Abbey's Advocate

Two estranged brothers, one stolen car and a road trip from Texas to New York. What could possibly go wrong? For fans of Nick Hornby, David Nicholls and Jonathan Tropper.

Jaded music journalist Rick McLennan knows his life is going south when he loses his job, his apartment and his long-term girlfriend all on the same day. But then he is thrown a lifeline - a commission to write the story of his ex-rock-star brother, Stevie, and drive him from Austin, Texas, to New York to play one final gig. One small problem: the brothers haven't spoken in thirty years.

Rick knows it's a bad idea. But he's out of choices. So he gets behind the wheel of a beaten-up 1985 Nissan Stanza and drives towards his destiny. He's about to find everything he didn't know he was missing. It's September 2001.

From award-winning journalist and author Barry Divola comes a glorious, music-infused, rollicking road-trip novel - think High Fidelity meets The Big Lebowski meets The Darjeeling Limited. A smart, funny and wholly endearing story about how, though we may at times lose ourselves along the way, the road always leads back to family and the things that bring us joy.

'Of course this road trip comes with a top-quality mix-tape - it's by Barry Divola - but it's the layers to this story, and its humour and its heart, that make this journey irresistible.' - Nick Earls 'This book is the super f ing gnarly lead break of rock-lit novels.' - John Birmingham 'Driving Stevie Fracasso reads as great as the fifth Replacements album sounds. It's a New York-centric, music-obsessive tale of humour and poignancy, the literary equivalent of hanging with folks who think going to church is finding a record fair. A+' - Stuart Coupe An interpreter of the listening experience forced to listen to experience? This novel will be read in between flippin' records. Go for the ride. You'll be spent, you'll be grateful.' - Tim Rogers 'If I could go back in time and take a different fork in the road, I would have lived like Barry Divola. But poor choices can't be unmade, and if Driving Stevie Fracasso is the only ride available I'll take it. Damn you, Barry Divola, you've been having everyone else's fun.' - Malcolm Knox

As the King of England wavers between duty and love, Sophie knows that she must choose duty.

The year is 1936 and the new King Edward VIII wishes to marry American divorcee, and suspected German agent, Wallis Simpson. Top-secret documents that the king must read and sign are being neglected for weeks, and some are even turning up in Berlin.

And as Germany grows its military might with many thousands of new fighter planes every year, Britain and its empire are under increasing threat.

Can Miss Lily's most successful protege, Sophie Vaile, the Countess of Shillings, seduce the new king, prevent his marriage to Wallis Simpson, and turn him from fascism?

And if a man can sacrifice his life for his country, should a woman hesitate to sacrifice her honour?

Based on new correspondence found in German archives, Lilies, Love and Lies is a work of fiction.

Or is it?

In the fourth title in the Miss Lily series, Jackie French explores one of the most controversial events in history that saw the unthinkable happen when a king chose love over duty.

'Two deep, bright, razor-sharp women at opposite ends of the earth tearing the band-aids off their souls, exposing truths and lies buried beneath marriage, motherhood and the sacrificial siege of mid-to-late-life maintenance. This is Susan Johnson at her most original, daring, bone-deep and deliciously raw. I fell, too, with aching heart and tickled rib, under the spell of this extraordinary book.' TRENT DALTON 'In a strikingly original reimagining of an epistolary novel, Susan Johnson creates two voices that echo and reverberate long after the final, heart-wrenching pages. Her best yet.' GERALDINE BROOKS An anguished email from Pamela Robinson in Australia to her ex-husband in Paris accidentally ends up in the inbox of New York State teacher Chrisanthi Woods. Chrisanthi is sympathetic to Pamela's struggles and the women begin to tell each other the stories and secrets of their lives.

Pamela, responsible for raising her three sons, must re-invent the meaning of home following her divorce, and Chrisanthi, her dreams long dampened, must find home by leaving it. Temperamental opposites, their emails turn into an exhilarating and provocative exchange of love, loss and fresh beginnings, by turns amusing, frank and confronting.

'Witty, warm, heartbreaking and honest - an audacious masterpiece from one of Australia's best writers.' NIKKI GEMMELL 'Few novelists working today can match Susan Johnson's uncanny ability to map both the joys and horrors of the human heart and to wrestle the ebb and flow of life to the page. From Where I Fell teems with regret, eruptions of joy, the complexities of motherhood, the power of memory, the pain of divorce and dashed and gained dreams.' MATTHEW CONDON

'The Family Doctor is a compelling thriller - fast-paced, gripping and frightening. But is more than that because it is a story that draws desperately needed attention to domestic abuse in this country, to institutional indifference, to the devaluing of women's lives. The Family Doctor is a cry for change.' Sofie Laguna, Miles Franklin Award-winning author of The Eye of the Sheep and Infinite Splendours 'Brilliant. So compelling on so many levels.' Chris Hammer, author of Scrublands 'Debra Oswald is always deft at capturing the nuances of female friendship and romantic attraction, but this time she brings them to a pitch of pulse-racing intensity. Delving into the dark world of domestic violence and society's abject failure to protect those most vulnerable, she has produced a gripping thriller, brimming with heart and intellect.' Geraldine Brooks, author of The Secret Chord Paula is a dedicated suburban GP, who is devastated by the murder of a friend and her children by their estranged husband and father. Stacey and the children had been staying with her after fleeing his control, and Paula is haunted by the thought that she couldn't protect them when they most needed it. How had she missed the warning signs? How had she failed to keep them safe?

Not long after, a patient with suspicious injuries brings her anxious young son into Paula's surgery. The woman admits that her husband hurts her, but she's terrified to leave for fear of escalating the violence, and defeated by the consistent failures of the law to help her.

Can Paula go against everything she believes to make sure one woman is saved, one child spared? She isn't motivated by revenge. She's desperately trying to prevent a tragedy . . .

A riveting, provocative novel about women's fury, traumatic grief, new love, deep friendship, and the preciousness of life, The Family Doctor asks the questions: Should you cling to faith in a flawed system, or take control the only way you can? Can a good person justify taking a life to save a life?

'Mesmerising and heart-breaking. A perfect story for this moment in time.' Sarah Bailey, author of Where the Dead Go 'The Family Doctor brings urgent news, taking the reader into suburban battlegrounds kept private by the threat and actuality of violence. In crystal-clear prose, Debra Oswald unveils an all-too-believable world of love and loyalty stretched to the limit, with agonising consequences when the best people are forced to do the worst things. When is it justified to fight fire with fire? The moment you finish this novel you will want to find someone else who has read it and talk all night about the vital questions it raises.' Malcolm Knox, author of Bluebird

A brilliant debut from a neurodiverse author that explores a young woman's magical, sensitive, and passionate inner world.

A young woman gets ready to go to a party. She arrives, feels overwhelmed, leaves, and then returns. Minutely attuned to the people who come into her view, and alternating between alienation and profound connection, she is hilarious, self-aware, sometimes acerbic, and painfully honest.

And by the end of the night, she's shown us something radical about love, loss, and the need to belong.

'A daring, prismatic novel about seeing and being seen, and the hunger for universal connection. Madeleine Ryan's clarity of vision imbues the ordinary - a party, strangers, inner-city streets - with cosmic significance. I came out of A Room Called Earth with fresh eyes and a full heart.' -Laura Elizabeth Woollett, author of Beautiful Revolutionary 'In this precious gemstone of a novel, Ryan communicates a lush, raw, addictive truth with her prosaic yet theatrical prose, her protagonist witnessing the world in a way that had me pausing for long deep breaths after most chapters. The world of this book is the world of a woman who knows herself because she has needed to, and a woman who many might recognise, despite her oneness. Reading Ryan is to be taught and to be refreshed, and I will return to her pages in the future, to remind me of the beauty there is in my own room called earth.' -Laura McPhee-Browne, author of Cherry Beach ' M uch of the novel's appeal comes from its illustration and examination of the narrator's blunt perspective on life and specifically social interaction ... Ryan's ability to convey her narrator's unique perspective makes it a worthwhile read.' -Kirkus Reviews

They will dedicate their lives to their country, but no one will ever know...

A compelling story about tenacity and friendship, inspired by the real codebreaking women of Australia's top-secret Central Bureau in WWII. For readers who love Judy Nunn and Kate Quinn.

1943, Brisbane: The war continues to devastate and the battle for the Pacific threatens Australian shores. For Ellie O'Sullivan, helping the war effort means utilising her engineering skills for Qantas as they evacuate civilians and deliver supplies to armed forces overseas. Her exceptional logic and integrity attract the attention of Central Bureau - an intelligence organisation working with England's Bletchley Park codebreakers. But joining Central Bureau means signing a lifetime secrecy contract. Breaking it is treason.

With her country's freedom at risk, Ellie works with a group of elite women who enter a world of volatile secrets; deciphering enemy communications to change the course of the war. Working under immense pressure, they form a close bond - yet there could be a traitor in their midst. Can the women uncover the culprit before it's too late?

As Ellie struggles with the magnitude of the promise she's made to her country, a wedge grows between her and those she holds dear. When the man she loves asks questions she's forbidden to answer, how will she prevent the double life she's leading from unravelling?

'An intriguing story of courage, friendship and resilience.' - Belinda Alexandra

A SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 'MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2021' 'Witty, affecting, brilliantly wise and original.' Gail Jones, author of A GUIDE TO BERLIN, THE DEATH OF NOAH GLASS and OUR SHADOWS 'A potent meditation on the intensity of women's lives.' Charlotte Wood, author of THE NATURAL WAY OF THINGS and THE WEEKEND The false cold of the theatre makes it hard to imagine the heavy wind outside in the real world, the ash air pressing onto the city from the nearby hills where bushfires are taking hold.

The house lights lower.

The auditorium feels hopeful in the darkness.

As bushfires rage outside the city, three women watch a performance of a Beckett play.

Margot is a successful professor, preoccupied by her fraught relationship with her ailing husband. Ivy is a philanthropist with a troubled past, distracted by the snoring man beside her. Summer is a young theatre usher, anxious about the safety of her girlfriend in the fire zone.

As the performance unfolds, so does each woman's story. By the time the curtain falls, they will all have a new understanding of the world beyond the stage.

'Claire Thomas writes with a sure eye and knowing heart.' Tony Birch, author of BLOOD, GHOST RIVER and THE WHITE GIRL 'I read from start to finish almost without looking up.' Clare Bowditch, author of YOUR OWN KIND OF GIRL 'Read it as soon as you possibly can.' Emily Bitto, author of THE STRAYS 'I can't recommend this too highly.' Patrick Gale, author of A PLACE CALLED WINTER and TAKE NOTHING WITH YOU 'Frequently funny, often profound, The Performance is an unmissable show.' Emma Stonex, author of THE LAMPLIGHTERS

Cait Copper's best friends have always been books - along with the rare souls who love them as much as she does, like the grandmotherly June. When Cait set up her shop, Book Fiend, right in the heart of the city, she thought she'd skipped straight to 'happily ever after'. But things are changing, and fast. June's sudden interest in Cait's lacklustre love life and the appearance of the handsome 'Mystery Shopper' force her to concede there might be more to happiness than her shop and her cat. The city is transforming, with luxury chain stores circling Book Fiend's prime location. And meanwhile, a far more personal tragedy is brewing. Soon Cait is questioning not only the viability of the shop, but the life she's shaped around it. An unlikely band of allies is determined she won't face these questions alone; but is a love of books enough to halt the march of progress and time?

An Instant New York Times #1 Bestseller An Instant Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller Over 750,000 copies sold globally An Oprah's Book Club Pick A BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime

On a platform in occupied Paris, a mother whispers goodbye.

It is the end.

But also the beginning.

Beautiful. Powerful. Unforgettable. A stunning portrait of the brutality of war and the tenacity of love. In the tradition of Virginia Baily's Early One Morning and M. L. Stedman's The Light Between Oceans.

Santa Cruz 1953. Jean-Luc thought he had left it all behind. The scar on his face a small price to pay for surviving the horrors of Nazi occupation. Now, he has a new life in California, a family. He never expected the past to come knocking on his door.

Paris 1944. A young woman's future is torn away in a heartbeat. Herded on to a train bound for Auschwitz, in an act of desperation she entrusts her most precious possession to a stranger. All she has left now is hope.

On a darkened platform two destinies become entangled. Their choice will change the future in ways neither could have imagined.

Beginning on an ordinary day and ending on an extraordinary one, WHILE PARIS SLEPT is an unforgettable read.

'While Paris Slept made me think and cry and rage and smile at mankind's capacity for both beautiful, selfless love and terrible, heartbreaking cruelty. It is at once a story of wartime courage and desperation, and of the many ways in which war reverberates through people's lives for years after the fact. Prepare to be thoroughly engrossed in this compelling book in which four adults and one child grapple with the true meaning of love and family' Natasha Lester 'Both epic and intimate, this unexpected story of two couples' sacrifices in war-torn France had me completely and utterly enraptured. You'll have your heart in your mouth and tears on your cheeks as it reaches its rich, life-affirming conclusion' Louise Candlish 'What a book... Emotional and heartrending...absolutely phenomenal. I was on tenterhooks throughout. A wonderful achievement' Jill Mansell 'A heartbreaking debut, While Paris Slept will appeal to fans of The Light Between Oceans. The novel delves into eternal questions: How far will we go to protect our child? Is love holding tightly or letting go?' Janet Skeslien Charles, author of The Paris Library 'A powerful and poignant debut from a brilliant and bold new novelist. Expertly weaving together multiple storylines, author Ruth Druart fills each page with thrilling suspense, uncommon emotional depth, and fascinating characters' Imogen Kealey, author of Liberation EARLY 5 STAR READER REVIEWS FOR WHILE PARIS SLEPT...

'This boo

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'There's no doubting this novel's power' Daily Mail 'A feast of a read: compelling, heartbreaking, and inevitable. I finished A Good Neighbourhood in a single sitting. Yes, it's that good.' Jodi Picoult A Good Neighbourhood explores how class, race and star-crossed love will change two families' lives forever... Perfect for fans of Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere.

A forbidden romance is blossoming in the tight-knit community of Oak Knoll.

No one's realised it yet - they've been too busy watching the rich, white Whitman family move into their newly built house. They've been watching Brad Whitman, with his new money and apparently traditional values, fight his neighbour over the historic oak tree dividing their properties. But what they haven't noticed is that the Whitman girl is falling in love with the biracial boy next door.

