin Luther King and a eulogy for James Baldwin. Morrison's Nobel lecture, on the power of language, is accompanied by lectures to Amnesty International and the Newspaper Association of America. She speaks to graduating students and visitors to both the Louvre and America's Black Holocaust Museum. She revisits The Bluest Eye, Sula and Beloved; reassessing the novels that have become touchstones for generations of readers.

A Mouth Full of Blood is a powerful, erudite and essential gathering of ideas that speaks to us all.

'To what do we pay greatest allegiance? Family, language group, culture, country, gender? Religion, race? And, if none of these matter, are we urbane, cosmopolitan or simply lonely? In other words, how do we decide where we belong? What convinces us that we do?' The Alexander Lecture series, 2002

Most of us believe in fairness. Why then do we have creeping inequality in the land of the fair go?

The answer lies in stagnant wage rises, gender pay inequity, insecure work and the lack of real opportunities for all while corporations are still consuming large profits and executives claim record bonuses.

Sally McManus confronts these truths every day. In On Fairness, she explores the true cost of social injustice and argues for advancing Australia fair.

How to make speeches that seize the moment, advance your cause and lead the way.

For those who aim to be leaders, mastering the power of speechmaking -the art and craft of persuasion - is more important than ever. If you want to be heard, it's not enough to have something to say: you must know how to say it.

In government, business or civil society, a leader's speech sets the tone: the wrong words can destroy a company, damage a reputation, or even start a war. But the right speech can build prosperity, drive peaceful solutions and bring people together.

This book meets the difficulties of modern speechmaking head-on, taking us through the process of formulating ideas, finding the best ways to express them, and delivering an accomplished address.

Using examples from history, literature and her 25- year career as a speechwriter, Lucinda Holdforth writes a compelling analysis of celebratory, rallying and explanatory speeches. She reminds us that democracies rise and fall on the quality of the debates we conduct and the subsequent decisions we make.

This is not only a practical manual for crafting a powerful speech, it's a cracking read.

The right words can be transformative. They can stir a heart or reimagine the world. Leading Lines will help you find those words, and lead the way.

A brilliant, idiosyncratic collection of introductions and afterwords (plus some liner notes) by New York Times bestselling and Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon- one of contemporary literature's most gifted prose stylists (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times).

In Bookends, Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon offers a compilation of pieces about literature-age-old classics as well as his own-that presents a unique look into his literary origins and influences, the books that shaped his taste and formed his ideas about writing and reading.

Chabon asks why anyone would write an introduction, or for that matter, read one. His own daughter Rose prefers to skip them. Chabon's answer is simple and simultaneously profound: a hope of bringing pleasure for the reader. Likewise, afterwords-they are all about shared pleasure, about the pure love of a work of art that has inspired, awakened, transformed the reader. Ultimately, this thought-provoking compendium is a series of love letters and thank-you notes, unified by the simple theme of the shared pleasure of discovery, whether it's the boyhood revelation of the most important story in Chabon's life (Ray Bradbury's The Rocket Man ); a celebration of the greatest literary cartographer of the planet Mars (Edgar Rice Burroughs, with his character John Carter); a reintroduction to a forgotten master of ghost stories (M. R. James, ironically the happiest of men ); the recognition that the worlds of Wes Anderson's films are reassembled scale models of our own broken reality (as is all art); Chabon's own rude awakening from the muse as he writes his debut novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh; or a playful parody of lyrical interpretation in the liner notes for Mark Ronson's Uptown Special, the true purpose of which, Chabon insists, is to spread the gospel of sensible automotive safety and maintenance practices.

Galaxies away from academic or didactic, Bookends celebrates wonder-and like the copy of The Phantom Tollbooth handed to young Michael by a friend of his father he never saw again-it is a treasured gift.

For the fiftieth anniversary of the film, W.K. Stratton's definitive history of the making of The Wild Bunch, named one of the greatest Westerns of all time by the American Film Institute.

In The Wild Bunch, W.K. Stratton tells the fascinating history of the making of the movie and documents for the first time the extraordinary contribution of Mexican and Mexican-American actors and crew members to the movie's success. Shaped by infamous director Sam Peckinpah, and starring such visionary actors as William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Edmond O'Brien, and Robert Ryan, the movie was also the product of an industry and a nation in transition. By 1968, when the movie was filmed, the studio system that had perpetuated the myth of the valiant cowboy in movies like The Searchers had collapsed, and America was riled by Vietnam, race riots, and assassinations. The Wild Bunch spoke to America in its moment, when war and senseless violence seemed to define both domestic and international life.

