Biographies & Memoirs

Thirty years after creating one of the most memorable moments in sporting history, Indigenous AFL legend Nicky Winmar tells his story in a moving and compelling memoir.

Two sisters—one a playwright, one a preacher—excavate their evolving bond. Swinging between irreverent humor and achy tenderness, Sistering: The Art of Holding Close and Letting Go is for anyone who has been lucky enough to find their number one fan, and for those still searching.

Spud Ely's SAS career has taken him into some of the most deadly, high-octane, violent battles ever. From the Falklands to the Persian Gulf, he has been in the very centre of the most ferocious fighting scenes modern history has witnessed. Armed to the hilt with the most up-to-date, hi-tech military machinery and his highly-toned fighting skills, Steve is truly a force to be reckoned with. Fighting for Queen and Country is the unputdownable account of his most bloody, violent, heroic moments.

Wind back the clock on any Australian or New Zealand woman in her thirties or forties today and you'd probably find a Triangl bikini tucked away in her swimwear drawer. The uniquely neoprene, colour-blocked bikinis were the summer accessory season after season. Yet as customers snapped selfies at the beach, one woman was holed up in a smog-filled Hong Kong apartment, living on canned soup, battling twenty-hour days and debilitating depression, trying to make it all happen.

When former government staffer Alisha Aitken-Radburn was given a 'villain edit' on her first season of The Bachelor, she wasn't entirely surprised – there are only a handful of character tropes producers can manipulate into storylines. But the backlash on social media was unexpectedly intense, and Alisha found her sense of identity completely rocked by a single comment: 'You are a bad person'. Determined to shake the 'villain' label, she returned to reality TV screens, and this time, she got a different edit. 

Journalist Nicole Madigan was stalked for over three years. The relentless and debilitating experience wreaked havoc in her personal and professional life, leaving her trapped in a constant state of fear and anxiety. Nicole uses her own story as an entry point to examine the psychology behind stalking behaviours and their impact on victim-survivors. Whether by a stranger, acquaintance or former partner, stalking can have a catastrophic effect on a victim-survivor's mental, social and financial wellbeing. At its worst, it can lead to physical violence, even death.

Bestselling author and psychologist Tony Bates has spent his career seeking to understand the lives of others. Here he turns his therapeutic eye on himself and describes the events and people in his own life that have made him the insightful thinker and teacher that he is today. He recalls traumatic events in his childhood that reverberated throughout his life and how, with therapy and time, he was eventually able to heal. He recounts the stories of the patients that affected him most deeply and informed both the direction of his work and his philosophy as a psychologist.

In Is the Swing High or Low? author Wilma Cotten reveals the struggles she had with her bipolar daughter Andrea, who succumbed to the evils of drugs as a method of self-care. While trying to be a supportive and loving mother, Wilma struggled for years to find some solution to her daughter’s problems. Counseling, medication, rehab—nothing seemed to help. So she did what any mother would do—she loved her unconditionally anyway.

"Statesmen... may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand."  -John Adams.  What does it mean to be a nation "under God"?  Where have we been as a nation, and where are we going?  Using unforgettable accounts of both famous and little-known Americans, Under God tells the stories of men and women of faith who forged our nation.

Daisy is a black baby adopted into a white family in rural 1970’s England. Alienation and loss of identity dominate her childhood. After discovering she was conceived through child rape, she begins a lifelong mission to find and prosecute her birth father using the only irrefutable evidence left. Her own DNA. But justice isn’t just for her birth mother. She too, is a victim, and when the world around her doesn’t agree, she is forced to reckon with external and internal powers out of her control.

In 2018, Leigh Timmis became the fastest person to cycle across Europe—in just 16 days, 10 hours and 45 minutes—breaking the previous world record by an astonishing 8 days and 17 hours. But when he set out to break the record, Leigh wasn't just trying to conquer the road. As he prepared his body for this ultra-endurance world record attempt, Leigh realized that he would have to confront deeper problems to make it to the finish line.

Wayne Bennett is the greatest rugby league coach Australia has ever had. He has won seven premierships and is the greatest man manager the game has known. He is also a living contradiction: Other coaches decry his tactics then attempt to imitate them. Players are desperate to work with him but are left feeling deceived when he cuts them loose. The media disparages him then lavishes him with praise. So who is the real Wayne Bennett? So who is the real Wayne Bennett? Celebrated sports journalist Andrew Webster has been on a mission to find out.

Anecdotes of an FBI Agent chronicles the experiences of an FBI agent from 1966-1995. Phil K. Walter investigated bank robberies, extortion, kidnappings, espionage, and major drug cases. The broad range of cases he worked were in St. Louis, MO; Los Angeles, CA; and Glenwood Springs, CO. These are his personal experiences expressed as anecdotes and as a reminder that FBI agents are still “the good guys.”

Emelia Symington-Fedy grew up with her girl gang on the railroad tracks of a small town in British Columbia. Unsupervised and wild, the girls explored the power and shortcomings of "best" friendships and their growing sexuality. Two decades later an eighteen-year-old girl is murdered on Halloween on the same tracks, and Symington-Fedy returns to her hometown to stay with her mother, who is fearful of a murderer at large.

Queen Elizabeth II’s death ruptured the already-fractured foundations of the House of Windsor—and dismantled the protective shield around it. With an institution long plagued by antiquated ideas around race, class and money, the monarchy and those who prop it up are now exposed and at odds with a rapidly modernizing world.