AustLit

'At the age of 94, the famous Australian actress Lola Russell has published her very first book, entitled 'City Kid'. This autobiography not only captures the interesting adventures of the amazing Lola Russell, it also records the vast and rich history of Melbourne. In the introduction, Lola informs the reader: 'This is a story of Melbourne, and of growing up in it, of being fashioned into a person, of falling in love and making a career. Melbourne, as I knew it, when I was a tiny girl has almost disappeared. There are so many things that are now slowly slipping away, and before they leave my memory I would like to record them, and to ask you the reader to love them as I do'. Lola Russell’s memoir aims to preserve the memories of the Melbourne she once knew. 'City Kid' educates readers on Melbourne’s history from the 1840s onwards. Using personal stories, Lola vividly creates a picture in the readers’ mind of how Melbourne has transformed from a quaint colonial capital to a fast-past cosmopolitan city dubbed as 'The Most Liveable City in the World'.' (Publication summary)

'My real name is Valentine de Vaillant. I once had a brother, Florian. He's now dead. So too are my mother and father. I live with my grand-mere in the Villa Mimosa. A German officer is billeted with us. Most likely he suspects I'm in the Resistance. He could report me to the Gestapo at any time. Every day I live in fear of something happening to my friend Marguerite and her brother Aleksander.

'France 1943. Life under the German Occupation has become even more dangerous for those in the Resistance. For Valli, living under the same roof as the enemy, there is now an added danger. The more she comes to know Maximilian von Stahlmann, the harder it becomes to resist her growing feelings for him.

'When her dearest friend, Marguerite, is arrested, Valli faces her most perilous situation yet. Time is running out. In order to save her friend, she must risk everything. Be willing to do whatever it takes. Even if it means putting her own life in jeopardy. But for Valli, the price of freedom is never too high.' (Publication summary)

'Ex Fleet Air Arm helicopter pilot Nick Evans didn't enjoy his childhood much, and service in the sectarian madness of Ulster later brought it all back. Nick chose to take his chances in a burgeoning exploratory business instead, and ends up in Iran flying for an American company not long after the shah's departure to Egypt. But in-country relationships continue to deteriorate, and Nick is further perplexed when an Iranian naval friend from his Dartmouth days asks to be helped to disappear. Nick aids his friend, but this is then further complicated by his friend admitting to an estranged sister, who was working at the US Embassy when it was sacked. As the situation deteriorates further, Nick relises that not just his friend, but also he, is in danger now. Getting out of the country is not going to be easy.' (Publication summary)

'Rebecca Maxwell possesses a depth of vision reserved for the few. For those of us who see only with our eyes, her poetry casts a new light on the world around us. Here are poems that touch the heart, make us smile, and waken us with their wisdom. Errol Broome, literary patron, Society of Women Writers Victoria. With Other Senses contains a smorgasbord of poems: environmental, personal, and philosophical. The physical and the spiritual are equally validated. Martin Samson, cultural historian, philosopher and educator. With this collection, Rebecca Maxwell invites us to a whole-hearted celebration of the senses, of difference and of language itself, beyond the senses. Provocative, teasing, scratchy, playful and indignant, a bemused love letter to nature in all its manifestations, including human. Yes, there is pain and loss here, but also a lifetime’s garnered wisdom. Kristin Henry, poet.' (Publication summary)

'1813

'Numb after the pain of an intolerable betrayal, 19 year old Alexandra Broughton turns to her only source of hope – an arranged marriage. Resolutely accepting this as her last chance to make a future for herself, she journeys to Scotland to face the unknown.

'Although Alex makes every effort to settle into her new life, she struggles to suppress the memories of her lost lover’s passionate yet faithless embrace, and remains haunted by a fleeting and impossible love affair.

'For Alex, this is a time of growing; a coming of age where she turns to her husband in a desperate effort to carve out a life with him, and just as it seems that contentment is within her grasp, disaster strikes. As the war against Napoleon reaches a crescendo, Alex discovers a web of deceit that slowly unravels long‐held secrets to reveal the true meaning of treachery.

'Trapped in a loveless, violent marriage, and with nothing left to lose, Alex embarks on a fight for survival. Battling the irresistible forces ranging against her, she remains bound to the one man she can never forgive –the one man above all others she can never forget.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Based on a true story, A Different Earth is an epic tale of a resilient pioneering woman. On the threshold of starvation when the potato blight hits Cornwall, Jane Dunstan decides to rescue her family from desperate poverty and her husband, Richard, from the dreadful conditions in the mines. She successfully applies for a 'free passage' to migrate to South Australia with their seven children aged from one to twelve. After suffering appalling living conditions in the cramped steerage of the ship and the challenges of the sea during the three month journey, the family, on arrival in South Australia in 1849, travel 100 miles north of Adelaide by bullock wagon to the Burra copper mines. At Burra they live in the underground dugout in the banks of the Burra Creek and Richard, with his three boys, work in the mine. To Jane it's a dramatic time, with floods, a new baby born underground and the tragic loss of her husband and two daughters. On the discovery of gold in Victoria in 1851, Jane hires a bullock dray and driver to take her remaining six children on a courageous six-week, 550 mile overland trek to the Victorian goldfields. The story describes the difficulties of locating and traversing the trail, the workings and idiosyncrasies of the bullock team and its driver, Red, adapting to living in the bush, obtaining bush tucker and dealing with pests and hazards along the way. On arriving at the diggings Jane is horrified by what she sees but ultimately remarries and has three more babies, bringing her total issue to eleven. She eventually has fifty-nine grandchildren.' (Publication summary)

Arriving in 1970s Australia from a country torn apart by war, young Perry realises he is different and carries a secret he cannot share. Growing up, he works hard to overcome his demons, to achieve his dreams, to be a good son, to be the man his absent father could never be. When serious illness strikes, Perry must return to his country of birth to search for the only man who can save him, his father. These interconnected stories, many previously published in literary journals and anthologies, deal with one man's search for identity, love and a sense of belononging. Luke Icarus Simon writes with a poet's sensibility, deftly exploring the trials and tribulations of one immigrant family's history with poignant candour and humour. — Publisher's Summary

'The story of Valentine de Vaillant, known as Valli, stretches from the beaches of Australia to the boulevards of pre-war Paris, through the German Blitzkrieg and the long dark years of the occupation of France.

