Archive | New Releases

My History

Antonia Fraser

Antonia Fraser’s memoir describes growing up in the 1930s and 1940s but its real concern is with her growing love of History. The fascination began as a child – and developed into an enduring passion; as she writes, ‘for me, the study of History has always been an essential part of the enjoyment of life’.

Born Antonia Pakenham, the eldest of the eight children of the future Lord and Lady Longford (then Pakenham), her childhood was spent in Oxford, where her father was a don at Christ Church. Evacuation at the beginning of the war to a romantic Elizabethan manor house near Oxford was an inspiration for historical imaginings. There were adventures in Anglo-Ireland at Dunsany Castle and Pakenham Hall, each offering her treasured links to the past which became private obsessions.

North Oxford wartime life included four years as one of the few girls then admitted to the Dragon School for boys, followed by time at a Catholic convent school after her family’s conversion to Catholicism. Her father joined the Labour Government in 1945 as a Minister, which provided an odd background for exploits such as working in a Bond Street hat shop and a season as a self- made debutante. A job in publishing, by a fortunate coincidence, followed Oxford University and the book ends with the dramatic leap forward with the publishing of Mary Queen of Scots which became a worldwide bestseller to general amazement (including the author’s).

The Secrets of Midwives

Secrets of MidwivesSally Hepworth

A novel about three generations of midwives (a woman, her mother, and her grandmother) and the secrets they keep that push them apart and ultimately bind them together

THE SECRETS OF MIDWIVES tells the story of three generations of women devoted to delivering new life into the world—and the secrets they keep that threaten to change their own lives forever. Neva Bradley, a third-generation midwife, is determined to keep the details surrounding her own pregnancy—including the identity of the baby’s father— hidden from her family and co-workers for as long as possible. Her mother, Grace, finds it impossible to let this secret rest. For Floss, Neva’s grandmother and a retired midwife, Neva’s situation thrusts her back 60 years in time to a secret that eerily mirrors her granddaughter’s—a secret which, if revealed, will have life-changing consequences for them all. Will these women reveal their secrets and deal with the inevitable consequences? Or are some secrets best kept hidden?

Return to Moondilla

Return to MoondillaTony Parsons

Return to Moondilla tells the story of former journalist, Greg Baxter, who’s recently returned to the Moondilla area he grew up in to finish writing what he hopes will be a bestselling novel. Far from being able to concentrate on his novel, though, Baxter is drawn into an investigation into a local drug dealing ring that puts his life in danger. He’s also the subject of attention of numerous single women in Moondilla, including the local doctor he once had a crush on, Julie Rankin.
After an attempt on his life, Baxter is hugely relieved when the drug ring is broken open. Finally able to finish his novel, he’s elated by its success and also finds himself in love…
With Return to Moondilla, popular Australian author, Tony Parsons, has written another action-packed novel combining a rural setting with a crime subplot and some romance.

Courting Trouble

courting troubleKathy Lette

Tilly has the day from hell when she’s sacked from her barristers’ chambers in the morning, then finds her husband in bed with her former best friend in the afternoon. She escapes to her mother, Roxy – a sassy solicitor whose outrageous take on men, work and family life is the despair of her more conventional daughter. Roxy comes up with a radical plan for their future – they’ll set up an all-female law firm which will only champion women who have been cheated, put upon, attacked, ripped off or ruined by the men in their lives.

In court, Tilly finds herself up against Jack Cassidy, the smooth-talking, politically incorrect, legal love god who broke her heart at law school. Jack is fluent in three languages – English, sarcasm and flirtation. but if he’s so loathsome, then why is she committing Acute Lust in the 3rd degree?

When a case lands on the doorstep that threatens to change all their lives, Tilly finds herself dangerously close to taking the law into her own hands. Will Jack’s cunning ways and expertise in emotional break and enter derail her quest for justice? Or will the women take on the boys. and win?

Before I Go

before i goColleen Oakley

A heart-wrenching debut novel in the bestselling tradition of P.S. I Love You about a young woman with breast cancer who undertakes a mission to find a new wife for her husband before she passes away.

Twenty-seven-year-old Daisy already beat breast cancer three years ago. How can this be happening to her again?

On the eve of what was supposed to be a triumphant “Cancerversary” with her husband Jack to celebrate three years of being cancer-free, Daisy suffers a devastating blow: her doctor tells her that the cancer is back, but this time it’s an aggressive stage four diagnosis. She may have as few as four months left to live. Death is a frightening prospect—but not because she’s afraid for herself. She’s terrified of what will happen to her brilliant but otherwise charmingly helpless husband when she’s no longer there to take care of him. It’s this fear that keeps her up at night, until she stumbles on the solution: she has to find him another wife.

With a singular determination, Daisy scouts local parks and coffee shops and online dating sites looking for Jack’s perfect match. But the further she gets on her quest, the more she questions the sanity of her plan. As the thought of her husband with another woman becomes all too real, Daisy’s forced to decide what’s more important in the short amount of time she has left: her husband’s happiness—or her own?

