Australian Art

With its old-world glamour, sprawling seaside grounds and air of possibility, the Duchess Hotel might just be the place to help four women rediscover who they are and bring some spark back to their lives. When Joan decides to pick up a brush and start painting for the first time in decades, she inspires Frances and Kirrily - and, eventually, Alison - to join her. Over canvas, conversation and creativity they will learn that you should always hold onto your dreams and that new friends can give you the courage to live life on your own terms.

‘Harry’ Harris—Thai Cave Rescuer, joint Australian of the Year—has an unusual idea of fun: he crawls though pitch-black, confined caves, deep underground and usually underwater. To most, that’s a nightmare. To him, it’s recreation. He’s prepared for all conceivable risks, he’s completely focused. And the discipline and danger involved leave him better prepared for everyday life. In this ultimate armchair adventure, Harry takes us into the lives of other ‘risk-takers’, to find out why they do what they do.

Rodrigo Perez is a professional coach and founder of Holistic Pro Health Performance, who has worked with some of the world's most successful athletes. The Art of Longevity draws on everything he's learned along his own journey, for one aim: keeping people in the water, on the trail, in the mountains - wherever their inspiration lives.

Growing up in housing commission, Rosie was cursed with a near perfect, beautiful older sister who dressed like Mariah Carey on a Best & Less budget while Rosie was still struggling with various toilet mishaps. She soon realised that she was the Doug Pitt to her sister's Brad, and that cool was not going to be her currency in this life. But that was only one of the problems Rosie faced. With two addicts for parents, she grew up amidst rehab stays, AA meetings, overdoses, narrow escapes from drug dealers and a merry-go-round of dodgy boyfriends in her mother's life.

The mysterious disappearance of Michael Rockefeller in remote New Guinea in 1961 has kept the world, and even Michael's powerful, influential family, guessing for years. Now, Carl Hoffman uncovers startling new evidence that finally tells the full, astonishing story.

Thomas Keneally has been observing, reflecting on and writing about Australia and the human condition for well over 50 years. In this deeply personal, passionately drawn and richly tuned collection, he now turns inwards to reflect on what has been important to him, drawing on a lifetime of engagement with the great issues of our recent history and his own moments of discovery and understanding.

In the 1930s, Jill Ker's parents bought a sheep farm on the western plains of New South Wales. In 1944, they lost nearly everything when a drought hit. Forced to leave Coorain, 11-year-old Jill and her mother settled in Sydney where Jill struggled to find a place for herself among Sydney's elite. Her story, both a chronicle of life in the Australian outback and the odyssey of a brilliant woman fighting the constraints of her time, offers a loving view of Australia.

Although many denied it, a giant ocean liner was dying. The superstitious nodded their heads, knowing her fate had already been sealed. The freezing Atlantic crept up to the forecastle head as the massive vessel, with all her lights aglow, slowly, almost imperceptibly, sank at the bow.

Simon Kennedy's mother Yvonne was one of 10 Australians to die during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the only one to die outside of New York, in the attack on the Pentagon. On September 11, 2001, Yvonne boarded flight AA77 to begin her return to Australia after completing a much-planned vacation to America. All passengers on board were killed in the crash into the Pentagon.

Some advice suits certain people more than others. Some advice is...redundant waffle. And Nat's What I Reckon refuses to let it slide! Ya see, Nat's got a loud mouth and a taste for taking the piss out of stuff—it's how he lives, laughs and loves. Now, his target's the tired old life advice he's had enough of: Man up. Good vibes only. No pain no gain. Carpe diem. What a punish! Buckle up for Nat's unrequested take on pushing back against expectations and rolling through life with some laughs and kindness like a real, righteous ratbag!

Over the last decade, we have become better at knowing what brings us contentment, well-being and joy. We know, for example, that there are a few core truths to science of happiness. We know that being kind and altruistic makes us happy, that turning off devices, talking to people, forging relationships, living with meaning and delving into the concerns of others offer our best chance at achieving happiness. But how do we retain happiness? It often slips out of our hands as quickly as we find it. So, when we are exposed to, or learn, good things, how do we continue to burn with them?

Of all the experiences we share, two universal events bookend our lives: We were all born, and we will all die. We don't have a choice in how we enter the world, but we can have a say in how we leave it. In order to die well, we must be prepared to contemplate our mortality and to broach it with our loved ones, who are often called upon to make important decisions on our behalf. These are some of the most important conversations we can have with each other - to find peace, kindness and gratitude for what has gone before and acceptance of what is to come.

Where there's sport, there's cheating. No sport is immune: athletics, swimming, rugby, American football, cricket, baseball, badminton, motorsports, tennis and curling. Yes, even that sport on the ice with brooms. Almost as soon as humans started playing sport competitively, they started to cheat. They cheated to win, for the fame, for the money and sometimes for reasons that are hard to understand.

The journals of the Nobel Prize-winning author, beautifully illustrated with his own paintings

What happens when the Zusaks open their family home to three big, wild, pound-hardened dogs - Reuben, a wolf at your door with a hacksaw; Archer, blond, beautiful, deadly; and the rancorously smiling Frosty, who walks like a rolling thunderstorm? The answer can only be chaos: there are street fights, park fights, public shamings, property trashing, bodily injuries, stomach pumping, purest comedy, shocking tragedy, and carnage that needs to be seen to be believed ... not to mention the odd police visit at some ungodly hour of the morning.

Never before has a member of the Packer family co-operated with a writer to tell their story. In his biography The Price of Fortune, one of the nation's richest and most psychoanalyzed men opens up in an attempt to make sense of his roller-coaster life and to tell the human story of being James Douglas Packer. Of how his wealth, charm and intellect took him to such exciting places. Yet how sometimes trusting the wrong people and his own rash actions cost him - and how he is now working on getting it all back.

For fifty years, songwriter, guitarist and keyboard player Jim Moginie was a driving force behind one of Australia's most iconic rock bands, Midnight Oil. As they made their way through the nascent domestic punk scene and the uncharted musical territory of the Western Desert to the concert halls of Europe and America, the band members developed a feeling of 'five against the world'. For Jim, this de facto family was a bulwark against a nagging sense that something was missing from his life: he'd long known that his biological mother had given him up for adoption as a baby.

John Marsden has spent his adult life engaging with young minds - through both his award-winning, internationally bestselling young adult fiction and his work as one of Australia's most esteemed and experienced educators. As the founder and principal of two schools, John is at the coalface of education and a daily witness to the inevitable and yet still mysterious process of growing up.

Patrick, Meg and their family had built a happy, sustainable life in regional Victoria. But in late 2013, they found themselves craving an adventure: a road trip. But theirs was a road trip with a difference. With Zephyr (10), Woody (1) and Zero, their Jack Russell, they set off on an epic 6,000km yearlong cycling journey along Australia’s east coast, from Daylesford to Cape York and back.

Using her own experiences as a novelist and the inspiration she's shared as a creative coach, Amie guides you on why we need your art and how you can make it happen - starting with a two-week reset plan to help you kick-start your creative habit.