It is a love that will shatter the constructs of class and race in this small town.

It is a love that might destroy everything...

Praise for A Good Neighbourhood...

'Compelling, complicated, timely, and smart . . . hard to put down and hard to forget' LAURIE FRANKEL, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THIS IS HOW IT ALWAYS IS 'This is a story that will stick with you for a long time' EMILY GIFFIN, NO.1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ALL WE EVER WANTED 'Smart dialogue, compelling characters and a communal we narrator that implicates us all in the wrenching conclusion' TARA CONKLIN, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE LAST ROMANTICS 'A thought provoking and gripping novel - the kind that will have you savouring every page' CULTUREFLY 'It's the kind of book you tell your friends to read immediately, just so you have someone to talk to about it' i PAPER 'Fowler's novel culminates with injustices that are painfully easy to imagine because they continue to be a part of our contemporary lived experience' THE WASHINGTON POST 'Make sure a friend reads it too - you're going to want to talk about this book as soon as you finish it' GOOD MORNING AMERICA 'Fans of Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere need to read Therese Anne Fowler's A Good Neighbourhood' POPSUGAR 'Beautiful, compelling and heartbreaking' GLASGOW HERALD 'This page-turner delivers a thoughtful exploration of prejudice, preconceived notions, and what it means to be innocent' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 'A rippling story for fans of

Mrs Death has had enough. She is exhausted from spending eternity doing her job and now she seeks someone to unburden her conscience to. Wolf Willeford, a troubled young writer, is well acquainted with death, but until now hadn't met Death in person - a black, working-class woman who shape-shifts and does her work unseen.

Enthralled by her stories, Wolf becomes Mrs Death's scribe, and begins to write her memoirs. Using their desk as a vessel and conduit, Wolf travels across time and place with Mrs Death to witness deaths of past and present and discuss what the future holds for humanity. As the two reflect on the losses they have experienced - or, in the case of Mrs Death, facilitated - their friendship grows into a surprising affirmation of hope, resilience and love. All the while, despite her world-weariness, Death must continue to hold humans' fates in her hands, appearing in our lives when we least expect her...

'A fantastically imaginative story about life, death and everything in between - a potent reminder that life is short and every second should be cherished' - Idris Elba

LIMITED SIGNED STOCK ~ HURRY! WHILE STOCK LASTS  

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- You always know you are going to be taken to a different place with every Ishiguro novel and happily, this new one is no exception! Klara is an AF, and it takes awhile to understand that she is a solar-powered artificial being with intelligence and greater self-awareness than others. She possesses both concern and curiosity about the world around her, and constructs a particular view of it which is both logical and naïve.

When she is chosen to be the AF (artificial friend) of a young girl, it is the fulfilment of her purpose for existence, and she becomes inextricably involved in Josie's life. But Josie has problems, and Klara observes far more than she is supposed to… A brilliant book which examines the concepts of 'life' and 'intelligence' - it is thoughtful and meditative but also tells a story that you can't help but become invested in. A very fine book indeed! Lindy

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From the bestselling and Booker Prize winning author of Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day, a stunning new novel - his first since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature - that asks, what does it mean to love?

This is the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behaviour of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass in the street outside. She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change for ever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.

A thrilling feat of world-building, a novel of exquisite tenderness and impeccable restraint, Klara and the Sun is a magnificent achievement, and an international literary event.

'Manning expertly guides readers back and forth ... Like a skilled lapidary, she shapes and polishes the narrative to gradually reveal character facets and the stories that gems carry over time ... Characteristics of the gems themselves are carefully etched to reveal surprises, answers to riddles, and moments of deep emotion. Plotline layers unfold, illuminating shades of dark and light. This is indeed a treasure.' The Historical Novel Society 'Seamlessly blending fact with fiction to create a truly stunning story, it's a heartwarming tale by one of Australia's best historical fiction writers that will keep you turning pages long into the night.' The Daily Telegraph Inspired by a true story, The Lost Jewels unfolds an incredible mystery of thievery, sacrifice and hope through the generations of one family.

In the summer of 1912, a workman's pickaxe strikes through the floor of an old tenement house in Cheapside, London, uncovering a cache of unimaginably valuable treasure that quickly disappears again.

Present day. When respected jewellery historian, Kate Kirby, receives a call about the Cheapside jewels, she knows she's on the brink of the experience of a lifetime.

As Kate peels back layers of concealment and deception, she is forced to explore long-buried secrets concerning Essie, her great-grandmother, and her life in Edwardian London. Soon, Kate's past and present threaten to collide and the truths about her family lie waiting to be revealed.

'There is something very appealing about a well-written novel that skillfully weaves the past and present, especially when there is a little known nugget of history woven deftly through its story. The Lost Jewels by Kirsty Manning is just such a book.' The Free Lance-Star 'From an Indian boy working in the mines of Golconda to a sailor catching a glimpse of an emerald as big as his fist, Manning gives a voice to those so often unheard in the jewelry industry. A tale of transferred wealth, power, and passion, Manning's novel will appeal to fans of Penny Vincenzi's A Perfect Heritage, Paula McLain's The Paris Wife, and Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian.' Booklist Praise for The Jade Lily:

'Kirsty Manning weaves together little-known threads of World War II history, family secrets, the past and present into a page-turning, beautiful novel.' Heather Morris, author of the bestselling The Tattooist of Auschwitz

London, Burning is a novel about the end of the 1970s, and the end of an era. It concerns a nation divided against itself, a government trembling on the verge of collapse, a city fearful of what is to come, and a people bitterly suspicious of one another. In other words, it is also a novel about now.

Vicky Tress is a young policewoman on the rise who becomes involved in a corruption imbroglio with CID. Hannah Strode is an ambitious young reporter with a speciality for skewering the rich and powerful. Callum Conlan is a struggling Irish academic and writer who falls in with the wrong people. Whilst Freddie Selves is a hugely successful theatre impresario stuck deep in a personal and political mire of his own making. These four characters, strangers at the start, happen to meet and affect the course of each other's lives profoundly.

The story plots an unpredictable path through a city choked by strikes and cowed by bomb warnings. It reverberates to the sound of alarm and protest, of police sirens, punk rock, street demos, of breaking glass and breaking hearts in dusty pubs. As the clock ticks down towards a general election old alliances totter and the new broom of capitalist enterprise threatens to sweep all before it. It is funny and dark, violent but also moving.

The brand-new historical novel from the bestselling author of The Alice Network and The Huntress - available to pre-order now 'A terrific book bursting with vivid atmosphere' Dinah Jefferies, #1 bestselling author of The Tea-Planter's Wife 'Wonderful...

A hugely satisfying and thrilling read' Fern Britton, #1 bestselling author of Daughters of Cornwall 'Immersive, thrilling and packed with wonderful characters...

I absolutely loved every page of this incredible book' Jill Mansell, bestselling author of Maybe This Time 1940, Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire.

Three very different women are recruited to the mysterious Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes.

Vivacious debutante Osla has the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses - but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, working to translate decoded enemy secrets. Self-made Mab masters the legendary codebreaking machines as she conceals old wounds and the poverty of her East-End London upbringing. And shy local girl Beth is the outsider who trains as one of the Park's few female cryptanalysts.

1947, London.

Seven years after they first meet, on the eve of the royal wedding between Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, disaster threatens. Osla, Mab and Beth are estranged, their friendship torn apart by secrets and betrayal. Yet now they must race against the clock to crack one final code together, before it's too late, for them and for their country.

If you loved The Crown, don't miss this riveting historical novel - pre-order now!

WINNER OF THE BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2020

I asked God if he please couldn't take my brother Matthies instead of my rabbit. 'Amen.'

Ten-year-old Jas has a unique way of experiencing her universe: the feeling of udder ointment on her skin as protection against harsh winters; the texture of green warts, like capers, on migrating toads; the sound of 'blush words' that aren't in the Bible. But when a tragic accident ruptures the family, her curiosity warps into a vortex of increasingly disturbing fantasies - unlocking a darkness that threatens to derail them all.

A bestselling sensation in the Netherlands, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld's radical debut novel is studded with images of wild, violent beauty: a world of language unlike any other, exquisitely captured in Michele Hutchison's translation.

'THE MOST TALKED ABOUT DEBUT NOVEL OF 2020 ALREADY' [Dazed & Confused]
ONE OF VOGUE'S TOP FIVE DEBUTS OF 2020
ONE OF THE OBSERVER'S HIGHLIGHTS OF 2020
ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S TOP TEN BEST NEW BOOKS IN TRANSLATION

WINNER OF THE BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2020

 'One of the best debut novels I have ever read. Shockingly good ... A classic.' - Max Porter

The sensational Dutch bestseller:
'Exceptional' (Financial Times)
'Exhilarating' (Independent)
'Luminous' (Observer)
'Beautifully wild' (Guardian)
'An earthy and irreverent new voice, thrillingly uninhibited' (New York Times)

1944. It's a Saturday lunchtime on Bexford High Street. The Woolworths has a new delivery of aluminum saucepans, and a crowd has gathered to see the first new metal in a long time. Everything else has been melted down for the war effort.

An instant later, the crowd is gone. Incinerated. Atomised.

Among that crowd were five little children. What future did they lose? The only way to know is 'to let run some other version of the reel of time, where might-be and could-be and would-be. still may be'.

Ingenious and profound, full of warmth and beauty, Light Perpetual is a story of the everyday, the miraculous and the everlasting - a sweeping and intimate celebration of the gift of life.

'Radiant with hope and grace and courage...

I loved it.' - Sarah Perry

Following three friends and their circle through a year of transformation, Double Blind is about the headlong pursuit of knowledge - for pleasure, revelation, money, sanity, survival - and the consequences of fleeing what we already know about others and ourselves.

When Olivia meets a new lover, Francis, just as she is welcoming her dearest friend Lucy back from New York, her life expands precipitously. Her connection to Francis, a committed naturalist living off-grid, is immediate and startling. Eager to involve Lucy in her joy, Olivia introduces the two - but Lucy has news of her own that binds the trio unusually close. Over the months that follow, Lucy's boss Hunter, Olivia's psychoanalyst parents, and a young man named Sebastian are pulled into the friends' orbit, and not one of them will emerge unchanged.

St Aubyn's major new novel investigates themes of inheritance, determinism, freedom, consciousness, and is as compelling about ecology, psychoanalysis, genetics and neuroscience as it is about love, fear and courage. Most of all, it is a perfect expression of the interconnections it sets out to examine, and a moving evocation of an imagined world that is deeply intelligent, often tender, curious, and very much alive.

Cornwall, 1972. Three lighthouse keepers vanish from a remote rock, miles from the shore. The entrance door is locked from the inside. The clocks have stopped. The Principal Keeper's weather log describes a mighty storm, but the skies have been clear all week.

What happened to those three men, out on the tower? The heavy sea whispers their names. Black rocks roll beneath the swell, drowning ghosts. Can their secrets ever be recovered from the waves?

Twenty years later, the women they left behind are still struggling to move on. Helen, Jenny and Michelle should have been united by the tragedy, but instead it drove them apart. Now, they have a chance to tell their side of the story. But only in confronting their darkest fears can the truth begin to surface . . .

Inspired by real events, The Lamplighters is an intoxicating, suspenseful and deeply moving mystery, and an unforgettable story of love, grief and obsession.

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Even when you come out of bloodshed and disaster in the end you have got to learn to live.

Winona is a young Lakota orphan adopted by former soldiers Thomas McNulty and John Cole. Living with Thomas and John on the farm they work in 1870s Tennessee, she is educated and loved, forging a life for herself beyond the violence and dispossession of her past. But the fragile harmony of her unlikely family unit, in the aftermath of the Civil War, is soon threatened by a further traumatic event, one which Winona struggles to confront, let alone understand.

Told in Sebastian Barry's rare and masterly prose, A Thousand Moons is a powerful, moving study of one woman's journey, of her determination to write her own future, and of the enduring human capacity for love.

It is a sad fact of life that if a young woman is unlucky enough to come into the world without expectations, she had better do all she can to ensure she is born beautiful. To be handsome and poor is misfortune enough; but to be both plain and penniless is a hard fate indeed.

In Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Mary is the middle of the five Bennet girls and the plainest of them all, so what hope does she have? Prim and pious, with no redeeming features, she is unloved and seemingly unlovable.

The Other Bennet Sister, though, shows another side to Mary. An introvert in a family of extroverts; a constant disappointment to her mother who values beauty above all else; fearful of her father's sharp tongue; with little in common with her siblings - is it any wonder she turns to books for both company and guidance? And, if she finds her life lonely or lacking, that she determines to try harder at the one thing she can be: right.

One by one, her sisters marry - Jane and Lizzy for love; Lydia for some semblance of respectability - but Mary, it seems, is destined to remain single and live out her life at Longbourn, at least until her father dies and the house is bequeathed to the reviled Mr Collins.

But when that fateful day finally comes, she slowly discovers that perhaps there is hope for her, after all.

Simultaneously a wonderfully warm homage to Jane Austen and a delightful new story in its own right, Janice Hadlow's The Other Bennet Sister is, at its heart, a life-affirming tale of a young woman finding her place in the world. Witty and uplifting, it will make you feel - and cheer - for Mary as you never have before.

The Sunday Times bestseller, and set to be a major TV drama

'You can't help feeling that Jane would have approved.' OBSERVER

'So good, so intelligent, so clever, so entertaining - I adored it.' CLAIRE TOMALIN

A wonderfully original, emotionally complex novel that delves into why Cassandra burned a treasure trove of letters written by her sister, Jane Austen - an act of destruction that has troubled academics for centuries.

1840- twenty three years after the death of her famous sister Jane, Cassandra Austen returns to the village of Kintbury, and the home of her family's friends, the Fowles.

She knows that, in some dusty corner of the sprawling vicarage, there is a cache of family letters which hold secrets she is desperate should not be revealed.

As Cassandra recalls her youth and her relationship with her brilliant yet complex sister, she pieces together buried truths about Jane's history, and her own. And she faces a stark choice- should she act to protect Jane's reputation? Or leave the contents of the letters to go unguarded into posterity...

Based on a literary mystery that has long puzzled biographers and academics, Miss Austen is a wonderfully original and emotionally complex novel about the loves and lives of Cassandra and Jane Austen.