Wylie: the brave street dog who never gave up

wyliePen Farthing

When people gave up on Wylie, Wylie refused to give up on people. For a street dog born in the city of Kandahar, Afghanistan, to be crowned top dog at Scruffts, a competition for crossbreeds held during Crufts, the largest dog show on earth, is nothing short of a miracle. But for Wylie, the gentle, cropped eared ball of fur, miracles seemed to happen quite regularly.

Beaten and abused at the hands of uncaring humans, Wylie suffered terrible injuries that needed urgent treatment. Rescued close to death, with hacked off ears and a severed tail, he was attended to by soldiers who feared he would not last the night. Astonishingly he did, only to return days later with new injuries.

However a lifeline came when he was handed over to animal welfare Charity Nowzad and flown to Britain in the hope of finding a new life. But would anyone take a chance on a seemingly undomesticated stray? Luckily for Wylie his biggest adventure yet was about to begin…

The Mind of a Thief

Mind of a ThiefPatti Miller

Exploring the history of the Wiradjuri people, the conflict of colonization, their mythologies, and their attachment to the land, author Patti Miller reveals both her own story and the position of Aboriginal people in today’s society in this fascinating memoir. For 40,000 years, the Central New South Wales area of Wellington was Aboriginal Wiradjuri land. Following the arrival of white men, it became a penal settlement, a mission station, a gold-mining town, and a farming center with a history of white comfort and black marginalization. In the late 20th century, it was also the subject of the first post-Mabo native title claim, bringing new hope—and controversy—to the area and its people. Patti, a local of the area, explores Australian identity in relation to her beloved but stolen country. Black and white politics, the processes of colonization, family mythologies, generational conflict, and the power of place are evoked as she weaves a story that is very personal and, at the same time, a universal tale of belonging.

Mistress

mistressMatthew Benns

Between the sheets with Australia’s powerful, rich and famous. Since the First Fleet landed, Australian history has been littered with mistresses. Slide between the covers of this book to find a cheaters’ list of those women and a star-studded hall of infamy of Australia’s rich and powerful men, catching them sneaking into their lover’s bed in the dead of night. They are all here: Michael Hutchence, Clive James, Tony Mokbel – the list goes on …

Wealthy and powerful men have always attracted beautiful mistresses. Kerry Packer, Australia’s richest man, was one such notorious philanderer. He only moved home to his wife, Ros, from the flat of his Mistress the day before he died. Politicians are no better: Bob Hawke had a prolonged love affair with his biographer Blanche d’Alpuget before finally casting aside loyal wife Hazel. Former Liberal leader Sir Billy Snedden died on the job in a Sydney motel room with his lover and was found wearing only a condom. Today’s politicians certainly aren’t squeaky clean either …

Mistress takes you between the sheets with Australia’s billionaires, footballers, celebrities, gangsters and politicians; the women they cheat with, the wives they betray. And it explains the one lie that binds them all – sex.

Kidnap in Crete: The True Story of the Abduction of a Nazi General

kidnap in creteRick Stroud

This is the story of how a small SOE unit led by Patrick Leigh Fermor kidnapped a German general on the Nazi-occupied island of Crete in 1944. For thirty-two days, they were chased across the mountains as they headed for the coast and a rendezvous with a Royal Navy launch waiting to spirit the general to Cairo.

Rick Stroud, whose Phantom Army of Alamein won plaudits for its meticulous research and its lightness of touch in the telling, brings these same gifts to bear in this new project. From the adrenalin rush of the kidnapping, to the help provided by the Cretan partisans and people, he explains the overall context of Crete’s role in World War II and reveals the devastating consequences of this mission for them all.

There have been other accounts, but Kidnap in Crete is the first book to draw on all the sources, notably those in Crete as well as SOE files and the accounts, letters, and private papers of its operatives in London and Edinburgh.

Bent: Australia’s Crooked Cops

bent. Australias crooked copsJames Moreton and Suzanna Lobez

Legal proceedings against a former police officer have forced parts of this book to be redacted.  Bent law officers exist in every era, sabotaging the work of their colleagues and putting the community at risk.
James Morton and Susanna Lobez have illustrated, in several Gangland books, that Australia almost certainly has out-ganged other countries. Now their spotlight is turned on corruption within the police services and identifying which state wins the bent cop handicap.
Morton and Lobez examine the problems that started with the First Fleet and spread through to the present day, looking at the trouble caused by greed, power, drink, sex, money and, most recently, drugs. They compare the experience in Australia with corruption in America, England and Hong Kong, concentrating in particular on organised corruption at the highest levels, including judges, lawyers and politicians, through to the petty criminals who work our streets.

Which state has the shadiest cops? The answer will surprise you.

3 Main St Buderim - QLD 4556
(07) 5445 3779