Biography

Jonny Texas came from an unconventional but close-knit Midlands family and developed a fascination with all forms of gambling from a young age. He grew up learning how to be a wheeler dealer and in his twenties, with a young family to support, the challenge of beating the odds to make large sums of money became even greater. As he grew older, his life was to become a rollercoaster of highs and lows as he moved from one wild money spinning venture to another, making huge amounts and then losing them, unable to resist any gambling opportunity. The two constants in his life have been his family and poker and, at times, they have made uneasy bedfellows. But somehow, Jonny has managed to pull off the unimaginable, repeatedly pulling himself back from the brink of disaster and turning himself into a winner, appearing on TV and in the public eye. From Sixpences to Dollars documents the extraordinary story of one man's obsession with gambling and how he has ultimately turned it to his advantage.

Ashley & Cheryl Cole - Where Did It All Go Wrong? is a quick-read biography, focusing on Cheryl and Ashley's relationship, marriage and divorce. It looks at the parallels in their careers, the ups and downs, and investigates Ashley's alleged cheating with numerous women. Ultimately it asks the question 'Where Did It All Go Wrong' - could anything have been done to prevent the break-up, or was the marriage doomed from the beginning.

Renowned Australian-born archaeologist and prehistorian Vere Gordon Childe (1892–1957) had a lifelong fascination with socialist politics. In his early life he was active in the Australian labour movement and wrote How Labour Governs (1923), the world's first study of parliamentary socialism. However, he decided to pursue a life of scholarship to 'escape the fatal lure' of politics and Australian labour's 'politicalism' – his term for its misguided emphasis on parliamentary representation. In Britain, with the publication of The Dawn of European Civilisation (1925), Childe began a career that would establish him as preeminent in his field and one of the most distinguished scholars of the mid-twentieth century. At the same time, he aimed to 'democratise archaeology' and involve people in its practice. What Happened in History (1942), his most popular book, sold 300,000 copies in its first 15 years. Politics continued to lure Childe, and for forty years he was spied upon by security services of Britain and Australia. He supported Russia's 'grand and hopeful experiment' and opposed the rise of fascism. His Australian background reinforced his hatred of colonialism and imperialism. Politics was also implicated in his death. There is a direct line between Childe's early radicalism and his final – and fatal – political act in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. The Fatal Lure of Politics is a new and radically different biography about the central place of socialist politics in Childe's life, and his contribution to the theory of history that this politics entailed.

Dennis Altman's long obsession with the United States began when he went there as a graduate student during Lyndon Johnson's presidency. His early writing stemmed from the counter-culture that developed in the States in the mid-1960s. Altman was involved in early Gay Liberation, and his 1971 study Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation is regarded as a classic work in its field. Since then, Altman's writings have touched in various ways upon the shifting terrain of sexual politics, including the AIDs epidemic, which he witnessed from the onset while living in New York. Altman's memoir, Unrequited Love, is as wide-ranging and remarkable as his career, moving between Australia, the United States, Europe and parts of Asia, and influenced by encounters with intellectuals and writers including James Baldwin, Gough Whitlam, Dorothy Porter, Christos Tsiolkas, Gore Vidal and Susan Sontag. Written through the lens of recent activism and the global rise of authoritarianism, this is a story of a half century of activism, intellectualism, conflict and friendship.

From the ashes of the darkest event in human history, Australian Jews built a thriving community, one with proportionally more Holocaust survivors than anywhere else in the world bar Israel. Mark Leibler grew up in this community, and in time became a leader of it. This book shows how Leibler rose to a position of immense influence in Australian public life by skilfully entwining his roles as a Zionist leader and a tax lawyer to some of the country's richest people. The book vividly paints a cast of Australian characters-among them Paul Keating, John Howard, Julia Gillard and Noel Pearson-who came to know Leibler and to call him a friend, along with people like Kevin Rudd and Bob Carr, who see Leibler as no friend at all. Finally, the book charts the surprise turn in Leibler's life, when a social and political conservative became a committed advocate for radical reform on behalf of Australia's Indigenous people. This many-layered book is a portrait of Jewish life in Australia, of the interaction between private wealth and politics, and of a man whose energy, formidable work habits and forcefulness that often tips into pugnacity have made him a highly effective player in Australian affairs.

