Showing results by publisher "Wavesound from W. F. Howes Ltd" in Biographies & Memoirs

In 1831, Charles Darwin set out on an expedition to South America, brought along as a gentleman companion for Captain Robert FitzRoy. Initially conceived as a Christian mission, the voyage would change drastically as the Beagle sailed through the Pacific, with Darwin’s observations becoming the building blocks of his revolutionary theory of evolution. This theory put the rational, scientific Darwin at odds with the deeply religious FitzRoy, who would go on to publicly denigrate Darwin and his heretic ideas.

Cult hero of the Big Bash League, Brad Hogg is still in his prime almost three decades after he first played cricket. As well as playing for his country, Brad has worked in shearing sheds and on the Fremantle wharf, as a postman, football umpire, tree-lopper and roustabout, even completing a finance degree along the way. Memorable, sad and often hilarious, The Wrong 'Un is the inspirational story of one of the game's most popular players.

Here is a moving and unusual memoir by Michael Pascoe about his relationship with Jim, his friend since boarding school in Queensland, as he faces up to terminal illness. We see a group of friends as they meet occasionally to talk about their shared youth and their mortality. Eloquent, profound—and sometimes funny, as mates can be with one another—these encounters, as well as Michael and Jim's correspondence about living, dying, memory and family—will resonate deeply with listeners.

The peacock's tail is used to describe a wine that is wonderfully complex and ultimately rewarding. Surely there's no better metaphor for life. It was at the bottle shop, somewhere between the chardonnay and the zinfandel, that Peter realised he didn't have a clue about wine. On his way to a dinner party and in a mild panic, he called Matt, a wine-loving acquaintance who expertly steered him towards the perfect bottle. The selection was a hit, but it was Matt's passion that stuck in Peter's mind.

Heidi is unapologetically authentic, her memoir is filled with honesty, humour and home-truths. She will show you how she dealt with her inner mean girls that told her she wasn't skinny enough, good enough or simply that other people mattered more than she did. She will inspire you to STOP worrying what other people think and take your power back!

When the Japanese invade in 1942, the Australian men and women stationed at the New Guinea port of Rabaul flee into the jungle. Written off by their government as ‘hostages to fortune', the little-known garrison on Australia's tropic frontier has been left with no modern equipment, no lifeline to the outside, and no means of escape. Most are captured and killed in the sinking of the prison ship Montevideo Maru, which remains Australia's worst sea disaster. But the surviving soldiers and nurses carry on.

No one ever expected Catriona Menzies-Pike to run a marathon. She hated running and was a hopeless athlete. But a decade after her parents died suddenly, she started running and found that her grief started to move, too. Until very recently it was frowned upon for women to run long distances. Running was deemed unladylike - and probably dangerous.

Paris. The beauty. The grime. The colors and thoughts and songs and sounds and children and dogs. The taste of strawberries, the sky, first métro, last métro, the bells, the dreams. The city of light, it seems, has its own plans for Jayne. Drawn there in an entirely unforeseen way, she finds herself in a vibrant and dizzying neighborhood, living in a former monastery, studying at a famous theatre school, falling in love with a Frenchman too beautiful to be real. She will forget her past and disappear into the culture if it kills her. And one strange night, it nearly does.

Kerstin is childless by choice and married to her job when Gianni, a charming Italian, turns her life into a champagne-colored fairy tale. Soon after their runaway wedding, Gianni is diagnosed with cancer and Kerstin becomes his dedicated carer. But when she discovers that he has been cheating on her all through their relationship, she is faced with a difficult choice: walk away, or continue to care for the man who betrayed her.

People always asked her if she was ever afraid, living out in the desert alone with all those rough and scruffy men. But Minnie Berrington was not the faint-hearted type, and never had been. Being tough came naturally to her, growing up with three brothers and a family that went from riches to ruins. Only a slip of a girl, Minnie could match any man in stamina, perseverance and strength. She arrived in Coober Pedy when camels still brought in essential supplies, and water was so scarce that no-one washed. Together with the other miners, she braved the heat, the flies and the dust.

This is a difficult piece to write. It cuts closer to the bone than most of what I have written; closer to my bones, through my blood and flesh to the bones of truth and country; there is truth here, not disguised but in the open, and that truth hurts. Colonisation in Australia is not over. Colonisation is a process, not an event - and the after-effects will continue while there are still people to remember it.

Full of heart and tenderness, The House with All the Lights On provides an account of deafness in Australia and the UK, where Jessica's grandparents spent the first 60 years of their lives. She tells her grandparents' experience of growing up in a hearing world—one where sign language was banned for much of the 20th Century. Her quest to better understand them takes her to sign language classes, to the workplaces of research audiologists, and in the final chapters, she is led back to England where she visit their old schools and family landmarks.

The celebrated musician's evocative and intimate memoir of the magic and vulnerability of her bohemian childhood growing up as the daughter of iconic artist Charles Blackman.

Australia's most prolific serial sexual killers met in prison. They were a complete contrast: Christopher Worrell, the charismatic psychopathic youngster; and James Miller, the older and socially awkward loner. For Miller, it was love at first sight. They developed an ominous sexual bond–proving that opposites can attract–and then kill. Once free, the inseparable tag team slayed as many people as notorious Australian serial killer Ivan Milat. Whereas Milat took a year to murder seven victims, the duo achieved the same in seven short weeks … the last four killed in only six days.

It was no surprise that Angela Williams went to jail. A traumatic, violent upbringing saw to that. But after serving a short sentence for theft as a teenager, she worked hard to break the cycle. Thirteen years later Angela was studying, teaching, providing a stable home for her son, and finally feeling like she'd got her life together. Then she got hit by a postie bike. Police realised that Angela still had 10 months to go on the prison sentence she'd thought was in her distant past. However, Angela was a different prisoner the second time around.

Weaving the personal with the history of anatomy and the dissected, Jackie Dent explores the world of whole-body donation—all the while looking for answers as to what happened to her grandparents.

Spanning three generations, The Long Goodbye takes us deep into the lives of an Australian family as they survive record-breaking floods, outlast epic droughts and face the unforgiving realities of life on the land. Told with astounding lyricism, warmth and humour, this is a deeply moving memoir about the unbreakable bonds of marriage, love and family. And it poses the most heartbreaking moral dilemma of all: when a loved one is suffering, is euthanasia the answer?

Dress Rehearsals is a raw and beautiful exploration of what it means to be feminine. Beginning with teenage yearning, these poems both celebrate and grieve Madison's sexual awakening as they transition into the glittering femme fatale. Navigating first love, menstruation, chronic illness, sex and patriarchal power dynamics, Dress Rehearsals is a coming-of-age story that has never been told—a decade of performing womanhood in an elaborate and shifting costume.

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 move forward. There is theatre. Love. New friendships. A new neighborhood. But the accident haunts her, forcing her to confront herself and the experience in ways she could never have predicted. A tale of survival and the untold joys of life's curveballs, My Sweet Guillotine captures love and trauma with profound insight. Confronting, funny, strange and real, this is a book about life, death and reinvention, rendered in exquisite prose.

Natalie Kon-yu was nine weeks pregnant when the trembling began. Two weeks later she checked herself into a mental health unit. Though she was in crisis, the GPs, nurses and psychiatrists couldn't see beyond Natalie's precious cargo. She was made to feel that her pregnancy outweighed her mental health. This loss of agency lingered long into her early years of motherhood. In that time, she discovered that she was far from alone. In fact, her experience typifies the harsh inequalities endured by child-bearing women, as well as the devaluation of what is still perceived as ‘women's work'.