The Wild Bunch is an authoritative history of the making of a movie and the era behind it.

Stravinsky in the Americas explores the pre-Craft period of Igor Stravinsky's life, from when he first landed on American shores in 1925 to the end of World War II in 1945. Through a rich archival trove of ephemera, correspondence, photographs, and other documents, eminent musicologist H. Colin Slim examines the twenty-year period that began with Stravinsky as a radical European art-music composer and ended with him as a popular figure in American culture. This collection traces Stravinsky's rise to fame - catapulted in large part by his collaborations with Hollywood and Disney and marked by his extra-marital affairs, his grappling with feelings of anti-Semitism, and his encounters with contemporary musicians as the music industry was emerging and taking shape in midcentury America. Slim's lively narrative records the composer's larger-than-life persona through a close look at his transatlantic tours and domestic excursions, where Stravinsky's personal and professional life collided in often-dramatic ways.

Ben Quilty has worked across a range of media including drawing, photography, sculpture, installation and film. His works often respond to social and political events, from the current global refugee crisis to the complex social history of Australia; he is constantly critiquing notions of identity, patriotism and male rites of passage.

Quilty is a past winner of the Archibald Prize for portraiture, the National Self-portrait prize, and the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize. This rich and comprehensive collection of his work from the past two decades is accompanied by essays from Lisa Slade and Justin Paton.

Treasures of Botanical Art reveals the history of botanical painting, its beauty and science, with works from two renowned collections and over one hundred significant artists, dating from the late 1400s through to today.

Paintings featured from the Kew collection include works by well-known artists the Bauer brothers, Redoute, Ehret, Fitch, Lilian Snelling and Margaret Mee as well as many lesser known artists.

Contemporary works are featured from the Sherwood collection by a host of international artists.

Over 200 stunning botanical paintings are showcased in this gift book, accompanied with informative text on the origins, history and relevance of botanical art, as well as information on the plants themselves.

Biographies of over 120 artists are provided at the end of the book, revealing the historical and international background of this genre.

'Two of the best botanical minds come together in this beautifully illustrated book...the illustrations, from the Kew Collection, are breath-taking and the text wonderfully informative'. - Oxford Times 'This book is a tribute both to Shirley Sherwood and to Kew, and should be bought by everyone with an interest in botanical illustration'. - Curtis's Botanical Magazine

If you've spent years navigating one restrictive diet after another, it's time to shed the fear of eating the 'wrong' thing and fall in love with food again. An enduring kitchen is one where real food and thoughtful eating practices come together, and where commonsense and simplicity are celebrated.

Supercharge Your Life serves up information and inspiration to help you consume with purpose. There are over 160 beautiful and nourishing recipes for every occasion from breakfast to afternoon tea, from hearty family dishes to celebration feasts. Woven throughout is Lee's inspiring insight on the keystones for living a 'whole' life: home and family; health and longevity; friends and community; spirituality; finances; career and passion. At the heart of it all, there is food - a force for joy and connection in every aspect of life.

The rose is the world's favourite flower - and always has been. It is the greatest floral symbol of love and romance the world over, and touches people's hearts at many points in their lives as the flower most often chosen to celebrate significant milestones - weddings, anniversaries, births and deaths. This book traces the journey of the rose across the centuries from battles to bouquets, charting its botanical, religious, literary and artistic history.

From Cleopatra's rose-petal-filled bed to Nijinsky's Spectre de la Rose, from the highly prized attar of rose oil so beloved by the ancient Persians to top-brand perfume labels today, and from Shakespearean myths about the Wars of the Roses to the significance of Queen Elizabeth I's embroidered dresses, Rose encapsulates the story of what makes this botanical family so loved. Using historical, literary and botanical sources from the world's major rose-growing nations, with vibrant illustrations from across the centuries and tales of medieval best-sellers, nurserymen's rivalries and changing tastes in the flower bed, Rose will be a delight to read for both the gardener and non-gardener alike.

Charlotte Runcie has always felt pulled to the sea, lured by its soothing, calming qualities but also enlivened and inspired by its salty wildness. When she loses her beloved grandmother, and becomes pregnant with her first child, she feels its pull even more intensely.

