Biography For Boys

Raw, gritty, compassionate, surprising and darkly funny - Australian legend Jimmy Barnes' unforgettable childhood memoir. A household name, an Australian rock icon, the elder statesman of OzPubRock - there isn't an accolade or cliché that doesn't apply to Jimmy Barnes. But long before Cold Chisel and Barnesy, long before the tall tales of success and excess, there was the true story of James Dixon Swan - a working class boy whose family made the journey from Scotland to Australia in search of a better life.

The year is 1957. Four-year-old Paul Ecke sits timidly at a foreign kitchen table, eating the first inferior meal of many in a foster home. Longing for his beloved mother, he sees her only on short weekend visits that grow more infrequent over time, as she tries unsuccessfully to hide a nervous breakdown along with yet another growing pregnancy. Despite - or perhaps because of - the emotional angst, complicated sexual identity issues, and deep loss he experiences, Paul cultivates a profound gift of creative genius.

From a skinny, ginger-haired kid from Walsall who was bullied at school, to the ‘Queen of Soho’, who would rule London’s drag scene in its most dazzling era. This gripping true story follows an unassuming boy, separated from other children and made to sit by the window, on to a remarkable career, with celeb buddies including Kylie Minogue, The Pet Shop Boys, Grace Jones, Cyndi Lauper and, of course, Boy George. But behind the glitter, there was a far darker reality.

Once below the Potomac River, the Union troopers raced down the east side of the Blue Ridge Mountains but were unable to prevent General Lee's wounded Army of Northern Virginia from reaching Culpeper. The balance of 1863 was a series of maneuvers, raids, and fighting that witnessed the near-destruction of the Michigan Cavalry Brigade at Buckland Mills and the indecisive and frustrating efforts of the Bristoe Station and Mine Run campaigns. Alfred Pleasonton's controversial command of the mounted arm ended abruptly, only to be replaced by the more controversial Philip H. Sheridan.

Life with Louie is a collection of coming-of-age stories about growing up with a brother who happens to have been born with Down syndrome. For the author, Mia Rotella-White, having a sibling with a disability never created hardship. The opposite is true. Growing up with Louie meant Mia’s days were full of disco balls, group hugs, fashion shows and dance parties. When adversity struck, and it did, the siblings reminded each other how ridiculous it was to think any tragedy could ever be bigger than their love.

The Boys of Winter tells the true story of three young American ski champions and their brutal, heroic, and fateful transformation from athletes to infantrymen with the 10th Mountain Division. Charles J. Sanders's fast-paced narrative draws on dozens of interviews and extensive research to trace these boys' lives from childhood to championships and from training at Mount Rainier and in the Colorado Rockies to battles against the Nazis.

The Boy Generals: George Custer, Wesley Merritt, and the Cavalry of the Army of the Potomac is the first installment in a remarkable trilogy to examine the strategy, tactics, and relationships of the leading Union army’s mounted arm and their influence on the course of the Civil War in the Eastern Theater. George Armstrong Custer’s career has attracted its fair share of coverage, but most Custer-related studies focus on his decision-making and actions to the exclusion of other important factors, including his relationships with his fellow officers.

Joseph Jacoby, screenwriter, director, producer and NYU Film School classmate of Martin Scorsese, began his career as a writer and creator of television game shows and as a professional puppeteer. Jacoby, who worked in the early days of live TV and went on to become a pioneering filmmaker, has until now never revealed that most of his early years were spent as a ward of the state. He survived a childhood shadowed by his mother's unpredictable and dangerous behavior, which forced friends to commit her. Jacoby then grew up in seven foster homes in Brooklyn, and two institutions.

Josiah was 19 with the world at his feet when things changed. Without warning, the new university student's mental health deteriorated to the point that he planned his own death. His mother, bestselling author Amanda Prowse, found herself grappling for ways to help him, with no clear sense of where that could be found. This is the book they wish had been there for them during those dark times.

For Clarence, a two-year-old Minnesota boy, the terrible twos were terrible. His mother was killed in an auto accident, boiling water scalded his arm, and a rooster nearly pecked out one of his eyes. Things weren’t much better at six. Tumbling into a stream, a broken bottle pierced his elbow and doctors contemplated amputating the arm. At eight, his luck changed.

