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Girt
- The Unauthorised History of Australia, Volume 1
- Narrated by: David Hunt
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
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Publisher's summary
Girt. No word could better capture the essence of Australia....
In this hilarious history, David Hunt reveals the truth of Australia's past, from megafauna to Macquarie - the cock-ups and curiosities, the forgotten eccentrics and Eureka moments that have made us who we are.
Girt introduces forgotten heroes like Mary McLoghlin, transported for the crime of "felony of sock", and Trim the cat, who beat a French monkey to become the first animal to circumnavigate Australia.
It recounts the misfortunes of the escaped Irish convicts who set out to walk from Sydney to China, guided only by a hand-drawn paper compass, and explains the role of the coconut in Australia's only military coup.
Our nation's beginnings are steeped in the strange, the ridiculous, and the frankly bizarre. Girt proudly reclaims these stories for all of us.
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"Hilarious and insightful - Hunt has found the deep wells of humour in Australia's history." (Chris Taylor, The Chaser)
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Fascinating
- By Edith on 01-20-11
By: Adam Hochschild
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The Last Slave Ship
- The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning
- By: Ben Raines
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed, the Clotilda became the last ship in history to bring enslaved Africans to the United States. The ship was scuttled and burned on arrival to hide the wealthy perpetrators to escape prosecution. Despite numerous efforts to find the sunken wreck, Clotilda remained hidden for the next 160 years. But in 2019, journalist Ben Raines made international news when he successfully concluded his obsessive quest through the swamps of Alabama to uncover one of our nation’s most important historical artifacts.
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Wow. Just Wow.
- By Pinkhippiechick on 02-11-22
By: Ben Raines
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The Pirate Hunter
- By: Richard Zacks
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 18 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Captain Kidd has gone down in history as America's most ruthless buccaneer. However, Captain William Kidd was no career cut-throat; he was a tough, successful New York sea captain who was hired to chase pirates. Across the oceans of the world, the pirate hunter, Kidd, pursued the pirate, Culliford. One man would hang in the harbor; the other would walk away with the treasure. The Pirate Hunter is both a masterpiece of historical detective work and a page-turner.
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Aaaargh Matey, Listen to this tale!
- By Karen on 04-20-04
By: Richard Zacks
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When America First Met China
- An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail
- By: Eric Jay Dolin
- Narrated by: A. T. Chandler
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Ancient China collides with newfangled America in this epic tale of opium smugglers, sea pirates, and dueling clipper ships. Brilliantly illuminating one of the least-understood areas of American history, best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin now traces our fraught relationship with China back to its roots: the unforgiving nineteenth-century seas that separated a brash, rising naval power from a battered ancient empire. It is a prescient fable for our time, one that surprisingly continues to shed light on our modern relationship with China.
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Superior book! Excellent read!
- By melissa c. on 01-28-23
By: Eric Jay Dolin
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Making Haste from Babylon
- The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World: A New History
- By: Nick Bunker
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 18 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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At the end of 1618, a blazing green star soared across the night sky over the northern hemisphere. From the Philippines to the Arctic, the comet became a sensation and a symbol, a warning of doom or a promise of salvation. Two years later, as the Pilgrims prepared to sail across the Atlantic on board the Mayflower, the atmosphere remained charged with fear and expectation. Men and women readied themselves for war, pestilence, or divine retribution. Against this background, and amid deep economic depression, the Pilgrims conceived their enterprise of exile.
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Excellent, detailed and eye-opening
- By David on 09-20-15
By: Nick Bunker
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Captive Paradise
- A History of Hawaii
- By: James L. Haley
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The most recent state to join the union, Hawaii is the only one to have once been a royal kingdom. After its discovery by Captain Cook in the late 18th century, Hawaii was fought over by European powers determined to take advantage of its position as the crossroads of the Pacific. The arrival of the first missionaries marked the beginning of the struggle between a native culture with its ancient gods, sexual libertinism, and rites of human sacrifice and the rigid values of the Calvinists.
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Good, but not enough history of the Island.
- By Jonathan on 07-09-15
By: James L. Haley
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The British in India
- A Social History of the Raj
- By: David Gilmour
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 23 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Full of illuminating anecdotes drawn from memoirs, correspondence, and government documents, The British in India weaves a rich tapestry of the everyday experiences of the Britons who found themselves in “the jewel in the crown” of the British Empire. David Gilmour captures the substance and texture of their work, home, and social lives, and illustrates how these transformed across the several centuries of British presence and rule in the subcontinent, from the East India Company’s first trading station in 1615 to the twilight of the Raj and Partition and Independence in 1947.
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Superb. Loved every beautifully read minute!