'The perfect book to wrap yourself around on a dark night' STYLIST

'Without romanticising its period setting or underplaying the precariousness of any woman's position in this society, it celebrates unexamined lives, sisterhood and virtues such as kindness and loyalty' SUNDAY TIMES

'This is a deeply imagined and deeply moving novel. Reading it made me happy and weepy in equally copious amounts.' KAREN JOY FOWLER, author of The Jane Austen Bookclub

'It won't surprise me if this is one of the books of the year. It's a delight, one of those that you don't want to end.' RTE

'A charming novel... capturing the spirit of the brilliant sardonic Jane, and reminding the reader of how brutal life was for women in Austen's era, it's an ingenious and affecting embroidery on the fact of the author's life.' SUNDAY MIRROR

'Miss Austen is ingenious ... With flashbacks and wonderful domestic detail, Hornby brings to life the Austen family, using the known to speculate on what might have been.' THE TIMES Audio Book of the Week

'Extraordinary and heart-wrenching, Miss Austen transported me from page one. A gift to all Austen lovers.' LARA PRESCOTT, author of The Secrets We Kept

'Gill Hornby ingeniously imagines what Cassandra Austen's own life might have been like, both before and after Jane's untimely death, casting a different light on the familiar biographical picture without in any way distorting it.' DEIRDRE LE FAYE, editor of Jane Austen's Letters

'Tender and touching ... Hornby deftly describes the psychological toll that such uncertainly took on Jane, and movingly celebrates the fortitude of Cassandra whose greatest love was her sister' DAILY MAIL

'Utterly absorbing. The lives of the Austen sisters are recreated with a brilliant sureness of touch that can only be achieved by deep study of the period.' ARTEMIS COOPER

'Delightful... It reads just like an Austen novel so you get the double whammy of being a new book with an old feel' SUE RYAN, founder of Henley Lit Fest

It is the year of our Lord 1349 and it is the season of the Plague. Novice friar Brother Diggory, now sixteen, has lived in the Monastery of the Order of St Odo at Whye since his eighth birthday. But his life is about to change. The sickness is creeping ever closer and the monks must attend to the victims. When Brother Diggory is nominated to tend to those afflicted, he realises he is about to meet the Plague, and that it is more powerful than him. What he doesn't realise is that encountering an illness and understanding it are two quite different things.

An uproarious and uplifting novel about sickness and health, the fashions of 14th Century medicine, and how perhaps we're never quite as cutting-edge as we might like to believe.

An elusive, elliptical, often beautiful thread of recollections and observations, He. is not autobiography, or even memoir, but an almost anonymous portrait of a figure passing through time and circumstances. It begins with boyhood, in suburban Adelaide after the war. As the narrator remembers the years the focus shifts forward to the recent past and back again, often within the same paragraph, mirroring the randomness of memory. Through these vignettes and fragments we glimpse moments and lives-of parents, teachers, wives, and others; in Bombay of the 1960s, London of the 1970s, Melbourne and Sydney.

He. is by Murray Bail, the acclaimed author of such classic novels as Homesickness and Eucalyptus.

COMES WITH A MATCHING ENAMEL LOVEHEART PIN - WHILE STOCK LASTS.

Yumiko Kadota was every Asian parent's dream- model student, top of her class in medical school and on track to becoming a surgeon. A self-confessed workaholic, she regularly put 'knife before life', knowing it was all going to be worth it because it would lead to her longed-for career.

But if the punishing hours in surgery weren't hard enough, she also faced challenges as a young female surgeon navigating a male-dominated specialty. She was regularly left to carry out complex procedures without senior surgeons' oversight; she was called all sorts of things, from 'emotional' to 'too confident'; and she was expected to work a relentless on-call roster - sometimes seventy hours a week or more - to prove herself.

Eventually it was too much and Yumiko quit.

Emotional Female is her account of what it was like to train in the Australian public hospital system, and what made her walk away.

Yumiko Kadota is a voice for her generation when it comes to burnout and finding the resilience to rebuild after suffering a physical, emotional and existential breakdown. This is a brave, honest and unflinching work from a major new talent.

From Rick Morton, the author of the bestselling, critically acclaimed memoir One Hundred Years of Dirt comes a dazzlingly brilliant book about love, trauma and recovery, My Year of Living Vulnerably.

'Wonderfully readable and wide-ranging exploration of the visible and invisible touchstones of our lives ... this is nourishing reading for our lonely, frightening and fraught times. Part self-help book, part treatise on the importance of love, kindness and forgiveness ... Morton is a national treasure and we need more like him.' Books+Publishing In early 2019, Rick Morton, author of acclaimed, bestselling memoir One Hundred Years of Dirt, was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder - which, as he says, is just a fancy way of saying that one of the people who should have loved him the most during childhood didn't.

So, over the course of twelve months, he went on a journey to rediscover love. To get better. Not cured, not fixed. Just, better. This is a book about his journey to betterness, his year of living vulnerably. It's a book about love. What love is, how we see it, what forms it takes, how we practice it in our lives, what it means to us, and how we really, really can't live without it, even if, like Rick for many years, we think we can.

As he says: 'People think they want cars - and they do, to get to jobs and appointments in cities and regions where public transport has failed them. But what gets them into those cars, out of the house, out of bed for God's sake, is love.' Praise for A Hundred Years of Dirt 'Morton is fresh ... He's brilliant.' Helen Elliott, The Monthly 'Dark and provocative ... It's one of the saddest books I have read in a while, and one of the most honest .... I think this book should be read by every Australian.' Stephen Romei, The Australian 'Morton is a crack storyteller and his words and stories are infused with genuine compassion.' Christos Tsiolkas

The Care Factor tells the story of one incredible nurse - one among many - who chose to meet an unprecedented global health crisis on the frontline.

Simone Sheridan has one of the most sought-after skills today. As a nurse, her skill is to care. When Covid-19 began to spread across the world in 2020, Sim volunteered to retrain to work in Melbourne's intensive care units. And as she prepared to go back to ICU and case numbers began climbing, Sim started talking to her friend Ailsa. Through the exhaustion, the confusion, the many tears and the surprising moments of hilarity, Sim kept talking. And Ailsa started writing.

In The Care Factor, Ailsa walks behind Sim as she faces the realities of the coronavirus. The result is a deeply human account of what the pandemic has really meant, not just for Sim and her fellow health professionals, but also for their patients, their families and friends, and the many who faced life in lockdown. This is a celebration of nursing, of friendship, and of the layers of connection and care that allow us to keep going when it feels impossible.

Hardie Grant Books will donate $1 from each copy sold to Drummond Street Services 'This book has single-handedly restored my faith in humanity. Offering a rare and thrilling glimpse into the life of a frontline healthcare worker during the COVID-19 Pandemic, The Care Factor is full to bursting with spirit, guts, empathy and love. It humbled and moved me in so many ways. I can't recommend it enough!' - Emily Bitto, author of Stella Prize winning novel The Strays

The wise, warm, defiant new book from literary legend Isabel Allende - a meditation on power, feminism and what it means to be a woman An Independent, Guardian and Grazia Highlight for 2021 When I say that I was a feminist in kindergarten, I am not exaggerating.

As a child, Isabel Allende watched her mother, abandoned by her husband, provide for her three small children. As a young woman coming of age in the late 1960s, she rode the first wave of feminism. She has seen what has been accomplished by the movement in the course of her lifetime. And over the course of three marriages, she has learned how to grow as a woman while having a partner, when to step away, and the rewards of embracing one's sexuality.

So what do women want? To be safe, to be valued, to live in peace, to have their own resources, to be connected, to have control over their bodies and lives, and above all, to be loved. On all these fronts, there is much work to be done, and this book, Allende hopes, will 'light the torch of our daughters and granddaughters with mine. They will have to live for us, as we lived for our mothers, and carry on with the work still left to be finished.'

Robert A. Caro is one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation, whose landmark biographies are widely hailed as masterpieces.

This is the captivating account of his life as a writer, describing the sometimes staggering lengths to which he has gone in order to produce his books and offering priceless insights into the craft of non-fiction writing, be it the pursuit of truth, the writer's process, the art of interviewing or the creation of literature.

Including several of Caro's most famous speeches and interviews as well as new material, this is the self-portrait of a man who knows the meaning and importance of great story-telling - and, like all his books, is an utterly riveting example of that too.

'This figure I see in the foreground, this me. How monstrous am I? What does it mean to be a monster? From Latin monstrum, meaning an abomination ... grotesque, hideous, ugly, ghastly, gruesome, horrible ...

'I was born as part of a monstrous structure - the grotesque, hideous, ugly, ghastly, gruesome, horrible relations of power that constituted colonial Britain. A structure that shaped me, that shapes the very language that I speak and use and love. I am the daughter of an empire that declared itself the natural order of the world.' From award-winning writer and critic Alison Croggon, Monsters is a hybrid of memoir and essay that takes as its point of departure the painful breakdown of a relationship between two sisters. It explores how our attitudes are shaped by the persisting myths that underpin colonialism and patriarchy, how the structures we are raised within splinter and distort the possibilities of our lives and the lives of others. Monsters asks how we maintain the fictions that we create about ourselves, what we will sacrifice to maintain these fictions - and what we have to gain by confronting them.

'A marvel of a book ... Croggon spares no one, least of all herself, as she unearths colonial history and family complicity to scrutinise those demons that both torment and shape us. This is exactly the kind of book I have longed to see white authors write, and I love it for its refusal to provide easy answers to the dilemma at the heart of the modern human condition.' -Ruby Hamad, author of White Tears/Brown Scars

THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'Every time Churchill took to the airwaves it was as if he were injecting adrenaline-soaked courage directly into the British people ... Larson tells the story of how that feat was accomplished ... Fresh, fast and deeply moving.' New York Times A startling, gripping portrait of what it was like to be alive in Britain during the Blitz, and what it was like to be around Churchill.

On Winston Churchill's first day as prime minister, Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, the Nazis would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons and destroying two million homes.

In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson gives a new and brilliantly cinematic account of how Britain's most iconic leader set about unifying the nation at its most vulnerable moment, and teaching 'the art of being fearless.' Drawing on once-secret intelligence reports and diaries, #1 bestselling author Larson takes readers from the shelled streets of London to Churchill's own chambers, giving a vivid vision of true leadership, when - in the face of unrelenting horror - a leader of eloquence, strategic brilliance and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together.

'Grimly funny and superbly written, with a twist on every page' - Hilary Mantel 'Delightfully compulsive and unforgettably original' - Hadley Freeman Shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize 2021 Aunt Munca never told the truth about anything. Calling herself after the mouse in a Beatrix Potter story, she was already a figure of mystery during the childhood of her nephew Ferdinand Mount. Half a century later, a series of startling revelations sets him off on a tortuous quest to find out who this extraordinary millionairess really was. What he discovers is shocking and irretrievably sad, involving multiple deceptions, false identities and abandonments. The story leads us from the back streets of Sheffield at the end of the Victorian age to the highest echelons of English society between the wars.

Kiss Myself Goodbye is both an enchanting personal memoir like the author's bestselling Cold Cream, and a voyage into a vanished moral world. An unconventional tale of British social history told backwards, its cryptic and unforgettable protagonist Munca joins the ranks of memorable aunts in literature, from Dickens' Betsy Trotwood to Graham Greene's Aunt Augusta.

For readers of Mao's Last Dancer comes the inspiring true story of a world-famous acrobat who escaped communist China to begin a new life in Australia.

Jingjing Xue was born in China in the 1950s, during one of the worst times in the reign of communist leader Mao Zedong, or Chairman Mao. Mao's extreme five-year industrialisation plan - the Great Leap Forward - left much of the population starving, destitute and gripped with fear. Jingjing, abandoned to an orphanage as a young boy, was destined to a life of hardship before officials singled him out and enlisted him to train with the Shanghai Acrobatics School.

This autobiography tells the moving story of his rise from poverty to become an admired performer in China and beyond - and of his extraordinary escape from Mao's repressive regime to secure his freedom. Set in China from the early years of the communist era, through the turbulent period of the Cultural Revolution, and to a new life in Australia, this is a story of hope and perseverance, of overcoming adversity and of finding a place to belong.

A revelatory, explosive new analysis of the British military today.

Over the first two decades of the twenty-first century, Britain has changed enormously. During this time, the British Army fought two campaigns, in Iraq and Afghanistan, at considerable financial and human cost. Yet neither war achieved its objectives. This book questions why, and provides challenging but necessary answers.

Composed of assiduous documentary research, field reportage, and hundreds of interviews with many soldiers and officers who served, as well as the politicians who directed them, the allies who accompanied them, and the family members who loved and - on occasion - lost them, it is a strikingly rich, nuanced portrait of one of Britain's pivotal national institutions in a time of great stress.

Award-winning journalist Simon Akam, who spent a year in the army when he was 18, returned a decade later to see how the institution had changed. His book examines the relevance of the armed forces today - their social, economic, political, and cultural role. This is as much a book about Britain, and about the politics of failure, as it is about the military.

'Akam's beautifully written, from the inside out, account of the British Army's reluctance to engage with the realities of recent small wars, in Afghanistan in particular, is a must-read for every serious student of modern military history. At one level, it explains how and why we managed to turn victory over Al Qaeda in Afghanistan into defeat at the hands of the Taliban. But this book is about much more than the army in Afghanistan - it is a parable about failure, the failure of a revered institution, with a proud history and an uncritical public, to come to terms with a changed and changing world.' -Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, former British ambassador to Afghanistan 'Simon Akam has written a perceptive, challenging and passionate book that looks at modern soldiering. In doing so, Akam provides an invaluable look at how the British Army works - and how the changing world in the 21st century is asking new and complex questions for soldiers and military strategy alike.' -Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads 'This brave, absorbing and prodigiously well-researched tour de force renders every previous account of the British Army in its disastrous recent campaigns obsolete. Akam makes an unanswerable case that we are no longer very good at fighting wars, building his arguments with panache and good sense. In doing so he has done his country, and the army, a great service - although the Generals may not see it quite that way just yet. Put away the self-serving autobiographies and the obsequious histories of in-house academics; this is the definitive account of the British Army in its 21st Century misadventures.' -Frank Ledwidge, author of Losing Small Wars

The Emperor's Grace is the story of the men of C Force - the first contingent of Australian, British and Dutch POWs shipped from Singapore to Japan in November 1942 - who worked in the Kawasaki Shipyard in Kobe before the American firebombing campaign razed the city, and then the infamous Fukuoka coal mine before the atomic bombings brought World War II to an end.

