Showing results by publisher "Wavesound from W. F. Howes Ltd" in Sports & Outdoors

Cameron Smith, AM, is the most decorated rugby league player of all time. This autobiography maps his unique journey in the game: an extraordinary look into the biggest matches and biggest moments, Smith describes his career with great colour and candour, outlining what it takes to climb to the highest level in sport. Talent aside, it is Smith's intelligence and poise that set him apart, coupled with consistency, durability and longevity that are unlikely to ever be matched.

Soil is the unlikely story of our most maligned resource as swashbuckling hero. A saga of bombs, ice ages and civilisations falling. Of ancient hunger, modern sicknesses and gastronomic delight. It features poison gas, climate collapse and a mind-blowing explanation of how rain is formed. For too long, we've not only neglected the land beneath us, we've squandered and debased it, by over-clearing, over-grazing and over-ploughing.

Brendan Cullen manages Kars Station, a 10,000-head sheep property 65 kilometres outside Broken Hill, New South Wales. In 2022, despite his nearest beach being more than 600 kilometres away, he swam the English Channel. Taking up swimming was part of Brendan's recovery from severe depression, an illness that had seen him cope in highly unhealthy ways–drinking, overwork, being emotionally absent–for years. But then he found the strength to walk through the doors of Broken Hill Hospital and ask for help.

A couple of quiet weeks sailing the River Severn was the intention. Somehow things got out of hand—a year later, I had reached Romania and was still going. Equipped with his cheerful optimism and a pith helmet, this Australian Odysseus in a dinghy travels from the borders of North Wales to the Black Sea—4,900 kilometres over salt and fresh water, under sail, at the oars, or at the end of a tow-rope—through 12 countries, 282 locks and numerous trials and adventures, including an encounter with Balkan pirates.

Former food critic and chef, now farmer and restaurateur Matthew Evans grapples with the thorny issues around the ways we produce and consume animals. From feedlots and abattoirs to organic farms and animal welfare agencies, he has an intimate, expert understanding of the farming practices that take place in our name. Evans calls for less radicalisation, for greater understanding, and for ethical omnivores to stand up for the welfare of animals and farmers alike.

William McInnes, one of Australia's best-loved entertainers and authors, takes a look at the Aussie obsession with sports and pop culture. A chance encounter in an auction house is the jumping-off point for William's inimitable take on our sport-obsessed nation, Australian popular culture and the artefacts and memorabilia that make us both cringe with recognition and laugh with warm affection. His trademark humour and anecdotes litter this collection, making it a true delight.

This is Ruby Tui. An open, raw and honest account of her journey from a troubled and unstable childhood, searching for a better option in life, to Olympic champion and the world's best rugby sevens player. After a childhood filled with neglect Ruby yearned for another path. Determined not to let her upbringing limit her, she survived abuse, drugs and tragedy to become one of the most successful women's rugby players in the world.

The day Abram and his mother arrived at Auschwitz death camp, they both knew it would be her last. In their final moment together, Abram's mum urged her nineteen-year-old son to 'Do everything humanly possible to survive, and tell people what happened here.' Then she was taken to a gas chamber and murdered. Abram had already endured and survived so much until that moment but with his strength of hope, sometimes reduced to a flicker, he survived.

On 12th September 2018, British Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert was arrested at Tehran Airport by Iran’s feared Islamic Revolutionary Guards. Convicted of espionage in a shadowy trial presided over by Iran’s most notorious judge, Dr Moore-Gilbert was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Incarcerated in Tehran’s Evin and Qarchak prisons for 804 days, this is the full and gripping account of her harrowing ordeal.

For years, Emma Carey was a regular young adult who would wake up and go about their day on autopilot, someone who would look at a sunset and feel unaffected, someone who was living, but not really alive. That is, until something happened that enabled her to really see life for the gift it is. Emma was in a skydiving accident that made her a paraplegic. This book is not just about Emma's fall from the sky and how she learned to walk without ever regaining feeling in her legs but also about the beliefs and ideas that helped her survive.