Raised in a small town in the north of England, Graham Caveney armed himself against the confusing nature of adolescence with a thick accent, a copy of Kafka, and a record collection including the likes of the Buzzcocks and Joy Division. All three provided him the opportunity to escape, even if just in mind, beyond his small-town borders. But, when those passions are noticed and preyed upon by a mentor, everything changes. Now, as an adult, Caveney attempts to reconcile his past and present, coming to grips with both the challenges and wonder of adolescence, music, and literature.

Today was his first climb to the top. He knew if he was there, watching, then she would never leave him. Her name was Bernadette, and he climbed the shed every day. This is a not a football book, as such. Rather, it is a memoir by someone who happened to have superior ability at the sport during his formative years, which led him on a remarkable journey. Paul Ferris became a professional footballer and at the age of 16 was the youngest ever to play in Newcastle United's first team.

It was 1945, and Romek Wajsman had just been liberated from Buchenwald, a brutal concentration camp where more than 60,000 people were killed. He was starving, tortured and had no idea where his family was - let alone if they were alive. Along with 472 other boys, including Elie Wiesel, these teens were dubbed 'The Buchenwald Boys'. They were angry at the world for their abuse and turned to violence: stealing, fighting and struggling for power. Everything changed for Romek and the other boys when Albert Einstein and Rabbi Herschel Schacter brought them to a home for rehabilitation.

When Hamed Amiri was 10 years old, he watched his mother give a speech in his home town of Herat, Afghanistan, speaking out for women’s rights and education and against the ruling Taliban. That night, an order was given for her execution. The family packed up their most precious belongings and escaped in darkness, starting what would be a long and dangerous journey. But his mother's was not the only life in danger. Hamed’s older brother suffered from a rare heart condition, and this escape offered a chance of life-saving treatment in the West.

What would it be like to see everyone as a friend? Twelve-year-old Eli D'Angelo has a genetic disorder that obliterates social inhibitions, making him irrepressibly friendly, indiscriminately trusting, and unconditionally loving toward everyone he meets. It also makes him enormously vulnerable. Eli lacks the innate skepticism that will help his peers navigate adolescence more safely - and vastly more successfully.

Lee Kernaghan has created his place in the history books of Australian Music and continues to grow his audience with every new album. Two thousand sixteen will see the release of yet another new album, and 2017 will be a special year that will feature the 25th Anniversary Tour of Australia's Boy From the Bush. For the first time, Lee steps off the stage and invites you behind the scenes, into the ute and over the rutted red dirt on a rollocking journey through his songs and the stories that inspired them.

Danny's past crept back to haunt him. Confronted by forgotten memories of betrayal and abandonment, he was stunned to discover that his eight-year-old self was still trapped in a world he thought he had left behind. Although unnerved by his experience, Danny begins an arduous journey that leads him back to the streets of Dublin, the tenement slums, and, ultimately, the malice and mischief of the Artane playground. What he discovers with each twist and turn of his odyssey will forever change his life.

On the West Coast of the South Island, past deep fjords, glassy lakes, forested valleys and snow-capped mountains, lies the Long family cabin. It was here that Chris Long spent the first 17 years of his life, two days' hike from the nearest road. In this heartfelt and captivating audiobook, Chris describes childhood with nature on his doorstep—helping his father catch crayfish and his mother grow vegetables, dreaming of helicopter visits, playing with toys crafted from driftwood and jade and learning to survive in the wild.

The mockery invented by Philip’s father, because he was badminton-mad and useless (said father) at all else, lingered with him through school in Malaysia. It travelled with him on an Aeroflot to England in 1970, aged 18, functioning on adrenaline. It stuck through his navigation of parochial middle England—washing backsides in a mental hospital, law practice, sports, and professional and personal relationships.

Throughout the '80s and early '90s, Lizzie Webb inspired the nation to get up and move as TV-am’s resident fitness guru. The music featured in her routines shot to the top of the charts, resulting in hits for the likes of Take That, Sonia, and George Harrison. She also collaborated with Simon Cowell for several years. Filled with heartfelt stories of the wonderful people she has helped along the way, as well as fond reminiscences and hilarious stories from her time on breakfast TV, Mad About the Boys reveals the fascinating two sides to Lizzie’s extraordinary and inspiring life.