- By Rosemary Wells on 01-31-19
By: David Gilmour
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Castles, Customs, and Kings
- True Tales by English Historical Fiction Authors
- By: Debra Brown, M.M. Bennetts
- Narrated by: Ruth Golding
- Length: 25 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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A compilation of essays from the English Historical Fiction Authors blog, this book provides a wealth of historical information from Roman Britain to early 20th-century England. Over 50 different authors share hundreds of real life stories and tantalizing tidbits discovered while doing research for their own historical novels.
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Historical Tidbits
- By Troy on 08-03-15
By: Debra Brown, and others
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The Immortal Irishman
- The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero
- By: Timothy Egan
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 14 hrs and 9 mins
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The Irish-American story, with all its twists and triumphs, is told through the improbable life of one man. A dashing young orator during the Great Famine of the 1840s, in which a million of his Irish countrymen died, Thomas Francis Meagher led a failed uprising against British rule, for which he was banished to a Tasmanian prison colony. He escaped and six months later was heralded in the streets of New York - the revolutionary hero, back from the dead, at the dawn of the great Irish immigration to America.
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Yes, but....
- By Dale and Carol on 04-01-16
By: Timothy Egan
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Explorers of the Nile
- The Triumph and Tragedy of a Great Victorian Adventure
- By: Tim Jeal
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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From award-winning author Tim Jeal comes a vivid examination of the six larger-than-life men and one extraordinary woman who set out to find the source of the White Nile in the 19th century.
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Great Story Flawed
- By The Mays-Dickens Family on 05-12-12
By: Tim Jeal
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would be better if the narrator was Australian.
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One of the best books ever!!!!
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What listeners say about Girt
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Mrs
- 01-29-19
Could have been so much better...
This would have been a great bok if the author had not been the narrator. His mispronunciations I found iritating. The sound of a cracking whip to denote a footnote was another grating noise. I did not finish the book as all of this became too much of a distraction.
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- David Roses
- 01-04-20
Pretty funny but a bit over-acted.
Four stars. Pretty funny but a bit over-acted. It's the satirical version of David Hill's books, which I enjoyed much more than this one.
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- Isabelle
- 04-01-16
An overall enjoyable experience
I wouldn't say brilliant but a fun walk through early colonial Australian history. A nice introduction even for those who know little about the country, and interesting behind the scenes anecdotes for those who do. Bonus points for explaining the origins of many English expressions. But it feels at times like the author is trying too hard to be funny and the tongue-in-cheek tone, pleasant at first, gets repetitive and cumbersome after a few hours. How many times can you make a quip about the French military not being used to winning?
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- Earnest
- 01-16-20
Spirited,swashbuckling antidote to Australian History 10
How stultifying our Australian history lessons were made by a succession of lack luster teachers leading to Australian kids being bored to death.
Yet here it is. Another way.
I vacillated between hysterical outbursts of laughter and nearly weeping at how entertaining cleverness can be.
Tormented for at least 4+ years in succession by the same story of Blaxland , Wentworth and Lawson-yet I learnt NOTHING about the Western State I lived in- I gave in. Mediaeval, Renaissance and South East Asian history became my relief..
What a terrific, if not altogether sedate, insight into maybe stories. Can hardly wait to listen to the next installment.
And I still won’t sing that dumb, song wading around the word “girt.”
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- Marco
- 06-16-24
Great humorous yet revealing look at the History of Australia
Enjoyed the humor and history linked to documentation. I had no idea about some of the history and culture clashes. The disrespect for the aboriginal peoples is sadly similar to the US
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- Jodelle
- 07-31-16
Seriously irritating voice. Can I get a refund?
For the first time ever I just couldn't listen. Regular narration voice is OK but the awful voices used for quotes drove me over the edge. Traveling to AU soon so will try the book in print. Love love audio books. Just not this one.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Malcolm H. Field
- 04-27-18
Accents annoying
Good story, great humour but lay off the accents. They just get in the way of the listening experience.
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- Ryan Blackhawke
- 08-07-22
Could not stop laughing
This irreverent history of Australia had me in stitches and I listened to this in one setting and bought volumes 2 & 3 so I could laugh so hard that I pass out. I've recommended this book to all of my friends and now to you, Dear Reader.
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- Marion R Cruz
- 01-21-19
Great book, cringeworthy accents
A funny and entertaining romp through Australia's early colonial history, hampered by the reader/author attempting accents despite not being very good at them.
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- Dragonfly Samurai
- 08-27-17
Welcome to Terra Australis!
Any additional comments?
This is an hilarious account of Australian history. Not being an Aussie, and not having any background on their history I can only assume that it is accurate. (I hope so. If not, it's still a funny listen.) This is not a book for those who are prudish and blush at swears. Aussie's apparently don't view these words in the same manner as us. .. or they just find them funny. I'm not much of one for that language myself, but for some reason it almost sings when it comes from an Aussie. :)
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