How to Hypnotise Chooks


Book Description




Detours


Book Description

A charming, honest, funny, sad, tender and beautiful literary memoir, from Tim Rogers of You Am I. Think Patti Smith meet Dylan Thomas, by way of Banjo Paterson. 'Rogers is a beautiful writer, both literate and lyrical ... Detours makes most rock memoirs look like How to Hypnotise Chooks. A heartbreaking work of staggering honesty.' West Australian 'Of all the utterances delivered to me by strangers, my least favourite after "We can no longer legally serve you" would have to be, "Well, that isn't very rock'n'roll."' Tim Rogers of You Am I has always been a complicated man: a hard-drinking musician with the soul of a poet; a flamboyant flâneur; a raconteur, a romantic and a raffish ne'er-do-well. In this offbeat, endearing memoir, Tim walks us through years jam-packed with love, shame, joy, enthusiasms, regrets, fights, family - and music, always music. A work of real grace and tenderness, Detours is often impossibly sad and beautiful - but also full of wit, wordplay and punching jolts of larrikin energy to make you laugh out loud. 'Rogers is a beautiful memoirist ... [Detours is] an authentic, beautiful, unusual - and yes, brave - book that stands up on its own as a strong work of literature.' The Guardian 'The good news is that our Tim can write. Every sentence trails a floaty scarf. A few of them have a floppy hat over one eye.' Don Walker 'A beautiful writer, Tim Rogers takes you where you want to go.' Robert Forster 'Artfully written and reflective ... descriptive, insightful and anecdote-rich' Herald Sun 'Bitter-sweet ... a twisty, soulful ramble through a life. He writeswith wistful passion about his loves, wishes and shortcomings.' Australian Women's Weekly




The Immortals of English Cricket


Book Description

In The Immortals of English Cricket, Bill Ricquier tells the cricketing life stories of eleven of England's greatest (male) cricketers. Ricquier selects his Immortal English team from players who didn't just dominate, they changed the game with their sheer will. Those portrayed include: Jack Hobbs, the highest run-scorer in the history of first-class cricket; Ian Botham, who was the most famous sportsman in the country in the 1980s; and James Anderson, England's leading Test wicket taker. Selected also is Wilfred Rhodes, the legendary slow left arm bowler who made almost 40,000 first-class runs and took over 4,000 first-class wickets, and the extraordinary Fred Trueman, described as the "finest bloody fast bowler that ever drew breath." The Immortals of English Cricket will inspire discussion, debate and controversy but indisputably represents a team of remarkable skill and character, one to proudly represent the Crown and Three Lions on any Elysian field.




Truevine


Book Description

The true story of two African-American brothers who were kidnapped and displayed as circus freaks, and whose mother endured a 28-year struggle to get them back. The year was 1899 and the place a sweltering tobacco farm in the Jim Crow South town of Truevine, Virginia. George and Willie Muse were two little boys born to a sharecropper family. One day a white man offered them a piece of candy, setting off events that would take them around the world and change their lives forever. Captured into the circus, the Muse brothers performed for royalty at Buckingham Palace and headlined over a dozen sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden. They were global superstars in a pre-broadcast era. But the very root of their success was in the color of their skin and in the outrageous caricatures they were forced to assume: supposed cannibals, sheep-headed freaks, even "Ambassadors from Mars." Back home, their mother never accepted that they were "gone" and spent 28 years trying to get them back. Through hundreds of interviews and decades of research, Beth Macy expertly explores a central and difficult question: Where were the brothers better off? On the world stage as stars or in poverty at home? Truevine is a compelling narrative rich in historical detail and rife with implications to race relations today.




