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Karina Stell's moving memoir details the journey from her first to her fourth and final cancer diagnosis through to her ultimate palliation. She wrote this book for everyone who would find themselves on a similar journey, for their loved ones and for those who work in the haematology/oncology field who must never forget the importance of compassion and humanity in their care.

Karina passed away on 27th September, 2018. Her story is her legacy.

In reading the book, parts of Howitt's character made my skin crawl, but the uncovering of his life was revelatory ... I believe the publication of Line of Blood will be at a very pertinent time. - Bruce Pascoe

Line of Blood tells the full story of Australia's so-called 'ablest anthropologist'; the botanist, geologist, senior public servant and explorer Alfred Howitt - and ancestor of the author, Craig Horne.
That Howitt was an extraordinary polymath is not challenged. And yet, his anthropological conclusions, coupled with his social and political influences, legitimised the murderous advance of white settlement upon the Australian landscape.
For Howitt, the 'line of blood' that followed white settlement was nothing more than the iron law of replacement, whereby an 'inferior race' is inevitably usurped by a 'superior civilisation'. His disastrously racist ideologies facilitated a pattern of neglect and dismissal of Australia's First Nations peoples - the conseqences of which reverberate today.

'An exceptional book about extraordinary people living in extraordinary times. My only regret on completing it is that I have not met any of them personally.' Christopher Bantick

A biography of Lonek Lew, the author's father, told through the lives of over twenty people he was friendly or associated with, a number of whom were historical figures.

Using his father's clear and detailed accounts of his life in pre-war Poland, the Holocaust and his colourful life in Melbourne, as well as personal meetings and memories, the author assembles portraits of extraordinary people living through extraordinary events.

This candidly written memoir, enlivened by the author's impish sense of humour, narrates the way in which, by chance and circumstance, Tom Lowenstein placed his career at the service of the Australian art world. The book describes Lowenstein's numerous David and Goliath battles with the Australian Government and the Australian Tax Office for a greater understanding and fairer treatment of the unique set of circumstances and numerous challenges faced by the country's creative sectors.
Lowenstein's interactions with his colourful and gregarious clients took him frequently out of the comfort of the corporate environment into the artists' homes and studios. The personalities of Charles Blackman, Colin Lanceley, Margaret Olley, John Olsen, Garry Shead, Tim Storrier, and many other luminaries of the art world are vividly brought out with unique insights and unexpected angles.
The book is richly illustrated with photographs from Lowenstein's personal archives documenting his long-standing friendships and reflecting its heady mixture of accounting, art, and wine.

This anthology of true crime stories written by Paul Taylor will satisfy the appetite of all true crime enthusiasts. The thirty-one chapters comprise notorious and fascinating cases, and shed light on chilling criminal personalities many of whom are known around the world. Readers will recognise local names such as Martin Bryant, Ivan Milat and Mark 'Chopper' Read, and immerse themselves in international events that involved Oscar Pistorius, the infamous duo Bonnie and Clyde and last but not least O.J. Simpson. By the time readers reach the end of this book, they will have no doubt uncovered which criminals were mad, bad or dangerous to know.

A champion racehorse, Manikato won races at the elite level over six seasons through the late 1970s and early 1980s and became the first Australian sprinter to earn one million dollars in prize money. But, once getting to the top echelon of racing as a two-year-old, his life endured twists and turns that continually threatened to derail his career, and his life. From the sudden death of his original trainer Bon Hoysted shortly after the 1978 Golden Slipper Stakes, to the prolonged illnesses and niggling injuries that kept Manikato's name in the headlines, the fact that he could compete, let alone win, was almost miraculous.

The powerhouse chestnut with a quirky personality forged historic moments including victory in the William Reid Stakes at Moonee Valley five years in a row - a record unlikely to ever be matched - and the birth of the Manikato Stakes.

Margaret Preston, Australia's foremost woman painter between the wars, sent a series of shock-waves through Sydney's art circles with her vital art, her spirited journalism and her belligerent enthusiasm for living, during a career that spanned over seventy years.

'A red-headed little firebrand of a woman', she was an artist who never stood still, moving from realism to Post-Impressionism, to an Aboriginal-inspired style of art with unceasing verve and freshness.

This is a rare biography of the pioneering Australian author, Mary Gaunt.

Born on the Victorian Goldfields in Chiltern in 1861, Mary was well-educated and well-connected. She was a tomboy and a rebel - her father encouraged her, her mother disapproved. One of the first female students to attend the University of Melbourne, she wrote articles and stories in order to fund her travels. She trekked through the great mahogany forests of West Africa. She went to China in the chaos that followed the downfall of the Ch'ing dynasty, and narrowly avoided the marauding White Wolf. She proved that a woman could live by her pen in that era. When war came, she was trapped behind enemy lines and never made it home to Australia.

Set in Nazi Germany, Massaging Himmler tells in verse the remarkable story of a little-known humanitarian, Dr Felix Kersten.