When the Japanese seized most of South-East Asia in early 1942, they captured 22,000 Australian military personnel. More than a third would die over the next three years from malnutrition, disease and violent abuse. The horrors of the Thai-Burma Railway and Sandakan are well documented. Less well known is the fate of the 3,800 Australians sent to work as slave labourers in the factories and mines of mainland Japan.

The Emperor's Grace is a compelling story of hardship, heroism and endurance - and the ultimate triumph of the human spirit - told for the first time from the unpublished diaries, memoirs and personal accounts of the men who survived.

The never-before-told story of three women who courageously reported from the frontlines of the Vietnam War.

One spent twenty-three days in captivity. Another jumped off planes to get the perfect aerial shot. The other reported from war-torn slums and villages. Catherine Leroy, Frankie Fitzgerald and Kate Webb were the first female frontline journalists in the history of the US war reporting. Over the course of the Vietnam War they challenged the rules imposed on them, all in an effort to get the story straight.

Using the stories of these three women, Elizabeth Becker traces in Vietnam from the Tet Offensive to the revolution in Cambodia to the American defeat and aftermath. Kate Webb, an Australian reporter was captured by the Vietcong only to continue her fearless reporting after her release. American Frankie Fitzgerald's powerful coverage earned her bylines in The New Yorker, and she became the first female war reporter for the magazine. And at only twenty-two, the French Catherine Leroy was one of the only female photographers in Vietnam.

In You Don't Belong Here, Becker tells the story of how three women forged a place for themselves and for generations of female reporters to come.

Inspired by Charles Mackay's 19th century classic Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, William Bernstein engages with mass delusion with the same curiosity and passion, but armed with the latest scientific research that explains the biological, evolutionary and psychosocial roots of human irrationality. Bernstein tells the stories of dramatic religious and financial mania in western society over the last 500 years from the Anabaptist Madness that afflicted the Low Countries in the 1530s to the dangerous end times beliefs that animate and pervade today's polarised nations and from the South Sea Bubble to the Enron scandal and dot com bubbles of recent years. Through Bernstein's supple prose, the participants are as colourful as their motivation, invariably 'the desire to improve one's well being in this life or the next.' As revealing about human nature as they are historically significant, Bernstein's chronicles reveal the huge cost and alarming implications of mass mania as he observes that if we can absorb the history and biology of mass delusion, we can recognise it more readily in our own time and avoid its frequently dire impact.

Through economics our politicians have the power to transform people's lives for better or worse. Think Deng Xiaoping who lifted millions out of poverty by opening up China; Franklin D Roosevelt whose 'New Deal' helped the USA break free of the Great Depression. Or Peron and his successors in Argentina who brought the country to the brink of ruin.

In this magisterial history economist and politician Vince Cable examines the legacy of 16 world leaders who transformed their countries' economic fortunes and who also challenged economic convention. From Thatcher to Trump from Lenin to Bismarck, Money and Power provides a whole new perspective on the science of government. Examining the fascinating interplay of economics and politics this is a compelling journey through some of the most significant people and events of the last 300 years.

The Spymaster of Baghdad is the gripping story of the Falcons- the top-secret Iraqi intelligence unit that infiltrated the Islamic State. Against the backdrop of the most brutal conflict of recent decades, we chart the spymaster's struggle to develop the unit; follow the fraught relationship of two of his agents, the al-Sudani brothers - one undercover in ISIS, the other his handler - and track a disillusioned scientist as she turns bomb-maker. With unprecedented access to characters on all sides, Pulitzer Prize-finalist Margaret Coker challenges the conventional view that western coalition forces defeated ISIS and reveals a page-turning story of unlikely heroes, unbelievable courage and good old-fashioned spycraft.

Soon after the declaration of war on Japan, a secret military reconnaissance unit was established, based on the British Special Operations Executive (known as SOE) and called the Inter-allied Services Department. The unit was tasked with the role to obtain and report information of the enemy ... weaken the enemy by sabotage and destruction of morale and to lend aid and assistance to local efforts to the same end in enemy occupied territories.

In 1943 it became known under the cover name Special Reconnaissance Department (SRD) and included some British officers who had escaped from Singapore. After arriving in Australia, they assembled in Melbourne, forming the nucleus of ISD and together with some Australians established what became the Z Special Unit. Training began in a number of locations around Australia including on Fraser Island off the Queensland coast, In Broken Bay near Sydney, at Careening Bay in Western Australia, at the House on the Hill in Cairns and at East Arm near Darwin. From these training areas and bases, Z Special undertook intelligence gathering and raiding missions throughout Southeast Asia including New Guinea, Singapore, Timor, Malaya, Borneo, Vietnam and the Dutch East Indies. The first operation was Jaywick in September 1943. Led by a 28 year old officer from the Gordon Highlanders, Captain Ivan Lyon. Using an old Japanese fishing boat renamed Krait this captured vessel was re-fitted and provisioned for a voyage from Australia to just south of Singapore where it released six commandos in three folding kayaks to attack Japanese shipping in the harbour. They placed limpet mines on several Japanese ships sinking 40,000 tons of shipping. After the successful attack, they paddled south, were picked up by the Krait and successfully returned to Australia. This was followed by Operation Rimau again led by Lyon but this time things went very wrong very early. Identified, they made a fighting withdrawal but all of the raiding party were shot or captured, with the last ten being executed just before the end of the war. Important in Z Special operations were a number of vessels designated snake boats . Four 66' modified trawlers were constructed as well as a range of Asian vessels that allowed their operation in South East Asian areas of operation. One Z Special, the last in PNG, set out on the night of the 11 April 1945. Eight operatives were landed on the Japanese held island of Muschu about five kilometres off the coast near Wewak to determine the status of two 140mm Japanese naval guns that had been placed there. These guns would prove dangerous to planned naval landings at Wewak, and allied command needed to know if these were operational. The operatives were launched in four double folding kayaks from a HTML fast crash boat but the current carried them away from their landing position and the surf capsized their boats. The men swam ashore but both their radio and their signal torches had been destroyed and the men had no way of connecting with the return crash boat. Soon their lost equipment was found by the Japanese and a massive search with 1,000 troops scoured the island. Quite soon seven of the eight men had been captured, killed or died trying to swim to the mainland and only one man, Sergeant 'Mick' Dennis remained. Over the next three days he continued a one man war, fighting off Japanese patrols and living off the land. Unable to do this for long, he took to the dangerous shark and crocodile infested waters and with the aid of a log, paddled to the mainland. Landing on a Japanese controlled beach, he snuck ashore and after further firefights and a difficult journey travelling west, he finally was found by an Australian patrol. Mick Dennis was able to provide valuable information and for his service and bravery, was awarded a Military Medal. During the course of the war, Z Special Unit carried out 81 covert operations in the Southwest Pacific theatre. While the unit was disbanded after the end of the war, many of its techniques would be modified and used by Australian Special Forces to this day.

HOW THE GOLDEN AGE OF TRANSATLANTIC TRAVEL BETWEEN THE WARS TRANSFORMED WOMEN'S LIVES ACROSS ALL CLASSES - A VIVID CROSS SECTION OF LIFE ON-BOARD THE ICONIC OCEAN LINERS FROM BELOW DECKS TO THE CAPTAIN'S TABLE.

'In this riveting slice of social history, Sian Evans does a brilliant job of describing the unexpected textures of life at sea...

By deep diving into the archives, Sian Evans has discovered a watery in-between world where the usual rules didn't quite apply and a spirited woman could get further than she ever would on dry land. - Mail on Sunday Migrants and millionairesses, refugees and aristocrats all looking for a way to improve their lives. After WW1 a world of opportunity was opening up for women ... Before convenient air travel, transatlantic travel was the province of the great ocean liners and never more so than in the glory days of the interwar years. It was an extraordinary undertaking made by many women. Some traveled for leisure, some for work; others to find a new life, marriage, to reinvent themselves or find new opportunities. Their stories have remained largely untold - until now.

Maiden Voyages is a fascinating portrait of these women, and their lives on board magnificent ocean liners as they sailed between the old and the new worlds. The ocean liner was a microcosm of contemporary society, divided by class: from the luxury of the upper deck, playground for the rich and famous, to the cramped conditions of steerage or third class travel. These iconic liners were filled with women of all ages, classes and backgrounds: celebrities and refugees, migrants and millionairesses, aristocrats and crew members.

Full of incredible gossip, stories and intrigue, Maiden Voyages has a diverse cast of inspiring women - from A-listers like Josephine Baker, a dancer from St Louis who found fame in Paris, Marlene Dietrich and Wallis Simpson, Violet 'the unsinkable' Jessop, a crew member who survived the sinking of the Titanic, and entrepreneur Sibyl Colefax, a pioneering interior designer.

Whichever direction they were travelling, whatever hopes they entertained, they were all under the spell of life at sea, a spell which would only break when they went ashore. Maiden Voyages is a compelling and highly entertaining account of life on board: part dream factory, part place of work, independence and escape - always moving.

Can anyone truly understand Russia? Let one of the world's leading experts show you how, using the fascinating history of a nation to illuminate its future.

Russia is a country with no natural borders, no single ethnos, no true central identity. At the crossroads of Europe and Asia, it is everyone's 'other'. And yet it is one of the most powerful nations on earth, a master game-player on the global stage with a rich history of war and peace, poets and revolutionaries.

In this essential whistle-stop tour of the world's most misunderstood nation, Mark Galeotti takes us behind the myths to the heart of the Russian story- from the formation of a nation to its early legends - including Ivan the Terrible and Catherine the Great - to the rise and fall of the Romanovs, the Russian Revolution, the Cold War, Chernobyl and the end of the Soviet Union - plus the arrival of an obscure politician named Vladimir Putin.

A distinguished team of internationally renowned scholars surveys the great empires from 1600 BC to AD 500, from the ancient Mediterranean to China, in ten comprehensive chapters, taking in the empires of New Kingdom Egypt; the Hittites; Assyria and Babylonia; Achaemenid Persia; Athens; Alexander; Parthian and early Sasanian Persia; Rome; India; and Qin and Han China. Each chapter conveys the main narrative of events, their impact on ancient societies and the dominant rulers who shaped that history, from Ramesses II in Egypt to Chandragupta in India, from Rome's Augustus to China's Shi-huangdi.

Exploring the very nature of empire itself, the authors show how profoundly imperialism in the distant past influenced the 19th-century powers and the modern United States.

An original and riveting biography of two of the most singular women Australia has ever seen.

Daisy Bates and Ernestine Hill were bestselling writers who told of life in the vast Australian interior. Daisy Bates, dressed in Victorian garb, malnourished and half-blind, camped with Aboriginal people in Western Australia and on the Nullarbor for decades, surrounded by her books, notes and artefacts. A self-taught ethnologist, desperate to be accepted by established male anthropologists, she sought to document the language and customs of the people who visited her camps. In 1935, Ernestine Hill, journalist and author of The Great Australian Loneliness, coaxed Bates to Adelaide to collaborate on a newspaper series. Their collaboration resulted in the 1938 international bestseller, The Passing of the Aborigines. This book informed popular opinion about Aboriginal people for decades, though Bates's failure to acknowledge Hill as her co-author strained their friendship.

Traversing great distances in a campervan, Eleanor Hogan reflects on the lives and work of these indefatigable women. From a contemporary perspective, their work seems quaint and sentimental, their outlook and preoccupations dated, paternalistic and even racist. Yet Bates and Hill took a genuine interest in Aboriginal people and their cultures long before they were considered worthy of the Australian mainstream's attention. With sensitivity and insight, Hogan wonders what their legacies as fearless female outliers might be.

'I responded to this book with every cell in my body, neuron in my brain and beat of my heart. A stunning achievement of epic storytelling, historical enquiry and elegant analysis. Eleanor Hogan has resurrected Hill and Bates as Australian icons, women as complex, compelling and deeply flawed as the nation itself.' - Clare Wright 'A meticulous unveiling of the enigmatic Daisy Bates and her writing companion Ernestine Hill. Tracking her subjects across the Nullabor, Hogan strips away layer after layer of dissimulation as she unpicks their writing partnership.' - Bill Garner 'Into the Loneliness is a fascinating biographical study of two significant and intriguing women who were in many ways ahead of their time, yet reflective of it in their artistic endeavours. Using a sophisticated structure and interconnected narratives, this impressive biography reconceptualises the shifting, complex, relationships between Daisy Bates, Ernestine Hill and Indigenous Australians.' - Jenny Hocking 'Into the Loneliness presents a relationship between two remarkable but flawed women, one with profound, ongoing consequences for Indigenous people. It's a book about sexism, about writing, and the nature of friendship. It's a study of white Australian attitudes that persist to this day. And it's an astonishing true story that leaps off the page.' - Jeff Sparrow

A lively and engaging portrait of a towering and complex figure of Australian colonial history.

Lachlan Macquarie is credited with shaping Australia's destiny, transforming the harsh, foreboding penal colony of New Holland into an agricultural powerhouse and ultimately a prosperous society. He also helped shape Australia's national character. An egalitarian at heart, Macquarie saw boundless potential in Britain's refuse, and under his rule many former convicts went on to become successful administrators, land owners and business people.

However, the governor's ambitions for the colony (which he lobbied to have renamed 'Australia') brought him into conflict with the continent's original landowners, and he was responsible for the deaths of Aboriginal men, women and children, brutally killed in a military operation intended to create terror among local Indigenous people. So, was Macquarie the man who sowed the seeds of a great nation, or a tyrant who destroyed Aboriginal resistance?

In this, the most comprehensive biography yet of this fascinating colonial governor, acclaimed biographer Grantlee Kieza draws on Macquarie's rich and detailed journals. He chronicles the life and times of a poor Scottish farm boy who joined the British army to make his fortune, saw wars on five continents and clawed his way to the top. Ultimately, Macquarie laid the foundations for a new nation, but, in the process, he played a part in the dispossession of the continent's original people. Lover, fighter, egalitarian, autocrat - Lachlan Macquarie is a complex and engaging character who first envisaged the nation we call Australia.

When Mark McKenna set out to write a history of the centre of Australia, he had no idea what he would discover. One event in 1934 - the shooting at Uluru of Aboriginal man Yokunnuna by white policeman Bill McKinnon, and subsequent Commonwealth inquiry - stood out as a mirror of racial politics in the Northern Territory at the time.

