Showing results by publisher "Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd" in Biographies & Memoirs

Country girl and best-selling novelist Rachael Treasure had worked hard to build a long-dreamed-of lifestyle on her own patch of dirt in Tasmania's rugged and beautiful wilderness. But through the breakdown of her marriage, Rachael lost her family farm and, in her words, lost her way in life. Discovering an all-new compass to live by, she took her two kids and her dogs and left the beaten path.

In 1909, a young Australian actress made headlines around the world when she took to the sky over London in an airship emblazoned with the slogan 'Votes for Women' and dropped leaflets over the city. Muriel Matters was dubbed 'that daring Australian girl', and the American media declared it to be the world's first aerial protest. Just months earlier, Muriel had become the first woman to make a speech in the British House of Commons, after chaining herself to a brass grille to protest against the segregation of women in the Parliament.

In her stunning first book, Margo Jefferson gives us the incontrovertible lowdown on call-him-what-you-wish; she offers a powerful reckoning with a quintessential, richly allusive signifier of American society and popular culture. Michael Jackson: provocateur, icon, enigma. Who was he really? And how does his spectacular rise, his catastrophic fall, reflect upon those who made him, those who broke him and those who loved him?

Belinda Neil lived and breathed her high-octane job. She relished her roles as a homicide investigator and hostage negotiator with the NSW police force, but she never knew what her work day might bring. She could be investigating brutal murders such as the De Gruchy killings or, in her negotiator role, persuading the murderous and suicidal to drop their weapons, stop terrorising their families, step back from the ledge.

Horse-whispering, crocodile-hunting and single-handedly changing an 80-kilo flat tyre on a road train in 40-degree heat…there is nothing these modern-day outback women can't do. But when it comes to hardship and heartbreak, they've endured far more than their fair share. Living and working in some of the most remote spots in the world, they've had to become experts at turning tragedy into triumph.

Father Chris Riley is a maverick priest with an extraordinary mission: helping kids in desperate trouble who have no one else to turn to. They're some of the toughest kids in Australia, but he refuses to give up on them. And the results are astonishing. An 11-year-old boy, labelled a 'solo crime wave', with 137 offences. A 16-year-old who stabbed a man to death. A heroin addict aged just fifteen, forced to sell herself on the streets. When everyone else failed them, Father Chris stepped in - and now they're all happy, healthy teenagers, looking forward to long and fulfilling lives.

Criminality, some say, is part of Australia's national identity, and in Great Australian Rascals, Rogues and Ratbags Jim Haynes profiles 15 larger-than-life Aussie rogues. These stories uncover the truth and expose the myths about characters ranging from the most despicable examples of humanity, to those whose courage has to be admired and whose so-called 'crimes' were unjustly punished. Told with Haynes's inimitable combination of history and humour, Great Australian Rascals, Rogues and Ratbags is packed with murders, mystery and miscreants.

The ultimate collection of Australia's craziest cons and mad schemes from a master storyteller. Australia is the birthplace and setting of some of the wildest, craziest and least-likely-to-succeed cons and rorts in history. From the cleverest double-crosses to the most unlikely and maddest schemes, master storyteller Jim Haynes reminds us that we've never been shy of pulling a trick or two.

The breadth and richness of Keneally's life is explored in this comprehensive biography, authorised by the subject and written by Stephany Evans Steggall. For five decades Tom Keneally has been one of Australia's finest and most loved writers. Celebrated across the world as a master storyteller and known especially for the Booker Prize-winning Schindler's Ark, he is also respected for his humanitarian work and his commitment to causes such as republicanism.

Gynaecologists Catherine and Reg Hamlin left Australia in 1959 on a short contract to establish a midwifery school in Ethiopia. Almost 50 years later, Catherine is still there, running one of the most outstanding medical programs in the world. Through this work, thousands of women have been able to resume a normal existence after living as outcasts. The Hamlins dedicated their lives to women suffering the catastrophic effects of obstructed labour - a problem easily dealt with in the developed world by assisted delivery or caesarean section, but disastrous without medical intervention.

What is it like to survive a crash that kills your best friends, and how do you move on? From an exceptional debut author comes a stunning memoir about grief, perseverance and courage.

The Roman Forum, the Leaning Tower, the Piazza San Marco: these are the sights synonymous with Italy. But such landmarks only scratch the surface of this magical country's offerings. In See You in the Piazza, Frances Mayes introduces us to the Italy only the locals know, as she and her husband, Ed, eat and drink their way through all 20 regions - from Friuli to Sicily. Along the way, she seeks out the cultural and historic gems not found in traditional guidebooks.

City Girl, Country Girl brings together the stories of women who have left lives in the city or other countries to build new futures in places where knowing how to milk a cow or drive a tractor stands them in far better stead than an ability to negotiate rush-hour traffic or find a good cappuccino. It ranges in scope from the classic outback story of Sarah Durack in the late 1800s to the author's own mother's experiences of swapping wartime Melbourne for a dairy farm on the Limestone Coast to the present day.

It was a shocking crime that made headlines around Australia. An innocent young woman violently attacked in her family home by a total stranger and left to die. Beaten repeatedly and soaked with petrol as her home burned, Lauren Huxley's life was hanging by a thread. Lauren's battle to survive caused an outpouring of public love and support. The crime was so horrific, so senseless, anyone who read about the attack couldn't help thinking: how could I bear someone I loved to go through this?

A magnificent and empowering memoir about a woman spearheading a global initiative to heal the world's rainforests and the communities who depend on them. When Kinari Webb first travelled to Indonesian Borneo at 21, she was both awestruck by the beauty of her surroundings and heartbroken by the rainforest destruction she witnessed. As she got to know the local communities, she realised that their need to pay for expensive healthcare led directly to rampant logging, which in turn imperilled their health and safety further.

On 4th July 1975, Juanita Nielsen set out on foot through the wintry streets of Sydney's red-light district. The chic heiress and newspaper publisher had a business meeting with a man called Eddie Trigg, a manager at the seedy Carousel Cabaret nightclub in Kings Cross. The following day, Juanita was reported missing. She has not been seen since and her body has never been found. Despite two police investigations, a coronial inquest and a federal parliament inquiry, the disappearance of Juanita Nielsen remains one of Australia's great unsolved murder mysteries.

Soos is coming of age in a household with a lot of rules. No bikinis, despite the Queensland heat. No boys, unless he’s Muslim. And no life insurance, not even when her father gets cancer. Soos is trying to balance her parents’ strict decrees with having friendships, crushes and the freedom to develop her own values. With each rule Soos comes up against, she is forced to choose between doing what her parents say is right and following her instincts.

Grantlee Kieza, the author of critically acclaimed best-selling biographies of such important figures reveals the extraordinary rise, devastating fall and enduring legacy of an Australian icon.

It’s 1988. Just outside of Tamworth in country New South Wales, a freight train hits someone lying on the tracks. But when a rail worker looks at the body, the scene doesn’t seem to make sense. There is a towel under the head and hardly any blood. Why are the shoes on the body so clean when there is mud all around?

Helen Brown wasn't a cat person, but her nine-year-old son Sam was. So when Sam heard a woman telling his mum that her cat had just had kittens, Sam pleaded to go and see them. Helen's heart melted as Sam held one of the kittens in his hands with a look of total adoration. In a trice the deal was done - the kitten would be delivered to them when she was big enough to leave her mother. A week later, the family suffered a terrible tragedy. Totally traumatised by it, Helen completely forgot all about the kitten until a little black bundle of fur was delivered to her doorstep.