Collection: Nonfiction

In 1959, Australians thrilled to every move made by a new criminal underdog, a Ned Kelly for the rock 'n' roll era. Kevin John Simmonds was a charismatic crook whose brazen crime spree had scored him a lengthy prison sentence. But as he was led from court, he boasted, 'They'll never hold me.' Two...

When Pat Cummins unexpectedly became Australia's 47th Test captain at age 28, he inherited a team with a long and storied history, but also one on the cusp of reinvention. It was the beginning of a personal leadership journey for him, a unique moment of challenge and pressure that would see him b...

This indefinitive collection brings together under one cover the very best comic writing - parody, poetry, prose, plays, philosophy and political treatise - by Australia's greatest living television host. From 'I Was Scott Morrison's Schnoodle' and 'Around the World in One Pair of Underpants' to ...

Out of the Blue is an utterly compelling and honest memoir reaching back into Anthony's family and his childhood to starting up his first band, The Cockroaches, with his two brothers while still a teenager himself. Anthony's university studies in early childhood education led him to forming the e...

Generations raised after the Second World War took for granted a world of stability and prosperity, and with it the waning of ancient hatreds. Recent decades have been more sobering. Instability and extremism have returned in force. As Shalom Lappin explains in this worrying book, an upsurge of a...

The extraordinary adventurers who took the beauty of Australian wildlife to the world John Gould and his beautiful wife Elizabeth sailed into Australia on a cold spring day in 1838 prepared for the most astonishing adventure of their lives. The Goulds had travelled 20,000 kilometres and crossed t...

Max Dupain (1911-1992) was a major cultural figure in Australia, and at the forefront of the visual arts in a career spanning more than fifty years. During this time he produced a number of images now regarded as iconically Australian. He championed modern photography and a distinctive Australian...

Our heroes can come from the most ordinary of places. As a shy lad growing up in country Victoria, no one in the district had any idea the man Albert Jacka would become.Albert 'Bert' Jacka was 21 when Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914. Bert soon enlisted in the Australian Imperial Fo...

As Australia and India battle for the World Test Championship, today's pre-eminent cricket writer, Gideon Haigh, has captured a century of fierce rivalry between these two cricketing superpowers: from Bradman and Hazare to the unforgettable tied test of '86, Warne versus Tendulkar and Australia's...

From larger-than-life adventures to vivid and poignant tales of the imagination, Highways and Byways is a collection of stories taking readers on an enthralling tour (complete with the odd detour) through the raucous, well-lived life of one of this country's most successful and beloved artists. T...