 

Kersten was a Finnish-born therapeutic masseur who found himself at the centre of the Nazi web, treating Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler (head of the SS and the Gestapo) for stomach cramps, which sometimes rendered him unconscious, and which no other practitioner could relieve. Dr Kersten massaged Himmler daily during the war, sometimes in multiple treatments. He took no fee for his services to the Reichsführer, but used his influence to secure the release of tens of thousands of prisoners. Accused of collaboration at the end of the war, he worked tirelessly to clear his name, and received high honours from several European countries.

 

Told in compelling language, from multiple points of view, this is an important addition to Holocaust literature. Dr Kersten's story shows how one man, flawed like the rest of us, was able to make a difference.

 

"...Carson's poems race ahead of the reader, like stampeding horses, the furious pace mirroring the horror of their context. Art Spiegelman's graphic novel, Maus, pushed the boundaries of Holocaust literature, and I believe Massaging Himmler: A Poetic Biography of Dr Felix Kersten, is in that class." - Adele Hulse, Coordinator, Write Your Story program, Makor Publishing, Lamm Jewish Library of Australia.

A country GP found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time when an angry patient went looking for someone with whom he could share his pain.

Dr Andrew Taylor was working an ordinary Saturday morning shift when he was shot repeatedly by an armed and deluded man who simply needed to show any doctor he could find, just how upset he was with the world at large.

Random shootings like this are unusual in Australia and the bizarre unfairness of what happened to Dr Taylor did not end on the day he was shot.

Welcome to crime shots - short, sharp, true crime stories from Australia's past and present.

Memoirs of Galina follows the true story of Galina Kuchina, A Russian Australian from China.

Born in China into a traditional Russian family, Galina endured a difficult time under Japanese occupation, living under Soviet rule following liberation by the Soviet Army. Although the young lived against the backdrop of war, they still managed to study, work and fall in love.

In 1957 Galina and her family migrated to Australia and integrated into Australian life. Working life was punctuated by a full social life, as well as an intense cultural commitment.

Galina Kuchina is founding president of the Solouhin Literary Society, and recipient of the Meritorious Service Award (Government of Victoria) and the Service to the Russian Community Award (Russian Ethnic Representative Council). Galina has published several books in Russia and remains a regular contributor to various literary magazines.

There was a foundation myth I craved connection to as a child that had a kind of quiet but powerful hold over me. At times I would look beyond those granite hills, seeking the Russia my paternal grandfather had come from, which an instinct told me contained some reality that would help form me. I wondered what the villages, fields and forests would look like…

Rod Myer has had an unusual and interesting life. A member of the celebrated Myer family, he had an adventurous spirit and explored his identity through travelling and research. A farm kid born in Kelly country, he had premonitions and yearnings which led to mustering cattle with Aboriginal people in the Top End. He worked in politics and journalism, and discovered family secrets which led to revelations about his Jewish roots in Eastern Europe, something that altered his life completely.

That past, I believe, stays with us, as life is not a linear progression. It is more a series of spirals drawing on a spiritual world to nourish our progress through our own reality. That reality is built on the past and the present concurrently, and at times I feel the honour of my forebears touching and inspiring me now.

In 1996, the 113-year-old Fitzroy Football Club played its final game in the AFL. Financial pressures brought about by the steady professionalisation of the AFL respected neither the worth of the club's history nor the passion of its fans. Out of time and money, on 4 July 1996 Fitzroy was forced into a merger with the Brisbane Bears - creating the League's first, and thus far only, merged club.

MERGER tells the story of that fateful year, from boardroom drama and intrigue to the wind and mud of the Whitten Oval, capturing the profound tragedy of Fitzroy's doomed plight.

'The demise of Fitzroy is a deep wound rather than a scar. A tear in the fabric of the game that will never truly repair.' - from the Foreword by Gerard Whateley

James Moody of the 2/1st Machine Gun Battalion found an Egyptian dog in 1940, who became Horrie, the Battalion's mascot. He wrote it first as a simple tale, augmented by his own photographs of Horrie and his mates in action in Greece, Crete and Palestine. This was sent to Ion Idriess, who developed the book with a series of questions, to finally develop the classic tale of man's best friend: Horrie the Wog Dog (ETT Imprint 2017).

Published here for the first time is Moody's original tale, and extended.response to Idriess' questions, which gives a much stronger picture of members of the Battalion itself, the Rebels, written and lived in than Australian larrikin manner. Introduced by Tom Thompson, it also includes many pictures of Horrie in action, never before published.

From the success of Australian True Crime Stories, comes the next instalment in the stories of criminals past and present. Join Joe Tog as he retells stories of the people he met along his criminal path. From inside prison, to suburban houses and the street, Joe's true stories are informative, intriguing and give a rare insight into the collective criminal mind. Including stories of organised crime, escape from prison and high-level shop-lifting, learn the ins and outs of this dangerous life.