Art & Literature

Looking for wonder and some reprieve from the everyday, Anna Funder slips into the pages of her hero George Orwell. As she watches him create his writing self, she tries to remember her own ...

A beautiful, intimate and inspiring investigation into how we can find and nurture within ourselves that essential quality of internal happiness—the "light within" that Julia Baird calls "phosphorescence"—which will sustain us even through the darkest times....

Liz Hayes has graced our television screens for more than four decades. Millions of Australians kicked off their weeks with Liz co-hosting Channel 9's Today show, and now for over 25 years have settled into their Sunday nights to watch her investigative journalism on 60 Minutes....

Catherine Gray took a whole year off dating to find single satisfaction. She lifted the lid on the reasons behind the global single revolution....

A beautifully illustrated celebration of Dolly Parton's iconic sense of style through entertaining personal stories and 450 full-color photographs, including exclusive images from her private costume archive....

What could be a more tempting Christmas gift than a compendium of David Sedaris' best stories, selected by the author himself? From a spectacular career spanning almost three decades, these stories have become modern classics and are now for the first time collected in one volume....

A novelist's gripping investigation of the forces that led his childhood best friend from academic stardom to the psychiatric hospital where he has lived since killing the woman he loved....

Britain's national icon, Michael Parkinson reads his long-awaited autobiography....

A Memoir of My Former Self reveals the shape of Hilary Mantel's life in her own dazzling words, narrated by a prestigious cast of actors and notable literary figures connected to Hilary's work....

From much-loved documentary maker Louis Theroux comes a funny, heartfelt and entertaining account of his life and weird times in TV....

The fascinating true story behind one of the original literary scandals - how Truman Capote (author of In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany's ) betrayed his closest friends in service of his next book....

In this long-awaited and candid memoir, Hitchens re-traces the footsteps of his life to date....

At six years old, Terry was told by his headteacher that he would never amount to anything. He spent the rest of his life proving that teacher wrong....

When Jeanette Winterson left home at 16 because she was in love with a woman, Mrs. Winterson asked her: "Why be happy when you could be normal?"...

In 1982 Murakami began running to keep fit. Here he reflects on his running experiences....

Part memoir, part manifesto, and including chapters on dating, work, sport, babies, families, anger and friendship, it is based on the simple premise that understanding why we fail ultimately makes us stronger....

Pulitzer Prize-winner David Halberstam's best seller takes you inside the football genius of Bill Belichick for an insightful profile in leadership. Bill Belichick's thirty-one years in the NFL have been marked by amazing success - most recently with the New England Patriots....

Matthew Sturgis draws on a wealth of new material and fresh research, bringing alive the distinctive mood and characters of the fin de siècle in the richest and most compelling portrait of Oscar Wilde to date....

This is the second part of Roald Dahl's remarkable life story, following on from Boy.... 

From Alec Nevala-Lee, the author of the Hugo and Locus Award finalist Astounding, comes a revelatory biography of the visionary designer who defined the rules of startup culture and shaped America’s idea of the future....

Alan Bennett is one of the country's most celebrated and best-loved authors. This is an unmissable collection of diaries and memoirs from the acclaimed English actor, author, playwright, and screenwriter....

When Anthony Shadid—one of four New York Times reporters captured in Libya as the region erupted—was freed, he went home, not to Boston, Beirut, or Oklahoma.....

Homage to Catalonia is George Orwell’s account of his experiences fighting in the Spanish Civil War....

Internationally best-selling novelist and American icon Tom Robbins delivers the long-awaited tale of his wild life and times, both at home and around the globe....

You have a unique destiny, an unquenchable dream inside you that’s waiting for you to take action. Maybe you are an artist. But chances are you’ve been told that you’ll starve on the streets if you pursue your art. That’s what Elli Milan was told, too....

Darrin Bush was born and raised in Las Vegas. He attended Saint Joseph elementary school, Bishop Gorman High School and the University of Nevada at Reno. In 1970 he began his working life in the hospitality industry at the Sahara and Frontier hotels, where he was Room Service Manager, Food and Beverage Manager and Executive Slot Host.

Frank Moorhouse was legendary in Australian literary and cultural life, the author of a huge and diverse body of work - essays, short stories, journalism, scripts, the iconic Edith Trilogy - an unapologetic activist, intellectual, libertarian and champion of freedom of speech and sexual self determination. Though he lived his life publicly, his private stories have not been shared, the many paths he forged left unexamined, until now. This landmark study is the fascinating story of how one of Australia's most original writers and pioneer of the discontinuous narrative came to be.