But then, through speaking with the families of both killer and victim, McKenna unearthed new evidence that transformed the historical record and the meaning of the event for today. As he explains, 'Every thread of the story connected to the present in surprising ways.' In a sequence of powerful revelations, McKenna explores what truth-telling and reconciliation look like in practice.

Return to Uluru brings a cold case to life. It speaks directly to the Black Lives Matter movement, but is completely Australian. Recalling Chloe Hooper's The Tall Man, it is superbly written, moving, and full of astonishing, unexpected twists. Ultimately it is a story of recognition and return, which goes to the very heart of the country. At the centre of it all is Uluru, the sacred site where paths fatefully converged.

'I feel sure that it will become an Australian classic, not the first of its kind, but certainly the most powerful narrative I have read of frontier injustice and its resonance in our lives today.'-Marcia Langton

In 1187 Saladin's armies besieged the holy city of Jerusalem. He had previously annihilated Jerusalem's army at the battle of Hattin, and behind the city's high walls a last-ditch defence was being led by an unlikely trio - including Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem. They could not resist Saladin, but, if they were lucky, they could negotiate terms that would save the lives of the city's inhabitants.

Queen Sibylla was the last of a line of formidable female rulers in the Crusader States of Outremer. Yet for all the many books written about the Crusades, one aspect is conspicuously absent: the stories of women. Queens and princesses tend to be presented as passive transmitters of land and royal blood. In reality, women ruled, conducted diplomatic negotiations, made military decisions, forged alliances, rebelled, and undertook architectural projects. Sibylla's grandmother Queen Melisende was the first queen to seize real political agency in Jerusalem and rule in her own right. She outmanoeuvred both her husband and son to seize real power in her kingdom, and was a force to be reckoned with in the politics of the medieval Middle East. The lives of her Armenian mother, her three sisters, and their daughters and granddaughters were no less intriguing.

The lives of this trailblazing dynasty of royal women, and the crusading Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, are the focus of Katherine Pangonis's debut book. In QUEENS OF JERUSALEM she explores the role women played in the governing of the Middle East during periods of intense instability, and how they persevered to rule and seize greater power for themselves when the opportunity presented itself.

JAMES PATTERSON'S NON-FICTION MASTERPIECE

Kennedys were always taught to win at all costs. And they did - but the costs were unimaginable . . .

Across decades and generations, the Kennedys have been a family of charismatic adventurers, raised to take risks and excel. Their name is synonymous with American royalty. Their commitment to public service is legendary. But, for all the successes, the family has been blighted by assassinations, fatal accidents, drug and alcohol abuse and sex scandals.

To this day, the Kennedys occupy a unique, contradictory place in the world's imagination- at once familiar and unknowable; charmed and cursed. The Kennedy Curse is a revealing, fascinating account of America's most famous family, as told by the world's most trusted storyteller.

Also published as The House of Kennedy in the US.

'When I wrote my first novel after several non-fiction works about politics, James Patterson lovingly lambasted me for infringing on his thriller territory. Now I know how he feels as he crosses into non-fiction politics with this juicy and entertaining look at a political family that continues to wield power and influence. He's too good - it isn't fair!' JAKE TAPPER, CNN anchor and author of The Hellfire Club

What is commonly called the kingdom of Pontos flourished for over two hundred years in the coastal regions of the Black Sea. At its peak in the early first century BC, it included much of the southern, eastern, and northern littoral, becoming one of the most important Hellenistic dynasties not founded by a successor of Alexander the Great. It also posed one of the greatest challenges to Roman imperial expansion in the east. Not until 63 BC, after many violent clashes, was Rome able to subjugate the kingdom and its last charismatic ruler Mithridates VI.

This book provides the first general history, in English, of this important kingdom from its mythic origins in Greek literature (e.g., Jason and the Golden Fleece) to its entanglements with the late Roman Republic. Duane Roller presents its rulers and their complex relationships with the powers of the eastern Mediterranean and Near East, most notably Rome. In addition, he includes detailed discussions of Pontos' cultural achievements--a rich blend of Greek and Persian influences DL as well as its political and military successes, especially under Mithridates VI, who proved to be as formidable a foe to Rome as Hannibal. Previous histories of Pontos have focused almost exclusively on the career of its last ruler. Setting that famous reign in its wide historical context, Empire of the Black Sea is an engaging and definitive account of a powerful yet little-known ancient dynasty.

Humans are the most inquisitive, emotional, imaginative, aggressive and baffling animals on the planet. But how well do we really know ourselves?

How to Be Animal writes a remarkable story of what it means to be human and argues that at the heart of our psychology is a profound struggle with being animal. As well as piecing together the mystery of how this psychology evolved, the book examines the wide-reaching ways in which it affects our lives, from our politics to the ways we distance ourselves from other species. We travel from the origins of Homo sapiens through the agrarian and industrial revolutions, the age of the internet, and on to futures of AI and human-machine interface. We examine how technology influences our sense of our own animal nature and our relationship with the other species with whom we share this fragile planet.

Drawing on new evidence from a wide range of disciplines, Challenger proposes that being an animal is a process, beautiful and unpredictable, and that we have a chance to tell ourselves a new story, to realise that if we matter, so does everything else.

A large colour illustrated book of Australian science history and biography, containing rare maps and illustrations from the personal collection of Emeritus Professor Robert Clancy. His book presents the advancements that Australia has contributed to the world in wide-ranging fields like Biology, Physics, Astronomy and Geology, and encourages Australia to get back to it's winning ways. It's a who's who of several century's worth of scientific superstars, from pre-Colonial times to the Second World War.

Sally Coulthard explores the miraculous world of the earthworm, the modest little creature without whom life as we know it would not be possible.

'I thought I knew quite a bit about earthworms - until I picked up this charming little book ... This is an easily digestible compendium of everything earthworm' Nick Baker, TV presenter and naturalist The author of The Hedgehog Handbook reveals the miraculous world of the earthworm. Without these little engineers of the earth, the world's soils would be barren, and our gardens and fields wouldn't be able to grow the food we need to survive. Worms recycle decaying plants, putting nutrients back into the soil; they provide a food source for wildlife; and their constant burrowing helps heavy rain soak away. Sally Coulthard's fascinating guide offers a wealth of information and practical advice about the world's most industrious but little understood creature. REVIEWS: 'A gem of a book' Country Smallholding 'A feast of quirky facts to answer all your curiosities' Grow Your Own magazine

Leading scholars take stock of Darwin's ideas about human evolution in the light of modern science In 1871, Charles Darwin published The Descent of Man, a companion to Origin of Species in which he attempted to explain human evolution, a topic he called 'the highest and most interesting problem for the naturalist.' A Most Interesting Problem brings together twelve world-class scholars and science communicators to investigate what Darwin got right - and what he got wrong - about the origin, history, and biological variation of humans.

Edited by Jeremy DeSilva and with an introduction by acclaimed Darwin biographer Janet Browne, A Most Interesting Problem draws on the latest discoveries in fields such as genetics, paleontology, bioarchaeology, anthropology, and primatology. This compelling and accessible book tackles the very subjects Darwin explores in Descent, including the evidence for human evolution, our place in the family tree, the origins of civilisation, human races, and sex differences. A Most Interesting Problem is a testament to how scientific ideas are tested and how evidence helps to structure our narratives about human origins, showing how some of Darwin's ideas have withstood more than a century of scrutiny while others have not.

A Most Interesting Problem features contributions by Janet Browne, Jeremy DeSilva, Holly Dunsworth, Agustin Fuentes, Ann Gibbons, Yohannes Haile-Selassie, Brian Hare, John Hawks, Suzana Herculano-Houzel, Kristina Killgrove, Alice Roberts, and Michael Ryan.

A vivid, sweeping history of mankind's battles with infectious disease, for readers of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Yuval Harari's Sapiens and John Barry's The Great Influenza.

For four thousand years, the size and vitality of cities, economies, and empires were heavily determined by infection. Striking humanity in waves, the cycle of plagues set the tempo of civilizational growth and decline, since common response to the threat was exclusion-quarantining the sick or keeping them out. But the unprecedented hygiene and medical revolutions of the past two centuries have allowed humanity to free itself from the hold of epidemic cycles-resulting in an urbanized, globalized, and unimaginably wealthy world.

However, our development has lately become precarious. Climate and population fluctuations and aspects of our prosperity such as global trade have left us more vulnerable than ever to newly emerging plagues. Greater global cooperation toward sustainable health is urgently required-such as the international efforts to harvest a Covid-19 vaccine-with millions of lives and trillions of dollars at stake.

Written as colorful history, The Plague Cycle reveals the relationship between civilization, globalization, prosperity, and infectious disease over the past five millennia. It harnesses history, economics, and public health, and charts humanity's remarkable progress, providing a fascinating and timely look at the cyclical nature of infectious disease.

Australia's favourite science guru explains the facts about climate change - and how we can fix it How do Greenhouse Gas molecules shimmy and shake to trap 400,000 Hiroshima atom bombs' worth of the Sun's heat each day?

Who did the early research into Climate Change and then spent billions trying to cover it up?

What's the Hockey Stick Graph and why is it so important?

How did Climate Change tip the Earth off its axis?

Why was Sydney the hottest place on Earth on 4 January 2020?

How can we move to zero and even negative emissions?

How can kelp help?

When it comes to long-haul transport, why is hydrogen the way to go?

And much more!

Now, in this never dull, easy-to-understand guide Dr Karl explains the science of climate change and how we can fix it. (We can!)

How do we find courage when climate change overwhelms us emotionally?

In this magical, often funny and deeply moving personal story, award-winning science reporter Jonica Newby explores how to navigate the emotional turmoil of climate change.

After researching what global warming will do to the snow country she loves, Newby plummeted into a state of profound climate grief. And if she was struggling, she wondered, how was everyone else coping? What should parents tell their anxious kids? How might we all live our best lives under the weight of this fearsome knowledge? Then reality outstripped imagination as her family was swept up in the apocalyptic 2020 fires.

Featuring illuminating conversations with singer-songwriter Missy Higgins, comedians Charlie Pickering and Craig Reucassel and business leader Mike Cannon-Brookes, practical advice from psychological and scientific experts, incredible accounts from everyday heroes, plus inspiring stories from the climate strike kids, Beyond Climate Grief provides guidance and emotional sustenance to help shore up courage for the uncertainties ahead.

It reminds us of the love, beauty and wonder in the world, even amidst disaster. And how we all have a touch of epic hero in us.

'How do we talk about the things we can't bear to think about? Jonica Newby finds a way with warmth, humour, honesty and stunning writing. An extraordinary book.' - Charlie Pickering

'Brilliantly researched, intensely personal and raw, this is the book we all need right now.' - Jane Caro

Scientists estimate more than three billion native animals were killed or displaced during Australia's Black Summer bushfire season. Many species - the koala, regent honeyeater, glossy black-cockatoo, platypus - are inching towards extinction at the hands of mega-blazes and the changing climate behind them.

In Flames of Extinction, award-winning science writer John Pickrell investigates the effects of the 2019-2020 bushfires on Australian wildlife and ecosystems. Journeying across the firegrounds, Pickrell explores the stories of creatures that escaped the flames, the wildlife workers who rescued them, and the conservationists, land managers, Aboriginal rangers, ecologists and firefighters on the frontline of the climate catastrophe. He also reveals the radical new conservation methods being trialled to save as many species as possible from the very precipice of extinction.

'A carefully researched and deeply empathetic portrayal of the battle to save Australia's precious wildlife as we cook our planet. Fascinating and essential.' - Gaia Vince, author of Adventures In the Anthropocene 'Powerful and compelling, Flames of Extinction should be read by all who cherish life on Earth.' - Professor Chris Dickman, University of Sydney 'The story of Australia's devastating holocaust and how we must stop it happening again. It's up to us.' - Robyn Williams

One of our most beloved scientists, a fearless free spirit, Carlo Rovelli is also a masterful storyteller. In this collection of writings, the logbook of an intelligence always on the move, he follows his curiosity and invites us on a voyage through science, literature, philosophy and politics.

Written with his usual clarity and wit, these pieces, most of which were first published in Italian newspapers, range widely across time and space- from Newton's alchemy to Einstein's mistakes, from Nabokov's butterflies to Dante's cosmology, from travels in Africa to the consciousness of an octopus, from mind-altering psychedelic substances to the meaning of atheism. Charming, pithy and elegant, this book is the perfect gateway to the universe of one of the most influential physicists of our age.

An astrophysicist presents an in-depth yet accessible tour of the universe for lay readers, while conveying the excitement of astronomy.

How is a galaxy billions of lightyears away connected to us? Is our home nothing more than a tiny speck of blue in an ocean of night? In this exciting tour of a universe far larger than we can imagine, cosmologist Paul M. Sutter emphasizes how amazing it is that we are part of such a huge, complex, and mysterious place. Through metaphors and uncomplicated language, Sutter breathes life into the science of astrophysics, unveiling how particles, forces, and fields interplay to create the greatest of cosmic dramas. Touched with the author's characteristic breezy, conversational style--which has made him a breakout hit on venues such as The Weather Channel, the Science Channel, and his own popular Ask a Spaceman! podcast--he conveys the fun and wonder of delving deeply into the physical processes of the natural universe. He weaves together the past and future histories of our universe with grounded descriptions of essential modern-day physics as well as speculations based on the latest research in cosmology. Topics include our place in the Milky Way galaxy; the cosmic web--a vast web-like pattern in which galaxies are arranged; the origins of our universe in the big bang; the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy; how science has dramatically changed our relationship to the cosmos; conjectures about the future of reality as we know it; and more.

For anyone who has ever stared at the starry night sky and wondered how we humans on Earth fit into the big picture, this book is an essential roadmap.

Nature creates viruses. But people and politics create pandemics. And pandemics create new politics. In the 1980s, the toxic politics of the response to HIV/AIDS turned a serious but manageable viral threat into a global pandemic that took the lives of 32 million people and brought illness and suffering to millions more. In 2020, COVID-19 emerged into a world where many governments had failed to heed the lessons of the past, and so they were unprepared and unable to stop its global spread. But some countries had learned the harsh lessons of HIV/AIDS, and had contained SARS1, Ebola, Zika and MERS. When coronavirus hit, they knew what to do to save their people from avoidable infections and deaths.