Born in Darwin in 1929, Jacqueline's childhood was spent in a succession of bush towns before she was sent to school in Darwin. Returning to her beloved territory, Jacqueline met and married stockman Ken Hammar, and they moved to a vast property in one of the most inaccessible areas of Australia. With only a kerosene stove, scant possessions and a bed, Jacqueline’s determination and courage helped her survive many hardships as they created a prosperous 1,000,000 acre cattle station.

Dick Smith is a remarkable and proud Australian. He has been part of our national consciousness for over 50 years as an innovative and astute businessman, a groundbreaking adventurer, a generous philanthropist and a provocateur for the causes he feels deeply about. Yet, despite his great successes and achievements, Dick has remained down to earth and close to his roots.

This is a story of Jelena Dokic's survival. How she survived as a refugee twice. How she survived on the tennis court to become world number four. But, most importantly, how she survived her father, Damir Dokic, the tennis dad from hell. From war-torn Yugoslavia to Sydney to Wimbledon, she narrates her hellish ascent to becoming one of the best tennis players in the women’s game, the abuse she endured at the hands of her father and her heartbreaking fall from the top. Jelena never told anyone the full truth of what she went through until now, and her unbreakable spirit will inspire you.

On 7 February 2009, Roger Wood was the police officer in charge of Kinglake, at the epicentre of the worst ever bushfire disaster in Australia's history, Black Saturday. As the firestorm engulfed the community, he risked his life again and again to try to save people. When he phoned home to warn his wife what was coming, she screamed that the fire had already hit their property. Then the line went dead.

With characteristic devil-may care attitude and determination, Zach writes candidly about his experiences in Australia, recounting the good, the bad and the downright hilarious. He has plenty to say about the relationships between the indigenous codes of GAA and the AFL, and what needs to change secure the future of Irish and Australian footballers alike.

From childhood dream to dazzling success, this book takes us behind the glamour to encounter the raw, poignant and astounding story of a life lived against the odds: lessons of love and loss, hope and happiness, patience over power and finding the will—no matter what—to ride on.

For more than four decades, Jim Maxwell has called the cricket for the ABC. Since 1973 he has covered 285 Test matches, including over 50 Ashes Tests, six tours to the West Indies, seven to the subcontinent, and five World Cups. His distinctive voice, dryly understated humour and immense knowledge of the game have been part of the fabric of Australian cricket for generations of listeners. It's not too much to say that Jim has been the sound of our summer.

If you haven't seen a Discovery Channel gold-hunting show, you might picture a gold prospector as a relic of the Wild West: a TNT-toting bearded old man wildly swinging a pick on the hunt for nuggets, guided by old maps, superstition, legends and instinct. It's still predominantly a man's world, and still often fanatical, but these days the golden dream attracts people from all walks of life—and 25-year-old Tyler Mahoney (Australian star of the Discovery Channel's Gold Rush series) is leading the way.

In the 80s and 90s, surf culture was toxic, especially towards women. But Pauline Menczer - a dirt-poor, chronically ill, freckle-faced teen from Bondi - defied insults and intimidation to ride the waves. The reason: she simply loved to surf. But when Pauline's determination propelled her onto the pro circuit, her battle for acceptance and equality didn't end there. The endemic sexism of the industry meant prize money for women was a pittance, while sponsors ignored her because she was a lesbian and didn't have the beach babe look.

Pilgrim seeks sinners for mutually beneficial arrangement. Tireless. Result-oriented. Reliable. Seven Deadlies a specialty. On her 1,300 kilometre pilgrimage from Granada to Galicia, Ailsa Piper carried an unusual cargo. Walking in the tradition of medieval believers who paid others to carry their sins, Ailsa lugged a swag of confessions from friends, colleagues and strangers.