The urgent phone call comes from behind the barbed wire.'This is Ayalon prison,' says one of the guards urgently. 'Listen, he hanged himself, we need an ambulance.'Prisoner X, just 34 years old, was slumped in a small bathroom, separated from his cell by a transparent door. Kept in one of the most technologically sophisticated solitary jail cells, a... Read more...

John Cantwell, Queensland country boy, enlisted in the army as a private and rose to the rank of major general. He was on the front line in 1991 as Coalition forces fitted bulldozer blades to tanks and buried Iraqi troops alive. He served in Baghdad in 2006 and saw what a car bomb does to a crowded marketplace. He was commander of Australian forces ... Read more...

Everyone in Australia knows Ray Martin the journalist and TV presenter, but few know about his secret passion—photography. Full-colour and gloriously produced, this book will showcase Ray's stunning photos from Australia and around the world.Ray presents landscapes from remote Central Australia to the wild Galapagos Islands to unseen angles of... Read more...

Following in the stiletto heels of her bestselling The Vogue Factor, Kirstie Clements' Tongue in Chic is a witty and salacious exposé of the world of glossy fashion magazines—a tell-all by the ultimate insider.True events revolve around the fictitious Chic magazine, where an average day involves counting calories (preferably other people's), ... Read more...

The March 2014 issue of Meanjin is full of outsiders, revolutionaries and dissenters. We discover a lost archive of photographs of Charmian Clift on and George Johnson on Hydra in an essay by Paul Genoni and Tanya Dalziell, while James Douglas take a look at the unique powers of persuasion employed by journalist and writer Anna Krien.In the Meanjin ... Read more...

'Grishin presents a story that is multilayered in its complexity and detail. [His book] at once broadens the scope of our national art and draws together these diverse strands into a compelling narrative. Above all it is a lively and insightful account of the diversity and richness of artistic endeavour of this country.' - Tony Ellwood, Director, Na... Read more...

The urgent phone call comes from behind the barbed wire.'This is Ayalon prison,' says one of the guards urgently. 'Listen, he hanged himself, we need an ambulance.'Prisoner X, just 34 years old, was slumped in a small bathroom, separated from his cell by a transparent door. Kept in one of the most technologically sophisticated solitary jail cells, a... Read more...

Introduction by Michelle de KretserCotters' England follows the lives of Nellie Cook, sister Peggy Cotter and brother Tom. Set in post-war England, it is a study of politics and betrayal in Nellie's professional and personal life. It is a story of smothered aspirations and dashed hopes, as class politics trap the Cotters and stifle their attempts to... Read more...

'The idea of 'sentinel chickens' seemed pretty incongruous when I first heard the phrase as a young undergraduate ... The notion of the humble chicken waiting like a trained soldier, alert and focused, for some unseen and approaching enemy just didn't seem likely. Hens en garde!'And yet guard they do. Not only chickens, but puffins, eagles, canaries... Read more...

With these words Ailsa Piper's journey begins. Less than a month later she finds herself hiking through olive groves and under translucent pink blossoms, making her way from the legendary city of Granada, towards the cliffs at Finisterre in the far north-west of Spain.On her back she carries an unusual cargo - a load of sins. In the tradition o... Read more...

In Philosophy in the Garden, Damon Young explores one of literature's most intimate relationships: authors and their gardens. For some, the garden provided a retreat from workaday labour; for others, solitude's quiet counsel. For all, it played a philosophical role: giving their ideas a new life.Philosophy in the Garden reveals the profound thoughts... Read more...

Vulture capitalism has seen the corporation become more powerful than the state, and yet its work is often done by stealth, supported by political and media elites. The result is privatised wars and outsourced detention centres, mining companies pillaging precious land in developing countries and struggling nations invaded by NGOs and the corporate ... Read more...

Transported convict George Clarke absconded in the early 1800s and went far into the then unexplored wilderness of northern New South Wales. There, thought by the Aborigines to be a 'ghost', he lived with them for four years integrating into their lives and later leading them on raids to steal the white men's cattle.On eventual capture he claimed to... Read more...

This book examines the Kelly Outbreak against its geographical and social background. Failure to unlock the land through selection had created a class of struggling selectors who felt that the established authority of squatters and police denied them justice. Their sympathy and support helped Ned come and go as he pleased, despite the price on his h... Read more...

Today the six-volume history is one of the masterpieces of Australian writing. It is also one of the most passionately debated visions of Australian history, in which the struggle to realise an Australian nation is played out on an epic scale.A History of Australia ,Volumes 1 & 2, From Earliest Times to 1838, deals with the pre-white settlement era ... Read more...

Mary Gilmore's life spanned almost a century of Australian history. She lived for ninety-seven years and this selection of her letters covers a period of almost seventy years, encompassing the social, political and literary scene of the period when Australia was changing from colony to nation.The letters contain perceptive judgements of indigenous l... Read more...