In Unmasked: the Politics of Pandemics, Bill Bowtell draws on his four decades of experience in the global and local politics of public health to examine why some countries got it right with coronavirus while others collapsed into misery and chaos. He looks closely at the critical weeks when poor planning brought Australia to the brink of disaster, until the Australian people forced their governments to put public health before politics. Unmasked reveals how and why our politicians failed us during the greatest public health crisis of this century to date.

In the National Interest is a new series in the Monash University Publishing list that is focused on the challenges Australia confronts. The series informs, influences and inspires public discourse. Showcasing experts both from within Monash and beyond, these short, thought-provoking and accessible books will address the major issues of our times, from public policy to governance and government.

The scandal involving Dyson Heydon, former justice of the High Court, confirmed that the scourge of sexual harassment in Australian workplaces was also to be found in the chambers of one of the seven most senior judges in the country. An unquestioning reliance on the calibre of the fine legal minds appointed to the High Court had blinded us to the reality that sexual harassment is as common in the legal profession as it is in corporate Australia and in all other industries. In particular, in the legal profession, a hierarchical structure and a culture of silence had served to perpetuate feelings of embarrassment, fear and shame on the part of victims.

In Power & Consent, Rachel Doyle, a practising Senior Counsel for over a decade, argues that we need to understand the power relationships at the heart of the modern workplace. Sexual harassment is rarely a 'one off'. Perpetrators continue their harassment because they are not called to account for their actions. Silence and complicity allow recidivists to go unpunished and normalise the phenomenon of 'getting away with it'. Perpetrators must be taught what consent means.

This book demands a new response to complaints of sexual harassment; one which recognises the power of strength in numbers, the probative value of multiple complaints, and the restorative power of grievances shared. It also calls for the imposition of new obligations: it asks bystanders to become participants and to take collective responsibility for supporting victims and stopping perpetrators.

In the National Interest is a new series in the Monash University Publishing list that is focused on the challenges Australia confronts. The series informs, influences and inspires public discourse. Showcasing experts both from within Monash and beyond, these short, thought-provoking and accessible books will address the major issues of our times, from public policy to governance and government.

What kind of future do Australians have?

Until the coronavirus pandemic, nearly two-thirds of Australians had never experienced an economic slump in their working lives. Indeed, nearly half were not yet born when the Australian economy last tipped into recession. Creating a path for Australia through these difficult times requires a careful assessment of where we have come from, where we are, and where we are going.

This book, by one of Australia's leading economic voices, examines the fractured state of the global economy and financial system, the ailing US economy and its epic contest with China, the global economic order, and what it all means for us.

Recently the alarm has been raised - basic freedoms are under attack in our universities. A generation of 'snowflake' students are shutting out ideas that challenge their views. Ideologically motivated academics are promoting propaganda at the expense of rigorous research and balanced teaching. Universities are caving in and denying platforms to 'problematic' public speakers. Is this true, or is it panic and exaggeration?

Carolyn Evans and Adrienne Stone deftly investigate the arguments, analysing recent controversies and delving into the history of the university. They consider the academy's core values and purpose, why it has historically given higher protection to certain freedoms, and how competing legal, ethical and practical claims can restrict free expression.

This book asks the necessary questions and responds with thoughtful, reasoned answers. Are universities responsible for helping students to thrive in a free intellectual climate? Are public figures who work outside of academia owed an audience? Does a special duty of care exist for students and faculty targeted by hostile speech? And are high-profile cases diverting attention from more complex, serious threats to freedom in universities - such as those posed by domestic and foreign governments, industry partners and donors?

The world is overheating, and despite god intentions and significant others, emissions increase nearly every year. The challenge is immense, but there are solutions.

In this lucid, persuasive essay, Alan Finkel maps Australia's energy transition. He focuses strongly on clean technologies, including the use of hydrogen, and addresses the challenge of intermittent supply. He shows how we can build a zero-emissions world.

Taking into account economics, science and emotions, Getting to Zero is an essential guide to how Australia can tackle the climate crisis with realism and ingenuity.

Tracing the long history of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's work for gender equality and a more perfect Union In the fall of 2019, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg visited the University of California, Berkeley School of Law to deliver the first annual Herma Hill Kay Memorial Lecture in honor of her friend, the late Herma Hill Kay, with whom Ginsburg had coauthored the very first casebook on sex-based discrimination in 1974. Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue is the result of a period of collaboration between Ginsburg and Amanda L. Tyler, a Berkeley Law professor and former Ginsburg law clerk. During Justice Ginsburg's visit to Berkeley, she told her life story in conversation with Tyler. In this collection, the two bring together that conversation and other materials-many previously unpublished-that share details from Justice Ginsburg's family life and long career. These include notable briefs and oral arguments, some of Ginsburg's last speeches, and her favorite opinions that she wrote as a Supreme Court Justice (many in dissent), along with the statements that she read from the bench in those important cases. Each document was chosen by Ginsburg and Tyler to tell the story of the litigation strategy and optimistic vision that were at the heart of Ginsburg's unwavering commitment to the achievement of a more perfect Union.

In a decades-long career, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an advocate and jurist for gender equality and for ensuring that the United States Constitution leaves no person behind. Her work transformed not just the American legal landscape, but American society more generally. Ginsburg labored tirelessly to promote a Constitution that is ever more inclusive and that allows every individual to achieve their full human potential. As revealed in these pages, in the area of gender rights, Ginsburg dismantled long-entrenched systems of discrimination based on outdated stereotypes by showing how such laws hold back both genders. And as also shown in the materials brought together here, Justice Ginsburg had a special ability to appreciate how the decisions of the high court impact the lived experiences of everyday Americans. The passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September 2020 as this book was heading into production was met with a public outpouring of grief. With her death, the country lost a hero and national treasure whose incredible life and legacy made the United States a more just society and one in which We the People, for whom the Constitution is written, includes everyone.

Surviving isn't enough- this is how you can thrive.

Over the past 15 years, anti-racist psychologist Guilaine Kinouani has contributed writing and run workshops on how racism affects both physical and mental health. Based on her findings, she has devised tried and tested psychological strategies. Her mission is to help thousands to find peace with this book.

Living While Black gives voice to the diverse experiences of Black people around the world and uses case studies and exclusive research to offer expert guidance on how to- set boundaries and process microaggressions; protect children from racism; navigate the dating world; identify and celebrate the wins.

Kinouani empowers Black readers to adopt self-care routines that improve day-to-day wellness to help them thrive not just survive and find hope - or even joy - in the face of adversity. This is also a vital resource for allies who wish to understand the impact of racism and how they can help.

We have long been encouraged to think of old age as synonymous with a decline in skills. Yet recent studies show that our decision making improves as we age, and our happiness levels peak in our eighties. What really happens to our brains as we get older?

In The Changing Mind, neuroscientist, psychologist and internationally bestselling author Daniel Levitin invites us to dramatically shift our understanding of aging, demonstrating its many cognitive benefits. He draws on cutting-edge research to offer realistic guidelines and practical cognition-enhancing tricks for everyone to follow during every decade of their life, and show us what we all can learn from those who age joyously.

In the early hours of Thursday 19 March 2020, the luxury cruise liner Ruby Princess docked at Sydney's Circular Quay, the gateway to Australia.

Hours later, 2700 passengers disembarked. Yet in the middle of a pandemic sweeping the planet, there were no health checks. Over the next few days, the passengers got some bad news. The COVID-19 virus had infected some on the ship, and it spread rapidly. Eventually over 900 passengers and crew would be diagnosed, and 28 would die from the disease.

Months of investigation and a Special Commission uncovered a series of catastrophic mistakes, from negligence to the corporate greed of an industry with a history of only caring for its bottom line. This 'super-spreader incident' was a viral bomb that exploded in the heart of Australia's biggest city - and a disaster that could and should have been prevented.

In his page-turning book, investigative journalist Duncan McNab explores the causes of the spectacular quarantine failure, the cruise industry, the lives of the victims and their families, and the turbulent politics of blame.

For some time, Australia's democracy has been slowly sliding into disrepair. The nation's major policy challenges go unaddressed, our economic future is uncertain and political corruption is becoming normalised. It's tempting, but distracting, to point to the usual list of reasons, from the declining calibre of the political class to the growing polarisation of politics. But we can't understand the current predicament of our democracy without recognising the central role of Murdoch's national media monopoly. In Queensland, where national elections are determined, he owns thirteen of the state's fourteen newspapers. All his papers are loss-making and retained for political influence only; nationally, they act as a Liberal Party protection racket, providing zero accountability on Coalition corruption and incompetence. Together with the Liberal Party, the Murdoch media cultivates a climate of national anxiety, fear and anger through relentless campaigns on deficit, debt and the threat to Australia from ever-changing but always nefarious foreign interests. Their goal is an anxious Australia, reinforced by the latest campaign applications of political neuroscience, permanently predisposing the electorate towards the reassurance of having conservatives in power.

For these reasons, there is no longer a level playing field in Australian politics. We won't see another progressive government in Canberra until we deal with this cancer in our democracy. Three more things must change for Labor to be returned to office. Labor must significantly broaden its political base; demolish the entire rationale for the conservative political project now that the Liberal Party has abandoned its position on debt, deficit and government intervention in the economy; and put forward a clear plan dealing with the challenges ahead: recurring pandemics; demographic decline; technological disruption undermining economic competitiveness and employment; the rise of China; and the continued economic and environmental devastations of climate change. All four tasks are essential. All four will require great political courage to bring about fundamental change. And now is the time for women and men of courage to act.

In the National Interest is a new series in the Monash University Publishing list that is focused on the challenges Australia confronts. The series informs, influences and inspires public discourse. Showcasing experts both from within Monash and beyond, these short, thought-provoking and accessible books will address the major issues of our times, from public policy to governance and government.

Australia has enjoyed an unprecedented period of prosperity in recent decades, yet despite this there has been a widely reported loss of faith in politics and institutions. With the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia faces its most significant economic and social challenges in decades. How is politics placed to deal with these challenges and what is the capacity of our key institutions to do so? What are the lessons and warnings from history?

In Challenging Politics, longtime politician Scott Ryan argues that the way we determine issues, the way we practice politics, and what we expect from politicians and government, is in flux. To some, the virtue of compromise has become the sin of sellout. The louder voices of fringe and single-issue movements attract attention, money and commitment, and apply litmus tests to those who seek to govern. This makes it more difficult for our institutions, and therefore our politics, to function effectively. The long-talked-about collapse of the centre isn't solely about extreme ideas. It is also about how our expectations of politics and our institutions have changed.

In the National Interest is a new series in the Monash University Publishing list that is focused on the challenges Australia confronts. The series informs, influences and inspires public discourse. Showcasing experts both from within Monash and beyond, these short, thought-provoking and accessible books will address the major issues of our times, from public policy to governance and government.

What do we really need in order to live a happy life? Over two thousand years ago the Greek philosopher Epicurus offered a seemingly simple answer- pleasure. All we really want is pleasure.

Today we tend to associate the word 'Epicurean' with the enjoyment of fine food and wine and decadent self-indulgence. But, as philosopher John Sellars shows, these things are a world away from the vision of a pleasant life developed by Epicurus and his followers, who were more concerned with mental pleasures and avoiding pain. Their goal, in short, was a life of tranquillity.

In vivid, elegant prose, Sellars walks us through the history of Epicureanism from a private garden on the edge of ancient Athens to the streets of ancient Rome, to explore a completely different way of thinking about the pleasures of friendship, our place in the world and the meaning of death. Inspiring and illuminating, The Fourfold Remedy draws on ancient wisdom that feels remarkably relevant today, offering a new way of thinking about what truly matters in our lives.

'The wisest book I've read for many years ... Much more than a gardening book, much more than a guide to mental health ... Hugely recommended' Stephen Fry THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A Times and Sunday Times Best Book of 2020 How can gardening relieve stress and help us look after our mental health? What lies behind the restorative power of the natural world?

In a powerful combination of contemporary neuroscience, psychoanalysis and brilliant storytelling, The Well Gardened Mind investigates the magic that many gardeners have known for years - working with nature can radically transform our health, wellbeing and confidence.

With illuminating stories of how people struggling with stress, depression, trauma and addiction can change their lives, this inspiring and wise book of science, insight and anecdote - now translated into fifteen languages - shows how our understanding of nature and its restorative powers is only just beginning to flower.

Meet the traders who supply the world with oil, metal and food - no matter how corrupt, war-torn or famine-stricken the source.

'The definitive, eye-opening story of the most powerful and secretive traders in the world.' Bradley Hope, co-author of Billion Dollar Whale

The modern world is built on commodities - from the oil that fuels our cars to the metals that power our smartphones.

We rarely stop to consider where they come from. But we should.

In The World for Sale, two leading journalists lift the lid on one of the least scrutinised corners of the economy- the workings of the billionaire commodity traders who buy, hoard and sell the earth's resources.

It is the story of how a handful of swashbuckling businessmen became indispensable cogs in global markets- enabling an enormous expansion in international trade, and connecting resource-rich countries - no matter how corrupt or war-torn - with the world's financial centres.

And it is the story of how some traders acquired untold political power, right under the noses of Western regulators and politicians - helping Saddam Hussein to sell his oil, fuelling the Libyan rebel army during the Arab Spring, and funnelling cash to Vladimir Putin's Kremlin in spite of strict sanctions.

The result is an eye-opening tour through the wildest frontiers of the global economy, as well as a revelatory guide to how capitalism really works.

'Blas and Farchy shine light on what's long been the financial markets' darkest corner - the crucial, yet underappreciated, role commodity traders play in global finance and geopolitics . . . The World For Sale is a fascinating, eye-opening read.' Gregory Zuckerman, author of The Man Who Solved the Market

'Javier Blas and Jack Farchy deftly peel back the curtain on the amoral swashbucklers of capitalism who trade in commodities . . . The World for Sale is a gripping account of how they achieved their stranglehold over the world economy, and their troubling influence on global politics.' Brad Stone, author of The Everything Store

In today's challenging job-market, as recent grads face a shifting economic landscape and seek work that pays and inspires, as workers are laid off mid-career, and as people search for an inspiring work-life change, the time-tested advice of What Color Is Your Parachute? is needed more than ever.