What was it like to be involved in the heady days of 'second wave' feminism in Australia, when the role of women at home and at work changed decisively? Iola Mathews was one of the founders of the Women's Electoral Lobby, a journalist at The Age, and later a leading ACTU advocate for women workers during the 'Accord' with the Hawke-Keating Government. She was one of the first generation of women trying to 'have it all' with a career and children. In this honest and revealing memoir, she takes us inside the day-to-day groundwork required to bring about reforms in areas like affirmative action, equal pay, superannuation, child care, parental leave and work–family issues. This is an important record of a pivotal time for women in Australia's history. Iola brings wisdom and experience to it, reflecting on where we are today, with suggestions for further change. Winning for Women is a vital source for policy makers and all those interested in women, work and families.

Whenever anyone tells you that only the big parties or star candidates have a chance of winning a seat in federal parliament, just say 'Cathy McGowan'. Running as a community-backed independent candidate, Cathy won the previously safe Liberal seat of Indi in 2013 and again in 2016, and passed Indi on to another independent in 2019 – a first in Australian history. Cathy shares how thousands of ordinary men and women in northeastern Victoria got together, organised themselves and made their voices heard in Canberra. An inspiring tale and a primer for other communities and individuals looking to create change.

Graham Berry (1822–1904) was colonial Australia's most gifted, creative and controversial politician. A riveting speaker, a newspaper proprietor and editor, and the founder of Australia's first mass political party, he wielded these tools to launch an age of reform: spearheading the adoption of a 'protectionist' economic policy, the payment of parliamentarians, and the taxing of large landholdings. He also sought the reform of the Constitution, precipitating a crisis that the London Times likened to a 'revolution'. This book recovers Berry's forgotten and fascinating life. It explores his drives and aspirations, the scandals and defeats that nearly derailed his career, and his remarkable rise from linen-draper and grocer to adored popular leader. It establishes his formative influence on later Australian politics. And it also uses Berry's life to reflect on the possibilities and constraints of democratic politics, hoping thereby to enrich the contemporary political imagination.

"A perfected modern battle plan is like nothing so much as a score for an orchestral composition, where the various arms and units are the instruments, and the tasks they perform are their respective musical phrases. Every individual unit must make its entry precisely at the proper moment and play its phrase in the general harmony." -- John Monash *** Who was the most innovative general of World War I? For author (and former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia) Tim Fischer*, the answer has to be Australia's John Monash, a man who, for all the recognition he received in his lifetime and after, has arguably not been given his proper due within the major military histories of the Great War. In this book, Fischer asks why John Monash was never promoted to Field Marshal, as international precedent suggested was most appropriate, pointing the finger primarily at Billy Hughes, the Australian prime minister from 1915 to 1923, within a wider context of establishment suspicion towards this son of a German Jewish migrant. The book demonstrates how a posthumous granting of the Field Marshal rank for John Monash now constitutes a due reward for this great servant of the Australian nation - a salutary reminder of his legacy. * [In 1971, at the age of 24, the Honorable Tim Fischer was elected to the New South Wales State Parliament, switching to the Federal Parliament in 1984 and was for 10 years Federal Leader of the Nationals, including serving as Deputy Prime Minister and Trade Minister. Upon retirement from the Australian Parliament, he took up various philanthropic and corporate roles. From 2008 to 2012, Fischer was the Australian Ambassador to the Holy See, based in Rome.] *** "Tim Fischer brings his army and political experience to the General Monash story with a flowing and digestible style." -- Professor Roland Perry *** "In his account of Monash's life and military career, Fischer details the many obstacles faced and surmounted by 'the most innovative general' of the war....Monash made concerted use of infantry, artillery, tanks, aircraft and radio in (to quote him) 'comprehensive holistic battle plan[s].' His strategy's success became evident in thwarting Germany's final westward push..." -- The NYMAS Review, StrategyPage, April 2015 (Series: Biography) [Subject: Biography, Military History, World War I, Australian Studies, Politics]

Throughout my years of practice, people have often asked me why I decided to specialise in sexual health. The question is not surprising given that sexual health doctors are not held in the same regard as those who work in other medical specialties … We sexual health physicians don't grow rich, but we have a wealth of stories – wry, funny, and sad – all illustrative of the human condition. In Tell Me I'm Okay, author and retired sexual health doctor David Bradford relates a remarkable set of stories … about growing up as a gay child in a strongly Christian family, struggling with his sexuality, serving as an army doctor in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, working as Director of the Melbourne Communicable Diseases Centre at the time of the arrival of HIV/AIDS, and in private practice with hundreds of AIDS patients, many of whom did not survive. Here is a humane, wise, thoughtful voice, always conscious of the wonderful, the absurd, the fragile nature of life. David Bradford's story tells us much about who we are, how we've changed, and where at least some of our scars have come from.