Embark on a captivating journey with Mark Twain in The Innocents Abroad, an audiobook that chronicles the author's travel adventures through Europe and the Holy Land. Twain's sharp wit and keen observations provide a humorous and insightful commentary on the places he visits, the people he encounters, and the cultural clashes he witnesses. This audiobook is a delightful blend of travelogue, satire, and social commentary, offering a unique perspective on the 19th-century world and the human condition.

The celebrated painter Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) occupied a central place in the artistic scene of his time: a founding member of the new school of French painting, he was a close friend of Monet, a longtime associate in Degas's and Mary Cassatt's experimental work, a support to Cezanne and Gauguin, and a comfort to Van Gogh, and was backed by the great Parisian art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel throughout his career. Nevertheless, he felt a persistent sense of being set apart, different, and hard to classify.

A classic portrait of immigrant life in the early decades of the twentieth century, A Walker in the City is a tour of tenements, subways, and synagogues—but also a universal story of the desires and fears we experience as we try to leave our small, familiar neighborhoods for something new.

Step back in time with Mark Twain's Old Times on the Mississippi, an audiobook that offers a fascinating glimpse into the author's experiences as a young riverboat pilot on the mighty Mississippi River. Twain's vivid storytelling brings to life the era of steamboat travel, complete with colorful characters, daring escapades, and the challenges of navigating treacherous waters. With his trademark wit and humor, Twain's narrative paints a vivid picture of a bygone era, making this audiobook a delightful journey through the pages of history.

Liz Hayes has graced our television screens for more than four decades. Millions of Australians kicked off their weeks with Liz co-hosting Channel 9's Today show, and now for over 25 years have settled into their Sunday nights to watch her investigative journalism on 60 Minutes. From camping in grizzly bear territory to sipping tea with an Afghani warlord in an active warzone, Liz has almost seen it all. Compelling and elegantly written, Liz's long-awaited memoir takes us behind the cameras.

Tourists have sought out the landmarks, streets, and alleys of Charles Dickens's London ever since the death of the world-renowned author. Late Victorians and Edwardians were obsessed with tracking down the locations—dubbed "Dickensland"—that famously featured in his novels. But his fans were faced with a city that was undergoing rapid redevelopment, where literary shrines were far from sacred. Over the following century, sites connected with Dickens were demolished, relocated, and reimagined.

Renowned art conservator Rosa Lowinger spent a difficult childhood in Miami among people whose losses in the Cuban revolution, and earlier by the decimation of family in the Holocaust, clouded all family life. After moving away to escape the “cloying exile’s nostalgia,” Lowinger discovered the unique field of art conservation, which led her to work in Tel Aviv, Philadelphia, Rome, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Charleston, Marfa, South Dakota, and Port-Au-Prince.

Through the rising action of his life in literature, Lennon’s remembrances track the influence not only of his literary pater familias, Norman Mailer, but his actual father, a booze-bitten blue-collar bibliophile with his own reputation for genius, and how together these mentors forged and focused the 20/20 literary vision Lennon takes to the work of some of the greatest writers of the Twentieth Century, from Baldwin and Bishop to Didion and DeLillo and, not least, Mailer himself.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, literary genius: Life and works in a short biography! Everything you need to know, brief and concise. Infotainment, education and entertainment at its best!

Everyone knows Frank Herbert's Dune. This science fiction epic combines politics human evolution and ecology and has captured the imagination of generations of readers. It is one of the most popular science fiction novels ever written, has won awards, sold millions of copies around the world and spawned multiple motion-picture adaptations. Brian Herbert, Frank Herbert's eldest son, tells the provocative story of his father's extraordinary life in this honest and loving chronicle. 

Harry Truman and Pablo Picasso were contemporaries and were both shaped by and shapers of the great events of the twentieth century—the man who painted Guernica and the man who authorized the use of atomic bombs against civilians. But in most ways, they couldn’t have been more different. Picasso was a communist, and probably the only thing Truman hated more than communists was modern art. Picasso was an indifferent father, a womanizer, and a millionaire. Truman was utterly devoted to his family. How did they come to be shaking hands in front of Picasso’s studio in the south of France?

Explore the candid and insightful world of "Chapters from my Autobiography" by Mark Twain, an audiobook that offers a firsthand account of the author's extraordinary life and times. This audiobook presents selected chapters from Twain's autobiography, providing a unique window into his experiences, adventures, and reflections. With Twain's distinctive humor and unfiltered storytelling, you'll journey through his encounters with famous figures, his travels, and his thoughts on a wide range of topics.

The Seventh Dead is, on the face of it, a memoir of paranormal experiences, particularly surrounding UFO encounters and anomalous phenomena. On a deeper level, it explores the implication—arising out of these phenomena themselves—to burrow through the shadow aspects of the author’s own psychology, approaching that of a more collective or archetypal nature.