Search

Chatelaine is a collection of poems whose personae, like a family portrait, resemble one another in foxed, latent ways. Its voices stalk across time and space, inhabiting genres of riddle, fragment, confession, lyric and ekphrasis, returning to images of metamorphosis and possession. A chatelaine is the mistress of a castle or ancestral household, but in this collection's elegant but unruly house mysterious transformations occur, dreams project strange apparitions and landscapes, words twist and turn, references to tradition go hand-in-hand with sci-fi special effects and cinematic staging....

Stephen Edgar's nimble-footed Transparencies extends his exploration of the world's visual aspect, both in itself and as a screen for the mind's projections. He questions whether reality coincides always with its appearances. The transparencies of the title are both the day lit images of the natural world and the occasions they offer us to look through them, or into the world within this one. Edgar's poems look out and reach in. They probe yet have an exquisite ear. As well as moving poems on his late mother, Transparencies has many pleasures like waiting for the delayed rhyme on 'David...

Aboriginal people are prominent in accounts of early colonial Sydney, yet we skip a century as they disappear from the historical record, re-emerging early in the 20th century. What happened to Sydney's Indigenous people between the devastating impact of white settlement and increased government intervention a century later? This book shows that Aboriginal people did not disappear. They may have been ignored in colonial narratives but maintained a strong bond with the coast and its resources. This original and important book tells this powerful story through individuals, and brings a poorly...

Alfred Deakin—scholar, spiritualist, prime minister—was instrumental in creating modern Australia. In the first biography of Deakin in more than half a century, the acclaimed political historian Judith Brett deftly weaves together his public, private and family lives. She brings out from behind the image of a worthy, bearded father of federation the principled and passionate, gifted and eccentric figure whose legacy continues to shape the contours of the nation's politics.

In an extraordinary investigation undertaken over 10 years, Chris Masters opens up the heart of Australia's Special Forces and their war in Afghanistan. He gives voice to the soldiers, he takes us to the centre of some of the fiercest combat Australia has ever experienced and provides the most intimate examination of what it is like to be a member of this country's elite fighting forces. But he also asks difficult questions that reveal controversial clouds hanging over our Special Operations mission in Afghanistan.

This is a story of Jelena Dokic's survival. How she survived as a refugee, twice. How she survived on the tennis court to become World No. 4. But, most importantly, how she survived her father, Damir Dokic, the tennis dad from hell. From war-torn Yugoslavia to Sydney to Wimbledon, she narrates her hellish ascent to becoming one of the best tennis players in the women's game, and her heart-breaking fall from the top. Her gutsy honesty will leave you in awe. Her fight back from darkness will uplift you. Most of all, Jelena's will to survive will inspire you.

This is the third and final story in the award-winning Figgy series. Both Nana and Figgy, receive scholarships to attend the Hope College in Ghana's big city, Accra. Figgy and Nana will have to leave behind the village and family they love, meet lots of new people and learn new things. Figgy does not want to go, but Grandma Ama says she must. But Nana begins acting strange and he will not tell Figgy what he is doing when he disappears from school on the weekends.

A captivating and beautifully illustrated story about three sisters who find a stranded whale on the beach. With a powerful, poetic text, wonderful to read aloud, and illustrations full of life and movement, Storm Whale celebrates the majesty and vulnerability of nature and our place in it.

A masterful, moving story about a boy caught between faith and love, by one of Australia's finest writers. In the 1950s, 'entering' the seminary was for ever, and young boys were gathered into the priesthood before they were old enough to know what they would lose. Tom went to St Finbar's because he was looking for something more than the ordinary happiness of his home and school. But then he discovered that being able to love another person was the most important thing of all. For Tom, loving Frankie made him part of the world. Even when Frankie was gone...