This new edition has been fully revised for 2021 by Vanderbilt University Career Center Director Katharine Brooks, EdD, with modern advice on the job hunt strategies that are working today, such as building an online resume, making the most of social media tools, and acing Skype interviews. Building on the wisdom of original author Richard N. Bolles, this edition updates the famed Flower Exercise (which walks job seekers through the seven ways of thinking about themselves) and demystifies the entire job-search process, from writing resumes to interviewing and networking.

With the unique and authoritative guidance of What Color Is Your Parachute?, job-hunters and career changers will have all the tools they need to discover--and land--their dream job.

Informed, impassioned, insightful and witty, Satyajit Das returns with a substantially updated edition of his 2015 classic. A Banquet of Consequences- RELOADED is the only book you need to understand how we got into our current economic, environmental and social mess - and how we might find our way out.

For ordinary individuals, the goal of a steady job, a home of one's own, a comfortable retirement and better opportunities for their children is receding. In this brilliant, clear-eyed account, updated to include over 150 pages of new insights and analysis, Satyajit Das links past, present and future to show that it's not just our unrealistic expectations but poor choices that are to blame.

The strategies after the Great Recession have failed, not least because such growth cannot continue indefinitely. The COVID-19 pandemic was merely the pin that pricked an ever-expanding bubble of fake prosperity and false hopes. It is the first trial of many to come. The solution - fundamental change - involves cost and is therefore ignored. Das explains why the ultimate adjustment, whether stretched out over time or in the form of another sudden collapse, will be life-changing.

Essential reading for anyone concerned about the dire fate of the global economy, the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, the deepening environmental crisis and the alarming deterioration of our social fabric, A Banquet of Consequences- RELOADED is a ground-breaking book of our times, and a cautionary window into our future.

An internationally respected commentator on financial markets, credited with predicting the Global Financial Crisis and featured in the 2010 Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job, Satyajit Das is our finest writer about the forces underlying society and the global economy.

The Genius Makers tells the story of AI from pioneering days to current achievements to future potential. At the same time it takes the lid off what has effectively become an arms race between Google, Microsoft, Facebook and OpenAI, in which Google may be the clear frontrunner at present, but Facebook has shown itself to be both nimble and innovative, and OpenAI, the company recently founded by Elon Musk and Sam Altman, has made itself the confident upstart of the pack. Each of these companies represents something unique in the development of a technology that offers both extraordinary potential and extraordinary risks. Their personalities and business strategies are already changing the tech landscape in dramatic ways. And they will continue to do so.

As well as explaining and exploring artificial intelligence and showing how individuals and companies are reaching for it, The Genius Makers also poses serious ethical questions about the technology. Should we even be pursuing it? How will strong AI change humanity? Will it carve out a giant hole in our job market? Are these companies blinded by the riches this technology will bring? Are they forgetting the existential realities of creating machines that behave like humans?

Written by an expert who has exclusive access to each of these companies - and others who are working in this field - this is a rich, character-driven narrative that captures an extraordinary moment in the history of technology.

Why do we continue to vote for politicians who say 'I don't hold a hose, mate' or who advocate that we drink bleach to fight COVID-19?

Chris Bowen, who was set to be Treasurer had Labor won the 2019 federal election, has had plenty of time to think about what went wrong and about why charlatans are winning in the game of politics.

For charlatans, the road to political success is paved with dishonesty, disunity, fake news and empty promises. Selling themselves as a new and different alternative to traditional politicians, charlatans have decimated centre-left political parties around the world but offer no solutions to the concerns of the ordinary people who they dupe into voting for them.

Between Trump's disastrous final weeks in the White House, the United Kingdom's total COVID-19 meltdown under Boris and the three-word slogans driving Scotty from Marketing's policies, Chris Bowen's dissection of the politics of charlatanism and his stirring call to defeat it has never been more urgent.

Is it possible to abolish coercion and hierarchy and build a stateless, egalitarian social order based on non-domination? There is one political tradition that answers these questions with a resounding yes: anarchism.

In this book, Carissa Honeywell offers an accessible introduction to major anarchist thinkers and principles, from Proudhon to Goldman, non-domination to prefiguration. She helps students understand the nature of anarchism by examining how its core ideas shape important contemporary social movements, thereby demonstrating how anarchist principles are relevant to modern political dilemmas connected to issues of conflict, justice and care. She argues that anarchism can play a central role in tackling our major global problems by helping us rethink the essentially militarist nature of our dominant ideas about human relationships and security.

Dynamic, urgent, and engaging, this new introduction to anarchist thought will be of great interest to both students as well as thinkers and activists working to find solutions to the multiple crises of capitalist modernity.

There is one fundamental thing that has changed in our societies since 1950: life has got longer. Over the last few generations, 20 or 30 years have been added to the duration of our lives. But after the age of 50, human beings experience a kind of suspension: no longer young, not really old, they are, as it were, weightless. It is a reprieve that leaves life open like a swinging door. The increase in life expectancy is a tremendous step forward that upsets everything: relations between generations, patterns of family life, the very meaning of our identity and our destiny. This reprieve is both exciting and frightening. The deadlines are getting shorter, the possibilities are shrinking, but there are still discoveries, surprises and upsetting love affairs. Time has become a paradoxical ally: instead of killing us, it carries us forward. What to do with this ambiguous gift? Is it only a question of living longer or living more intensely? To continue along the same path or to branch out and start again? What about remarriage, a new career? How to avoid the weariness of living, the melancholy of the twilight years, how to get through great joys and great pains? Nourished by both reflections and statistics, drawing on the sources of literature, the arts and history, this book proposes a philosophy of longevity based not on resignation but on resolution. In short, an art of living this life to the full. Is there not a profound joy in being alive at the age when our ancestors already had one foot in the grave?

This book is dedicated to all those who dream of a new spring in the autumn of life, and want to put off winter as long as they can.

In this post-apocalyptic rollercoaster ride, philosopher Sre?ko Horvat invites us to explore the Apocalypse in terms of 'revelation' (rather than as the 'end' itself). He argues that the only way to prevent the end - i.e., extinction - is to engage in a close reading of various interconnected threats, such as climate crisis, the nuclear age and the ongoing pandemic. Drawing on the work of neglected philosopher Gunther Anders, this book outlines a philosophical approach to deal with what Horvat, borrowing a term from climate science and giving it a theological twist, calls 'eschatological tipping points'. These are no longer just the nuclear age or climate crisis, but their collision, conjoined with various other major threats - not only pandemics, but also the viruses of capitalism and fascism. In his investigation of the future of places such as Chernobyl, the Mediterranean and the Marshall Islands, as well as many others affected by COVID-19, Horvat contends that the 'revelation' appears simple and unprecedented: the alternatives are no longer socialism or barbarism - our only alternatives today are a radical reinvention of the world, or mass extinction.

After the Apocalypse is an urgent call not only to mourn tomorrow's dead today but to struggle for our future while we can.

Church, Interrupted: Havoc & Hope: The Tender Revolt of Pope Francis is a revealing portrait of Pope Francis's hopeful yet controversial efforts to recreate the Catholic Church to become, once again, a welcoming place of empathy, love, and inclusiveness.

As an authority on the religion of medieval and early modern England, Eamon Duffy is preeminent. In his revisionist masterpiece The Stripping of the Altars, Duffy opened up new areas of research and entirely fresh perspectives on the origin and progress of the English Reformation.

Duffy's focus has always been on the practices and institutions through which ordinary people lived and experienced their religion, but which the Protestant reformers abolished as idolatry and superstition. The first part of A People's Tragedy examines the two most important of these institutions: the rise and fall of pilgrimage to the cathedral shrines of England, and the destruction of the monasteries under Henry VIII, as exemplified by the dissolution of the ancient Anglo-Saxon monastery of Ely. In the title essay of the volume, Duffy tells the harrowing story of the Elizabethan regime's savage suppression of the last Catholic rebellion against the Reformation, the Rising of the Northern Earls in 1569.

In the second half of the book Duffy considers the changing ways in which the Reformation has been thought and written about: the evolution of Catholic portrayals of Martin Luther, from hostile caricature to partial approval; the role of historians of the Reformation in the emergence of English national identity; and the improbable story of the twentieth century revival of Anglican and Catholic pilgrimage to the medieval Marian shrine of Walsingham. Finally, he considers the changing ways in which attitudes to the Reformation have been reflected in fiction, culminating with Hilary Mantel's gripping trilogy on the rise and fall of Henry VIII's political and religious fixer, Thomas Cromwell, and her controversial portrayal of Cromwell's Catholic opponent and victim, Sir Thomas More.

Written against the backdrop of global crisis, Nikita Gill's new collection Where Hope Comes From shines a light into the darkness as we begin our journey back to hope. Weaving words that explore our collective trauma, her poetry takes us on a journey through the five stages of grief to the five stages of hope through the life cycle of a star. The collection features her most popular poems to date Love in the Time of Coronavirus and How to be Strong, alongside new material and beautiful watercolour illustrations.

If you, or someone you know is mourning the loss of a loved one, or a way of life; let Nikita's words help you through the process to heal.

This book is about ghosts and gods and flying saucers; certainty in the absence of knowledge; how the stories we tell ourselves to deal with the distance between the world as it is and as we'd like it to be can stunt us or save us.

From award-winning author Sarah Krasnostein comes an exploration of the power of belief.

What do we believe? Who do we believe? Why do we believe?

Sarah Krasnostein spent the last four years in Australia and the US talking to some extraordinary people-people holding fast to belief, even as it rubs against the grain of more accepted realities. Some of them believe in things most people don't. Ghosts. UFOs. Heaven and the Devil. The literal creation of the universe in six days. Some of them believe in things most people would like to. Dying with autonomy. Spending half your life in prison for protecting your child and yet still believing in a just God.

In this intensely personal and gorgeously written new book Krasnostein, the bestselling, multi-award-winning author of The Trauma Cleaner, talks with her trademark compassion and empathy to these believers-and finds out what happens when their beliefs crash into her own.

'Excellent.' - New Statesman 'Outstanding.' - Irish Times 'Enthralling.' - Guardian 'Shapiro at his best.' - Daily Telegraph From the author of 1599, a fresh perspective on the history of the United States - and a timely reminder of Shakespeare's indelible influence.

Shakespeare's position as England's national poet is unquestionable. But as James Shapiro illuminates in this revelatory new history, Shakespeare has long held an essential place in American culture too. Why, though, would a proudly independent republic embrace England's greatest writer? Especially when his works enact so many of America's darkest nightmares: interracial marriage, cross-dressing, same-sex love, tyranny and assassination? Shapiro leads us to fascinating answers and startling stories.

A glimpse of post-war France through the eyes and words of 14 (mostly) expatriate journalists including Mavis Gallant, James Baldwin, A.J. Liebling, S.N. Behrman, Luc Sante, Joseph Mitchell, and Lillian Ross; plus, portraits of their editors William Shawn and New Yorker founder Harold Ross. Together: they invented modern magazine journalism. Includes an introductory interview by Susan Morrison with Anderson about transforming fact into a fiction and the creation of his homage to these exceptional reporters.

Think you know Mozart? Think again.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, child genius, revered composer, bringer of joy and comfort to countless generations of music lovers? Well, yes - and no.

Exploring and unpicking the many legends about the much-loved and brilliant composer, John Suchet reveals a richer, more in-depth portrait of Mozart: blessed with a happy disposition yet suffering from bouts of depression, successful from a young age yet often struggling financially as he struggled to make his way in the world under the shadow of his domineering father. Naturally mischievous and obsessed with toilet humour, this is not the divine like figure we have come to expect.

This is Mozart the man, as you may never have seen him before.

'Rich with wit and warmth, this compact biography is thoroughly enchanting' Kirkus Reviews 'Splendidly written... this captivating story will make a wonderful addition to anyone's library and is a must read for music lovers' NY Journal of Books

'An enlightening page-turner, stacked with stories and stats that will have your jaw on the floor' Anna Smith, host of the Girls On Film podcast 'This is the film history we need: one that gives leading roles to people who usually only get to be background players' Pamela Hutchinson, film historian and critic A call to arms from Empire magazine's 'geek queen', Helen O'Hara, that explores women's roles - both in front of and behind the camera - since the birth of Hollywood, how those roles are reflected within wider society and what we can do to level the playing field.

The dawn of cinema was a free-for-all, and there were women who forged ahead in many areas of filmmaking. Early pioneers like Dorothy Arzner (who invented the boom mic, among other innovations) and Alice Guy-Blache shaped the way films are made. But it wasn't long before these talented women were pushed aside and their contributions written out of film history. How and why did this happen?

Hollywood was born just over a century ago, at a time of huge forward motion for women's rights, yet it came to embody the same old sexist standards. Women found themselves fighting a system that feeds on their talent, creativity and beauty but refuses to pay them the same respect as their male contemporaries - until now...

The tide has finally begun to turn. A new generation of women, both in front of and behind the camera, are making waves in the industry and are now shaping some of the biggest films to hit our screens. There is plenty of work still needed before we can even come close to gender equality in film - but we're finally headed in the right direction.

In Women vs Hollywood: The Fall and Rise of Women in Film, Empire's 'geek queen' Helen O'Hara takes a closer look at the pioneering and talented women of Hollywood and their work in film since Hollywood began. Equal representation in film matters because it both reflects and influences wider societal gender norms. In understanding how women were largely written out of Hollywood's own origin story, and how the films we watch are put together, we can finally see how to put an end to a picture that is so deeply unequal - and discover a multitude of stories out there just waiting to be told.

Probing, jargon-free and written with the pace of a detective story... [Procter] dissects western museum culture with such forensic fury that it might be difficult for the reader ever to view those institutions in the same way again. Financial Times 'A smart, accessible and brilliantly structured work that encourages readers to go beyond the grand architecture of cultural institutions and see the problematic colonial histories behind them.' - Sumaya Kassim Should museums be made to give back their marbles? Is it even possible to 'decolonize' our galleries? Must Rhodes fall?

How to deal with the colonial history of art in museums and monuments in the public realm is a thorny issue that we are only just beginning to address. Alice Procter, creator of the Uncomfortable Art Tours, provides a manual for deconstructing everything you thought you knew about art history and tells the stories that have been left out of the canon.

