Showing results by publisher "Penguin Random House Australia Audio" in Entertainment & Celebrities

Stories, memories and life lessons from an Australian icon.

Darren Hayes was always a storyteller. As a child, in suburban Queensland in the 1970s, he told himself he was going to be a pop star - and he did it. But the reality of his life was much more complicated than the constraints of a three-minute pop song. In Unlovable, for the first time, Darren recounts the events and circumstances that shaped his unique life: from the childhood trauma of growing up with a violent, alcoholic father, his journey with depression, to the dizzying heights of worldwide fame in Savage Garden, and everything in between.

Stolen from his mother and placed into institutional care when he was only a few months old, Uncle Jack was raised under the government's White Australia Policy. The loneliness and isolation he experienced during those years had a devastating impact on him that endured long after he reconnected with his Aboriginal roots and discovered his stolen identity. Even today he feels like an outsider, a loner, a fringe dweller.

I'm strong. I can be tough. I've been broken. I'm opinionated. I'm a people-pleaser. I'm spoilt. I'm needy. I contradict myself. I try to do good. I want to do good. I'm impassioned. I'm observant. Most importantly, I tell the truth. And this is my story.

John Farnham is nothing less than an Aussie icon. In a career spanning almost five decades, the likeable, charismatic star has entertained countless Australians of every generation, selling millions of records along the way. But his extraordinary story is as much about tackling adversity as it is about topping the charts. In this compelling biography, radio broadcaster and music journalist Jane Gazzo tracks down the key figures in John's life—from the 1960s to the present day.

For more than five decades Olivia Newton-John has been one of our most successful and adored entertainers. A four-time Grammy Award winner, she is one of the world's best-selling recording artists of all time, with more than 100 million albums sold. Her starring roles in the iconic movies Grease and Xanadu catapulted her into superstardom. Her appeal as a performer is timeless. In addition to her music and screen successes, Olivia is perhaps best known for her strength, courage and grace.

Julie Goodwin was catapulted into our hearts as the first-ever winner of MasterChef Australia. In many ways her win was unlikely. As a child Julie adored music and art, but her career began in youth work, including in a juvenile detention centre housing troubled boys and a toxic all-male staff. After her three sons were born, she and her husband started an IT business. Then came MasterChef - a record-breaking juggernaut of a show. It was by all appearances, a successful, rewarding life. But under the surface relentless pressure from Julie's outer and inner worlds was taking its toll.

Bianca Hunt has hosted TV shows, rocked runways, given multiple TEDx talks and founded a talent agency - all before her mid-twenties. But while her ambition was to take centre stage in her own life, limiting expectations hadn't always given Bianca top billing in her own story.

Nat's What I Reckon was the tattooed lockdown saviour we didn't know we needed, rescuing us from packet food, jar sauce and total boredom with his hilarious viral recipe videos that got us cooking at home like champions again. Now that we've cooked our way out of lockdown and are wondering what the hell to do next, Nat's back - and he's ready to teach us more about life in this thoroughly unhelpful (but maybe actually kinda helpful) self-help guide.

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.

The son of first-generation Tongan immigrants, Hau drew on the legacy of his name (meaning 'King') to become one of the nation's most influential musical artists. But the best stories often come from the humblest beginnings. A promising junior rugby player, Hau decided in his teens to trade in the footy boots for Hammer pants, soaking up every bar and breakbeat of the new sound and culture exploding out of urban America: DJ Kool Herc and LL Cool J, mix-tapes and graffiti, velour Kangols and Beat Street.

First as a music writer and then as an editor, promoter, manager, broadcaster, publicist and author, Stuart Coupe has experienced the giddy highs and crushing lows of a life lived in the creative fast lane. Shake Some Action is your backstage pass to his remarkable story, from starting his first magazine at the age of fourteen to hoovering heroic amounts of cocaine before interviewing Boy Dylan (who asked him where he got his drugs from).

In a small, desperately poor village in north-east China, a young peasant boy sits at his rickety old school desk, more interested in the birds outside than in Chairman Mao's Red Book and the grand words it contains. But that day, some strange men come to his school - Madame Mao's cultural delegates. They are looking for young peasants to mould into faithful guards of Chairman Mao's great vision for China. This is the true story of how that one moment in time, by the thinnest thread of a chance, changed the course of a small boy's life in ways that are beyond description.