Biographies & True Stories Books

From one of China's most celebrated and silenced literary authors, Murong Xuecun, Deadly Quiet City is an unforgettable collection of true stories from the early months of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan.On 23 January 2020,...

In Apollo and Thelma, broadcaster and lawyer Jon Faine shares a yarn that has enthralled him for forty years, taking him from Melbourne’s depression-era slums to the isolation of the outback.    Apollo and Thelma have been a...

Kidnapped in the most expensive taxi in Mexico. Living like Frank Sinatra with a UTI in Palm Springs. Avoiding exploding rubbish bins in new Tokyo. Sleeping with man-eating spiders in Guatemala.    For better or (usually) worse, major life...

Andrew Morton’s highly acclaimed biography of Meghan Markle, first published just before her marriage to Prince Harry, reflected on the impact that Meghan had already had on the ridged traditions of the House of Windsor. However, little did anyone know...

Julia Morgan was a lifelong trailblazer. She was the first woman admitted to study architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the first licensed to practice architecture in California. Over the first half of the 20th century, she left an...

'Ladies and gentlemen, the least important part of this book is the life story of an Italian shoemaker. We can all write our autobiography, and if I dwell on the details of my career it is only because it makes it easier to explain my calling: the work...

Cassoulet Confessions is an enthralling memoir by award-winning food and travel writer Sylvie Bigar that reveals how a simple journalistic assignment sparked a culinary obsession and transcended into a quest for identity. Set in the stunning southern...

Jayne Tuttle, acclaimed author of Paris or Die, returns to Paris with My Sweet Guillotine.   In the wake of a bizarre, shocking accident in Paris, Jayne finds herself back in the city in a strange limbo. Ignoring the past, she tries to...

As a Getty Images royal photographer, Chris Jackson has been granted privileged access to the monarch and the British royal family. He has documented the Queen’s official engagements over the past two decades, during a period of seismic changes in the...

Not Just the Wife of the General Manager is a rollicking memoir of one woman’s life on outback cattle stations, and an homage to the many unsung women like her.    It was the 1980s and Sally was in her mid 20s when she returned from a...

They were the closest of sisters and the best of friends. But when, in a quixotic twist of fate, their uncle Edward VIII decided to abdicate the throne, the dynamic between Elizabeth and Margaret was dramatically altered. Forever more, Margaret would...

‘Tender, wise, and deeply true.’ – Andrew Denton‘Do not be deceived by the size of this book. It is big in all the ways that matter.’ – Sydney Morning Herald‘Blazingly beautiful and devastating. I wept but felt less alone as a human. I want everyone...

Winner of the University Of Queensland Non-Fiction Book AwardA deeply personal exploration of Australia's colonisation past, present and future by one of Australia's finest contemporary authors.This is a difficult piece to write. It cuts closer to the...

‘What joy to be at sea again, adrift on the vast Pacific, in the clutches of a gifted storyteller. Harrison Christian and the mutineers of Men Without Country held me happily captive to the very last page.’ Dava Sobel, author of LongitudeA...

Be transported to the banks of the Seine, a corner boulangerie, or beneath the Eiffel Tower with these beautifully illustrated vignettes of life in the City of Light. What began as a way to fund travel became ten years of a letter subscription service...

While COVID-19 is reshaping our lives, this must-read book for 2021 provides some of the answers to our most pressing global challenges. Unless the world is basically peaceful, we will never get the trust, cooperation and inclusiveness to solve these...

'Sometimes my mind reaches back beyond the fear and the arid landscapes of war, to memories of childhood that fill me with happiness and laughter.' So begins this searingly honest memoir by Kailash Limbu, a serving Gurka soldier who undertook five tours...

David Frith’s acclaimed biography of Archie Jackson, Australian cricket’s doomed batting genius, still stands as the definitive account of a sporting life cut heartbreakingly short.When Frith’s first iteration of this classic biography was published in...

Designed to resemble a block of stacked LEGO® bricks, these boxes contain over 200 colourful slips of paper, each with a LEGO brick design on one side and room on the other for notes to save or send. Doubling as keepsake boxes, LEGO® Note Bricks offer...

This box of 100 postcards captures the joy and creativity of the LEGO® brand. Featuring images of everyday objects recreated with LEGO bricks, these postcards are perfect for sharing delight with friends and family, or displaying for daily inspiration...

Delving deep into the Australian landscape and the environmental challenges we face, Fire Country is a powerful account from Indigenous land management expert Victor Steffensen on how the revival of cultural burning practices, and improved 'reading' of...

Let creative sparks fly with this journal featuring beautiful concept art from Kiki's Delivery Service, Studio Ghibli's delightful film about a young witch and her journey of self-discovery. With full-colour artwork on the front and back covers, spot...

Lagerfeld showcases in an oversize format ten years of Chanel's most influential fashion shows shot by English photographer Simon Procter. Over the past decade, fashion shows have evolved into monumental productions, requiring a level of sophistication...

Featuring the mysterious forest spirit from Hayao Miyazaki's beloved film My Neighbor Totoro, this plush and embroidered journal includes lined interiors and colourful artwork on the front and back pages-sure to delight Totoro fans and all who love...