In Salt On Your Tongue Charlotte explores what the sea means to us, and particularly what it has meant to women through the ages. This book is a walk on the beach with Turner, with Shakespeare, with the Romantic Poets and shanty-singers. It's an ode to our oceans - to the sailors who brave their treacherous waters, to the women who lost their loved ones to the waves, to the creatures that dwell in their depths, to beach trawlers, swimmers, seabirds and mermaids.

In mesmerising prose, Charlotte Runcie explores how the sea has inspired, fascinated and terrified us, and how she herself fell in love with the deep blue. Navigating through ancient Greek myths, poetry, shipwrecks and Scottish folktales, Salt On Your Tongue is about how the wild untameable waves can help us understand what it means to be human.

The Orient Line was once one of the most recognised names operating on the route between Great Britain and Australia, forming an important connection between the many peoples of the Empire. The great vessels of Orient Line included Oronsay, Orsova, Orcades and Oriana.

Despite being formed with no mail subsidy and a dominant competitor in P&O, the Orient Line endured. It survived two world wars, the Great Depression and stormy seas - carrying everything from mail to royalty, troops to tourists.

From the early days of the Orient Line of Clipper Ships through the era of steam driven liners, to the final Orient Line voyage, this book showcases the history of Orient Line with an exquisite collection of rare photographs.

Hit Europe's can't-miss art, sights, and bites with RICK STEVES BEST OF EUROPE!

Expert advice from Rick Steves on what's worth your time and money Itineraries for one to four days in the top destinations in England, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland Rick's tips for beating the crowds, skipping lines, and avoiding tourist traps The best of local culture, flavors, and haunts, including walks through the most interesting neighborhoods and museums Trip planning strategies like how to link destinations and design your itinerary, what to pack, where to stay, and how to get around Over 100 full-color maps and vibrant photos Experience Europe's Old World romance and New World excitement for yourself with RICK STEVES BEST OF EUROPE!

RICK STEVES BEST OF EUROPE covers London, Paris, Provence, the French Riviera, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Venice, Florence, Cinque Terre, the Swiss Alps/Berner Oberland, Munich, Rothenberg and the Romantic Road, the Rhine Valley, Berlin, and Amsterdam

Townsville lined the footpath as we marched down to the quay. This clipping from the paper shows us young and strong and clean. And there's me in my slouch hat, with my SLR and greens. God help me, I was only nineteen.

John Schumann's unforgettable lyrics about the Vietnam War are etched in our memories and into our history books. Now they've been warmly brought to life by one of Australia's best-loved illustrators.

REMEMBERING BLACK SATURDAY.

There is a fire coming, and we need to move quickly. Mum and Dad start packing bags, grabbing woollen blankets, the first-aid kit, torches, and then the photo albums. Dad puts Ruby on her lead and ties her up near the back door. My chest feels hollow, like a birdcage.

Atmospheric and intensely moving, this is the story of a family experiencing a bushfire, its devastating aftermath, and the long process of healing and rebuilding.

The fire awoke like a dragon. Its flames licked the sky, and smoke veiled the sun. With a hungry crackle and an angry hiss, the cruel beast circled, trapping them. Until, through the smoke, knights appeared. Through the Smoke tells the story of three kids, their imagination and a frightening fire in the Australian bush.

Follow the 1768 journey of James Cooks H.M.S. Endeavour with his ships cook, the one-handed John Thompson, as story teller! Through real recipes, events on board and the places the ship travelled on its way to the Pacific, the book tells multiple stories. Stories of social class, hierarchy and race; stories of explorers and the people of the land; the story of one of the worlds most famous explorers told through a fresh new lens. And of course, its a book about food: from Pease Pudding to Goose Pie and Shark Steaks, heres how a resourceful cook fed a shipful of hungry sailors on their extraordinary adventure. This beautiful book is full of information drawn from extensive research alongside evocative illustrations, released in time for the 250th anniversary of the Endeavours journey.

An extremely timely and beautiful picture book about the effects of drought and climate change in the Mallee.

The first people of the land call the Mallee Nowie . It means sunset country. When the sun goes down the red heat of the day bleeds into the sky and sets it on fire. Drought and rain - life under a Mallee Sky.

This poetic text by emerging author Jodi Toering is beautifully accompanied by lush oil paintings by fine artist and illustrator Tannya Harricks.