The Red Fox


Book Description

Norm Smith is arguably the greatest Australian Football coach in history. Smith - who, in 1996, was selected as the coach of the Australian Football League's Team of the Century - led the Melbourne Demons to a staggering six premierships from 1955 to 1964. When it came to football, he was a hard man, brutally honest to his players and an utterly ruthless and fearsome disciplinarian, but this was offset by a gentler, charitable side of his nature which was rarely seen in public. This is his story, and secondarily that of his older brother and fellow coach Len Smith, from their childhood in tough, working-class Northcote during the Depression; Norm as a childhood supporter of Collingwood, the club he would conquer many times over as a man; through his distinguished playing career at Melbourne where he built a reputation as the most unselfish player in the game; his first coaching job at Fitzroy; his triumphant reign at Melbourne, detailing his relationship with his ‘foster son' Ron Barassi, his friendly coaching rivalry with his brother, and his controversial sacking and reinstatement in 1965; to his last coaching job at South Melbourne, which in 1970 he lifted to its first finals series in 25 years, and culminating in his premature death at the age of 57




Twelve Summers


Book Description

Cricket fans, where were you during the disaster that was the 2013 Ashes? Adam Zwar was making a documentary about bodyline and filming a stunt that involved Brett Lee bowling bouncers to him while he wasn't wearing a helmet. Matthew Hayden warned him not do it. But the cameras were set up. What was he going to do - say no? How about when Australia A nearly upset Australia in the 1995 World Series Cup and the players were rebelling against officials? Adam was working as a driver for an escort agency in Melbourne. Or Australia v India in 2001? That was when Adam was stuck in a hotel with AC/DC. For all the significant moments in Adam's life, cricket was in the background - or foreground. And you don't need to be a fan of cricket to be able to relate, because we all remember where we were when something important happened, whether that's a cricket test, an album release or a TV show ending. Twelve Summers is hilarious, moving and thought provoking. Even if you aren't a fan of cricket, you'll find a lot to love in this book.




Five Days in White Flannels


Book Description

Five Days in White Flannels is a quizzical tribute to Test cricket, the holy grail of achievement on the cricket field. It is also a nostalgic journey that venerates the five-day duel between the bat and the ball partaken by men clad in cream clothing on an idyllic cricket ground, and is a far cry from the environs of other forms of cricket that now-a-days deliver instant gratification. This is a comprehensive trivia book that tickles the brain of the reader with numerous fascinating and intriguing factoids of Test cricket. The book takes the reader partly through some narratives, each of which is tagged with a trivial question and then, to add variety, the narratives are interspersed with fair share of regular trivial queries and few cryptic questions. In the pages of this book, you will find out: The name of the cricketer who was referred to as Test crickets village batsman What a Platinum Duck is The name of the cricketer inflicted by Klippel-Feil syndrome What a Water-drip effect in cricket is About the replica of the cricket ground that billionaire Paul Getty built on his estate About the association of Richard Nixon, Robert McNamara & Alexei Kosygin with cricket







City Chicks


Book Description

City Chicks is a remarkable trend-setting book for poultry lovers and urban agriculturists. It combines hands-on, real-life experience to bring you one of the most complete authorative books on micro-flock management.




Jack Davenport


Book Description

We all need heroes to look up to and to emulate.' - Sir Arvi Parbo ACB lending sound research with enlightening anecdotes, Jack Davenport, Beaufighter Leader charts Jack's development from his Depression childhood, to the green pilot who had difficulties locating the target on his first Bomber Command operations, through to the superb pilot who led successful strikes against German shipping and the cool and resourceful planner of Coastal Command operations in the latter months of the war. Jack Davenport, Beaufighter Leader recounts the life of an Australian hero. Jack saved the lives of his crew from a near-fatal spin and rescued a pilot from a blazing aircraft; he flew close to well-armed enemy vessels to drop his torpedoes; and led large formations in the narrow confines of the Norwegian fjords to successfully attack enemy shipping. But there is more to heroism than just courage and brave deeds; Jack's career also encompassed the heroism of conviction, duty, responsibility and dedication to service. Kristen Alexander has written the definitive biography of Clive Caldwell, Australia's most successful fighter pilot of World War II. In Jack Davenport, Beaufighter Leader Kristen Alexander presents the life of another courageous and inspiring Australian WWII pilot.