'From the moment Valli joins a Resistance group in Lyon, she engages in a series of dangerous clandestine activities that at any moment could lead to arrest by the dreaded Gestapo. When she finds herself becoming attracted to a German officer, her world is thrown into turmoil.

'Resisting the Enemy is a thrilling story of conflict, danger and passion, and a love between enemies that seems impossibly doomed. It is also about music and opera, the enduring bonds of friendship, and the life and death choices one makes in a time of war.' (Publication summary)

'Libby Muller turned forty the same year as her young son, Joe, died suddenly at home in what was described as a freak accident.

'Libby relives, with a compelling, raw honesty, the heartbreak of what is one of the greatest sufferings imaginable - a mother's loss of her only child.

'She explores grief in the first year after her son's death. This journey starts as she navigates those first dark days of overwhelming sadness. But gradually the resilience of the human spirit shines. She finds solace in surfing, experiences the healing energy of the Torres Strait Islands and follows a deeply spiritual path in the search to find inner peace. What results is a deeper understanding of life and death.

'In sharing her story, Libby hopes to offer some comfort to others who may have also suffered the grief of losing a child.' (Publication summary)

'A night of shattered glass for the entire human race.

'They are with us now

This new humanity

And they are

'THE GHOST-WALKERS OF THE APOCALYPSE.

'The story of a woman who has seen our future.

A human being become the impossible; become the un-become.

That is, not the Ghost in the Machine

But the Machine in the Ghost.

'You are needed for the dwindling food supply.

You are needed for spare parts.

'This is what will happen to hundreds of millions as darkness descends upon humanity.

You will be ‘wiped’.

Humanity is being reformed.

'“Hannah’s Song”

'A true story: a work of Visionary-Mystical-Apocalyptic.' (Publication summary)

'It is Melbourne 1989. While investigating organised crime, Peter Clancy is caught up in a sinister plot involving drug importation, police corruption, and some very kinky sex.

Along the way, Peter meets a young lawyer and is instantly besotted with her—unlike his friends and colleagues who see something disturbing beneath her wholesome exterior.' (Source: GoodReads website)

'1808

'When 14 year old Alexandra meets Patrick, her handsome and notorious step-brother, she is confused and resentful as he shakes the foundations of everything she has ever known. Driving a wedge between Alex and her brother Simon, he tears apart the fabric of her quiet world. Yet she is intrigued by the enigmatic Patrick and finds herself increasingly drawn to him.

'These are the years between childhood and womanhood, during which Alex begins to realise that her growing affection for Patrick owes nothing to sibling fondness.

'But these are turbulent times for England and Patrick and Simon, answering the call of adventure, join the fight against Napoleon with devastating consequences.

'In a family ravaged by war and deceit Alex finds herself betrayed in the worst possible way.

'This is the story of one woman's passionate struggle for love and hope against all the constraints of her time.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The author, a keen bibliophile, has selected 42 books which he believes represents the principal primary source of information concerning the Tasmanian Aborigines. Detailed bibliographic descriptions are provided for each book together with biographical summaries of each author. Then, in chronological sequence, the content of each book is carefully examined with special emphasis on how it has contributed to our corpus of knowledge of the world's most primitive and isolated stone-age people. Frequent use is made of direct quotation from the original source. The book also contains an introductory description of the Tasmanian Aborigines (with a time line of important events) and a number of illustrations and tables supplement the text.' (Publishers website)

'A girl, a dog and a farm! The girl is nine, the dog is useless, and the farm is in really big trouble.

'When Gull’s aunt and uncle find out their farm is threatened, fair-haired city girl, Gull, is told she is the only one who can save it. 'There is a family legend: a girl called Gull always saves the farm. But can she?

'Here is a mystery with a rotten ancestor, a forgettable descendant and strange forces.

'If this farm is lost, so are all the farms. And the town! Can Gull find out what’s really going on? In time?' (Publisher's blurb)

'Eleven year-old twins, Demi and Semmy are haunted by a different yet familiar sound. They thought they knew all the sounds as music is a big part of their lives. So who or what is making this disturbing sound?

'Can their great-grandmother help solve the mystery? Or do they have to be brave and find this strange musician on their own?

'If the twins are brave, what will happen to them if they befriend this stranger? Could it change their lives forever?

'There is only one way to find out!' (Publisher's blurb)

'It was another age.

'A time of steely battles and greedy war mongering despotic chieftains.

Where love was Aela’s romantic ambition to allure and captivate Rom the bravest warrior in the clan.

Magic was Aela's secret weapon in her quest to win the heart of her true love.

The journey was a labyrinth of treachery and obstacles as Rom and Aela steadily progressed on their mission to obtain the ultimate prize....the Sacred Sword.' (Publisher's blurb)