The new heart-warming and hilariously brilliant story from number one bestselling author David Walliams. Beautifully illustrated by artistic genius, Tony Ross.

Dads come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

There are fat ones and thin ones, tall ones and short ones. There are young ones and old ones, clever ones and stupid ones. There are silly ones and serious ones, loud ones and quiet ones. Of course, there are good dads, and bad dads . . .

A high-speed cops and robbers adventure with heart and soul about a father and son taking on the villainous Mr Big - and winning!

This riches-to-rags story will have you on the edge of your seat and howling with laughter!

Bad Dad is a fast and furious, heart-warming story of a father and son on an adventure - and a thrilling mission to break an innocent man into prison!

Vex is gone! We have to find him. But how? He could be anywhere. We'll have to track him down. That's impossible. Not if we work together!

Mr Bambuckle and the class in room 12B are in trouble. Can they find Vex before it's too late?

Enola is thrown into a tailspin when she receives a desperate message from her old friend, Lady Cecily. Enola knows she must help her friend before it's too late - but she doesn't know how! This complicated case has Enola hunting down clues all over London until she finally discovers the awful truth: Lady Cecily is being held prisoner! Enola must risk her own freedom and join forces with her brother, the famed Sherlock Holmes, to free Cecily. Can Enola trust her brother, and can they save Cecily in time?

Everyone knows Dr. Watson is Sherlock Holmes' right-hand man - so when he goes missing, it's a shock. Even Sherlock hasn't the slightest clue as to where he could be. Enola is intrigued but wary; she's still hiding from her older brothers, and getting involved could prove to be disastrous. But Enola can't help but investigate, especially when she learns that a bizarre bouquet - with flowers all symbolizing death - has been delivered to the Watson residence. Enola knows she must act quickly, but can she find Dr. Watson in time?

As the daughter of global music superstars, Melody Trumpet was supposed to be extraordinary - a melodic genius to carry on the Trumpet legacy.

But, as was discovered when Melody screamed her first out-of-tune note as a baby, this wasn't to be.

Ten years on, Melody is still kept away from the world in Trumpet Manor.

If only secrets could stay hidden ...

For Melody Trumpet, it's about finding the extraordinary in ordinary!

MORE PRAISE 'This is a fun, well-written story about finding your voice for readers aged seven to 10 years old' - Books+Publishing, four stars

Find out where rain comes from and what geysers look like! Read about soil becoming too salty and why greenhouse gases are increasing. Did you know that fog is a cloud sitting on the ground and that ice can tell you about the environment of millions of years ago? And what is lightning anyway?

Australian Backyard Earth Scientist is full of fantastic photos and fascinating information that help explain different aspects of earth science - a science that discovered how old the Earth is, what fossils tell us, how mountains were created, what causes earthquakes, what the difference between weather and climate is, and why glaciers are melting.

These questions and many more are answered in Australian Backyard Earth Scientist. There are projects, as well, that you can do at home - like making your own fossils, collecting cloud types, and using tree rings to find out about past weather.

Older readers will enjoy more detailed explanations and links to extra information in an extensive References section.

Australian Backyard Earth Scientist is an absorbing resource for both homes and classrooms. A thematic approach makes it easy for young readers to discover the influences that have fashioned our earth-and are still acting to change it. From the beginnings of the planet through to climate change and today's concerns about rapid transformation, interesting and fun facts and projects help develop an understanding and appreciation.

Only a small percentage of people will visit space in their lifetime, but now you don't have to be an astronaut to see our universe in stunning detail! In Space: The Definitive Visual Catalog, you will be transported to our solar system and galaxies far beyond with the help of incredibly detailed colour photographs from NASA and the International Space Station.

Full of amazing facts and key information about the planets and stars in our solar system, as well as recently discovered galaxies, Space is the only book you'll need to learn everything there is to know about the astounding world beyond our planet.

Dippy is a diprotodon, the BIGGEST, friendliest wombat who lived 100,000 years ago.

All Dippy wants is happy friends, a place to sleep and lots to eat.

Who knew that could be such an adventure?

Based on a concept by Ben Smith Whatley and brought to life by the creators of the international bestselling Diary of a Wombat, this is a hilarious story of prehistoric daring and chaos set in the fascinating world of ancient Australia megafauna.