International supermodel Cindy Crawford presents her own personal visual autobiography, the first book to chronicle her life and career, featuring some of her most memorable images. Crawford began modeling as a teenager, first shot by Arthur Elgort,...

There is no aspect of the Australian wine industry that remains untouched by the hand of James Halliday. In a much-lauded career in wine spanning over forty years and accumulating innumerable awards, James has seen it all.   Join James as...

Alexander Pearce and seven of his fellow convicts escaped from gaol in 1822 into one of the most unique and beautiful places on earth – the Tasmanian wilderness. This classic Australian story details the men’s attempt to free themselves from the most...

The instant New York Times bestselling author of Bad Mormon and breakout star of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City returns with a hilarious, illustrative, and deeply reflective book about life and love as a former Mormon, mother, and reality TV star...

Stan Grant is talking to his country in a new way. In his most poetic and inspiring work yet, he offers a means of moving beyond the binaries and embracing a path to peace and forgiveness, rooted in the Wiradjuri spiritual practice of Yindyamarra – deep...

Gina Chick, the inaugural winner of Alone Australia, tells the story of her extraordinary, indomitable life in one of the most powerful, moving memoirs you will ever read.From day one of her wildly unconventional childhood, Gina Chick blazed her own...

From the author of paper girl and the knives that made her comes unfold, a poetic, aching, and hopeful retelling of realizations made while on the journey to healing from both loss of love and loss of self.Through poetry and short essays, unfold shows...

A deliciously witty and inspiring memoir by One Tree Hill star Bethany Joy Lenz about her decade in a cult and her quest to break free. In the early 2000s, after years of hard work and determination to breakthrough as an actor, Bethany Joy Lenz...

“Martens’ work would be impressive in any era, but it is particularly timely today. It is wonderful to come upon an author who faces into the horrific absurdities of modern life without flinching, a stylist who delivers his most powerful satiric points...

This highly-anticipated second volume of poetry and short stories combines the forces of some of the most popular poets of current day.[Dis]Connected Volume 2 presents poems and short stories about connection wrapped up in a most unique exercise in...

Humanity exists in a hyper connected world, where our closest friends, loves and enemies lie but a keyboard stroke away. Few know this better than the poets who have risen to the top of their trade by sharing their emotion, opinion and art with millions...

My story is not just the story of my boxing career. In fact, boxing is only a very small part of it. I wrote my story to share my perspective of what it is like to be controlled by a need for perfection. I wanted to be a boxing world champion. I wanted...

Exploring Peter Finch’s life as an abandoned, unloved child is a key in understanding his brilliant mesmerising style of acting. In his youth in Australia, he conquered all the fields in acting well before his discovery after the war in 1947 by Sir...

“Delightful.” —Town & Country • “Extraordinary...Tomlinson’s book is a gem.” —Star Tribune (Minneapolis) • “Moving...Really broke me.” —The Washington Post • “This book wants to lick your face. Let it.” —Kirkus ReviewsPulitzer Prize finalist Tommy...

#1 New York Times bestselling author Craig Whitlock’s masterful account of one of the biggest public corruption scandals in American history—exposing how a charismatic Malaysian defense contractor bribed scores of high-ranking military officers,...

An “intimate, intensely resonant memoir about workaholism, unresolved trauma, and the ‘addictive nature of ambition’” (Harper’s Bazaar), this is an anti-girlboss tale for our times for readers of Drinking: A Love Story and Uncanny Valley.After years of...

For readers of Meghan O’Rourke’s The Invisible Kingdom, Esmé Weijun Wang’s The Collected Schizophrenias, and Melissa Febos’s Girlhood, a powerful and deeply personal memoir in essays that sheds light on the silent epidemic of head trauma.Annie Liontas...

What would you do if your husband suddenly left you with two kids to support? Go back to school? Go into real estate?Or start a new career as a pimp?Upon discovering that sex work is decriminalised in New Zealand, Antonia Murphy decides to build her own...

Wallace “Wallo267” Peeples spent twenty years in and out of the prison system before restarting his life and catapulting himself to unforeseen levels of social impact, cultural influence, and success. Now he shares his story with the trademark honesty...

Now back in print and timed for its 50th anniversary—the landmark book Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee! Originally published in 1974, Origins of Marvel Comics features the first appearance of characters who have dominated the pantheon of Marvel’s...

The cofounder of BET and first African American woman billionaire shares her deeply personal, “highly readable” (Kirkus Reviews) journey through love and loss, tragedy and triumph—an inspiring story of overcoming toxic influences, discovering her true...

Walt Disney Treasures: Personal Art and Artifacts from The Walt Disney Family Museum chronicles the legacy of the legendary American artist, storyteller, filmmaker, and entrepreneur through iconic objects that represent his remarkable life and career...

For the first time since his debut 35 years ago, horror master Junji Ito reveals exactly how he creates his unique worlds.Why are we drawn to fear?Horror manga legend Junji Ito has fascinated the world with his beautiful and strange tales, from his...

Renowned investigative journalist Richard Behar delivers the definitive account of history’s largest—and longest-running—financial fraud, “the scale of the deception…beggars belief” (New York Post).Some $68 billion evaporated during Bernie Madoff’s epic...