The book is divided into four chronological sections, named after four different kinds of art space: The Palace, The Classroom, The Memorial and The Playground. Each section tackles the fascinating, enlightening and often shocking stories of a selection of art pieces, including the propaganda painting the East India Company used to justify its rule in India; the tattooed Maori skulls collected as 'art objects' by Europeans;

The untold story of a major Australian artist. Regarded in his day as an important Australian impressionist painter, A.H. Fullwood (1863-1930) was also the most widely viewed British-Australian artist of the Heidelberg era. Fullwood's illustrations for the popular Picturesque Atlas of Australasia and the Bulletin, as well as leading Australian and English newspapers, helped shape how settler-colonial Australia was seen both here and around the world. Meanwhile his paintings were as celebrated as those of his good friends Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton. So why is Fullwood so little known today? In this pioneering, richly illustrated biography, Gary Werskey brings Fullwood and his extraordinary career as an illustrator, painter, and war artist back to life, while casting a new light on the most fabled era in the history of Australian art. 'Gary Werskey's compelling and vivid biography of A.H. Fullwood - a decade-long labour of love, written with a sharp, empathetic eye - rescues one of Australia's most accomplished artists from oblivion. It also stands as a highly original and deeply researched history of Australian culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.' - Mark McKenna 'Through extensive, patient research, a discerning eye and lyrical prose, Gary Werskey recovers the life of brilliant artist A.H. Fullwood and guides us on a fresh journey into the fabled world of Australian art and artists in the crucible decades of the 1880s and 1890s. Here is a fascinating creation story about the visual language of a nation enchanted by its own dreams.' - Grace Karskens 'Gary Werskey's essential and rousing portrait lifts Fullwood to his rightful place in the pantheon of Australian art, and reminds us how much the nation owes a generation of inspired bohemians for uncovering and defining its character and identity. It's a great read, and looks beautiful.' - Don Watson 'Werskey has used the engaging life and work of A.H. Fullwood to re-cast the history of Australia's settler-colonial art. Set against the era's revolution in how art was produced and reproduced, Fullwood's pictures reveal him to be a master of half-toned illustrations, underpinned by the high-keyed palette of his creativity. A double vision splendid!' - Humphrey McQueen 'An outstanding account of one of Australia's most fascinating Bohemian artists. Werskey not only reveals the very heart of Fullwood's art, but uncovers an Australian Georgic in which a prosperous agriculture emerges on small farms, and the life of the pub and the office and the quiet corners of the everyday in settler Australia are brilliantly evoked.' - Jeanette Hoorn

In Simple Italian, Silvia Colloca shares the essential dishes and techniques that are at the heart of the world's most popular cuisine. With 100 recipes and countless tips and tricks, you'll be cooking like a nonna in no time. Create silky smooth pasta, find out which shapes go with which sauce and learn the secrets to achieving perfectly creamy risotto and soft gnocchi every time.

Alongside chapters on pasta, gnocchi and rice, you'll also learn how to create stunning antipasto spreads and cook hearty mains and elegant sides to go with them. Whip up light and airy focaccia, then turn your leftover bread into delicious meals, such as meatballs or deep-fried mozzarella toasties. And don't forget the sweets - nothing fancy here, just the simple cakes, biscuits and tarts that Italians actually eat at home.

If you have always wanted to be able to cook like an Italian, this book is for you. Silvia's food is authentic, fresh, simple and delicious. No fussy or elaborate techniques and nothing but the best produce and ingredients. These are the meals that Italians can't live without - and soon you won't be able to either.

Acclaimed author Elizabeth Jane Howard said she would certainly have been a gardener had she not become a writer first. In Green Shades: An Anthology of Plants, Gardens and Gardeners, first published in 1991, she brings together a diverse and fascinating selection of gardening writing that spans the centuries, the seasons and the species.

Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics with ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.

The content is eclectic and wide-ranging, practical as well as lyrical - she pays homage to the great English landscape artists of the eighteenth century and to the great women gardeners such as Vita Sackville-West. There's advice from Pliny on how walnuts can be used to dye hair and Joseph Addison encourages blackbirds to gorge on his cherry trees. Linking the numerous extracts is Elizabeth Jane Howard's perceptive and highly personal commentary, which skilfully leads the reader from one subject to the next.

On the first morning of Rome's Covid-19 lockdown Matthew Kneale felt an urge to connect with friends and acquaintances and began writing an email, describing where he was, what was happening and what it felt like, and sent it to everyone he could think of. He was soon composing daily reports as he tried to comprehend a period of time, when everyone's lives suddenly changed and Italy struggled against an epidemic, that was so strange, so troubling and so fascinating that he found it impossible to think about anything else.

Having lived in Rome for eighteen years, Matthew has grown to know the capital and its citizens well and this collection of brilliant diary pieces connects what he has learned about the city with this extraordinary, anxious moment, revealing the Romans through the intense prism of the coronavirus crisis.

Colin O'Brady's awe-inspiring, New York Times bestselling memoir recounting his recovery from a tragic accident and his record-setting 932-mile solo crossing of Antarctica is a jaw-dropping tale of passion and perseverance (Angela Duckworth, New York Times bestselling author of Grit).

Prior to December 2018, no individual had ever crossed the landmass of Antarctica alone, without support and completely human powered. Yet, Colin O'Brady was determined to do just that, even if, ten years earlier, there was doubt that he'd ever walk again normally. From the depths of a tragic accident, he fought his way back. In a quest to unlock his potential and discover what was possible, he went on to set three mountaineering world records before turning to this historic Antarctic challenge.

O'Brady's pursuit of a goal that had eluded many others was made even more intense by a head-to-head battle that emerged with British polar explorer Captain Louis Rudd-also striving to be the first. Enduring Antarctica's sub-zero temperatures and pulling a sled that initially weighed 375 pounds-in complete isolation and through a succession of whiteouts, storms, and a series of near disasters-O'Brady persevered.

Alone with his thoughts for nearly two months in the vastness of the frozen continent-gripped by fear and doubt-he reflected on his past, seeking courage and inspiration in the relationships and experiences that had shaped his life.

Incredibly engaging and well-written (The Wall Street Journal)-and set against the backdrop of some of the most extreme environments on earth, from Mt. Everest to Antarctica-this is an unforgettable memoir of perseverance, survival, daring to dream big, and showing the world how to make the impossible possible (Booklist, starred review).

YEAR: 2083. LOCATION: LONDON. MISSION: WAKE ROMEO.

It's the end of the world. Literally. Time travel is possible, but only forwards. And only a handful of families choose to remain in the 'now', living off the scraps that were left behind. Among these are eighteen-year-old Juliet and the love of her life, Romeo. But things are far from rosy for Jules. Romeo is in a coma and she's estranged from her friends and family, dealing with the very real fallout of their wild romance. Then a handsome time traveller, Ellis, arrives with an important mission that makes Jules question everything she knows about life and love. Can Jules wake Romeo and rewrite her future?

A highly original mashup that delights as it disorients ... and asks what would have happened if two great literary love stories were somehow intertwined.

'Original, ambitious, powerful ... Barker's ability to challenge the boundaries of genre and find light in the darkness is a gift.' Melina Marchetta, author of Looking for Alibrandi and Saving Francesca

'A genre-bending masterpiece that effortlessly juggles classic literature, existentialism, time travel and dystopia - with action and feels. I freaking loved every minute.' Lili Wilkinson, author of After The Lights Go Out, Green Valentine and Pink

"The most beautiful, moving and rigorously plotted time travel novel I have ever read.' Justine Larbalestier, author of Liar, My Sister Rosa and Razorhurst

'A stunning reimagining of the classic tale of Romeo and Juliet, meets Wuthering Heights, meets epic time-travelling extravaganza ... Highly recommended.' Books+Publishing

Bluey and Bingo love their mum and she loves them! Discover all of Chilli's special mum skills in this touching and humorous book. The perfect Mother's Day gift for Bluey fans young and old.

Bluey has been a phenomenal success since airing on ABC KIDS in October 2018, amassing legions of dedicated fans and hugely popular ranges of books, toys, clothes, games and more. It holds the coveted position of being the most watched program ever on ABC iview, with over 260 million plays for Series One, and is the winner of an International Emmy for Most Outstanding Children's Programme.

Bluey wants to play Mum School instead of having her bath. But will the kids listen to her? A gorgeous hardback book for kids of all ages.

Bluey has been a phenomenal success since airing on ABC KIDS in October 2018, amassing legions of dedicated fans and hugely popular ranges of books, toys, clothes, games and more. It holds the coveted position of being the most watched program ever on ABC iview, with over 260 million plays for Series One, and is the winner of an International Emmy for Most Outstanding Children's Programme.

Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal It is the year 454AD. The Roman Empire has withdrawn from Britain, throwing it into the chaos of the Dark Ages. Mai has been kept safe by her father and her sister, Haf. But when Saxon warriors arrive at their farm, the family is forced to flee to the hills where British warlords lie in wait. Can Mai survive in a dangerous world where speaking her mother tongue might be deadly, and where even the people she loves the most can't be trusted?

April is one of five foster kids living at Winterborne Home, a sprawling mansion full of secrets. The biggest secret is that Gabriel Winterborne, their reclusive millionaire guardian, is actually The Sentinel, a masked vigilante tasked with protecting the city.

When Gabriel goes missing, it's up to the kids to find him before his enemies do.

Full of adventure, gadgets and humour, the second book in the captivating new series from the bestselling author of Gallagher Girls will have you hooked!

Praise for The Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valour:

'In her middle grade debut, Carter (Not If I Save You First) offers up mystery, intrigue, and swashbuckling action in a rollicking story of long-lost secrets and found family.' - Publishers Weekly 'This is a wonderful, fast-paced story that is equal parts fun and mysterious. The characters are really enjoyable, and readers will love the unique talents that each one has!' - Lamont Books 'Hand this one to those who enjoy action, mystery, and kick-butt characters.' - Booklist 'Thrilling, on the edge of your seat reading, Winterborne Home For Vengeance and Valour is a gripping mystery with more twists and turns than a labyrinth ... This well-crafted, fast-paced novel demands a one-sitting read. Ally Carter has created an unstoppable heroine that blazes through the book accompanied by a fantastic supporting cast of characters. Action-filled pages keep the reader glued to their seat until the end. I loved it and can't wait for the next instalment.' - Anastasia Gonis, Kids Book Review

Early one morning on the farm, a boy sets out to find his breakfast. Where could it be? In the tractor? In the haystack? With the sheep? With the ponies . . .? Little readers will delight in the story's guessing game and following the boy on his ramble around the farm.

The first middle-grade novel from award-winning author Nicki Greenberg, this book is a classic whodunnit mystery set aboard a grand ocean liner in the 1920s. With first-class glitz and glamour and a deliciously plotted intrigue featuring an uppity stage star, a missing diamond, a leopard and a loveable cast of child sleuths, The Detective's Guide to Ocean Travel is an exciting romp on the high seas, perfect for fans of Murder Most Unladylike and The Good Thieves.

When sixteen-year-old Yin Mitchell is abducted, the news reverberates through the whole Year Ten class at Balmoral Ladies College. As the hours tick by, the girls know the chance of Yin being found alive is becoming smaller and smaller.

Everyone is affected by Yin's disappearance-even scholarship student Chloe, who usually stays out of Balmoral dramas, is drawn into the maelstrom. And when she begins to form an uneasy alliance with Natalia, the queen of Year Ten, things get even more complicated.

A tribute to friendship in all its guises, The Gaps is a moving examination of vulnerability and strength, safety and danger, and the particular uncertainties young women face in the world.

Meet D'Lila LaRue, whsoe charm and pizzazz will leave readers wanting more!

D'Lila LaRue lives in the smallest house with the neatest fence and the rosiest garden in the street with her trusty sidekick, Nanny-Anny (who is probably very old but it doesn't matter). This trilogy of stories features D'Lila and Nanny-Anny sharing many fun-filled adventures, whether it's by building an award-winning rose garden, becoming an artist, or attending a favourite play. Even if things don't go exactly to plan...

Grab a flashlight, crawl under the covers, and dive into the twisted, unexpectedly hilarious world of Rowley Jefferson's imagination. You'll meet zombies, vampires, ghosts, and much more in these comically terrifying tales. Rowley's spooky stories might leave you laughing, but beware-you could end up sleeping with the lights on!

And don't miss Rowley Jefferson's first two awesome friendly books, the instant #1 bestsellers Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid- Rowley Jefferson's Journal and Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Adventure!

Transported to the land of Tuscia, Sophie accidentally saves the daughter of a wealthy family and is swept along on their journey to the Golden Tower.

Now she is the only one standing between sisters Isabella and Bia and the terrible fate their stepmother has planned.

Sophie doesn't think she is brave enough, but with the help of a talking cat, a stableboy and some very tiny mischief-makers, she might be able to save the day.

If she had stayed to load the kiln as she should have, she'd never have seen the ship. Mama said the ship still would have been there, so everything had to happen the way it did. But that's not true. Clio saw it, and the world changed.

When a raiders' ship appears off the coast, the goddess demands an unthinkable price to save the town - and Clio's grandmother creates a sacred statue to save Clio's life.

But Clio is torn between the demands of guarding the statue and caring for her beloved horses. Disabled in an accident, she must try to put aside her own grief at no longer being able to ride - and in the process, save a friend's life and stop a war.

Rippling with emotion and drama, war and resistance, fear and determination, this novel is a brilliant companion to the highly acclaimed Dragonfly Song and Swallow's Dance.

'There are many Australian stories, and mine is just one about what happened to me and other First Peoples of this country. It's important for me to tell my story - because it's not just part of my healing but of this country's as well. We all have a story and as you read this book I would like you to think of your own story, what that means and who is also a part of your story.' In his inspirational, highly acclaimed memoir - and including reflections from First Nations Elders and young people - Archie Roach tells the story of his life and his music. Only two when he was forcibly removed from his family, and brought up by a series of foster parents until his early teens, Archie's world imploded when he received a letter that spoke of a life he had no memory of. It took him almost a lifetime to find out who he really was.

Tell Me Why is an unforgettable story of resilience, strength of spirit and hope.

Clem Timmins can't wait to see her best friends after being apart all summer holidays. But when they get back together, things have changed. Bridge is boy-crazy and acting like a different person. Ellie is wearing a bra and having a real-life romance. Clem feels left behind. When she makes friends with Tom, suddenly everyone's gossiping about whether they're going to be a couple. Clem's got no interest in having a boyfriend. Or does she?

At school camp, Bridge crosses the line and Clem has to ask herself - can she keep growing up with her friends when they're growing apart?

This story of fitting in and falling out perfectly captures how it feels to balance on the edge of who you are and who you want to be.