AustLit

'A heartfelt look at the life of a man who placed his role as a father, with an autistic son above his service to the country as deputy Prime-Minister

''My name is Tim, and that is what I want you to call me, except if another officer is present and especially if it is the CO, Lt Col Bennett, then I am Sir. At all other times I am Tim.'

'When Tim Fischer's elder son was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, it triggered Tim's resignation as federal National Party leader and deputy prime minister of Australia. An outpouring of emotion across the political divide greeted his decision, a rarity in a political environment where few leaders choose to give up power and prominence.

'In I am Tim, Peter Rees uncovers the influences that shaped a key figure of twentieth-century Australian political life, from a Jesuit boarding school to the rigours of officer training and the battlefields of Vietnam, time in state and federal politics, marriage to Judy Brewer and life at home. Fischer's interests and activities after politics were many and varied, spanning a diplomatic posting to the Holy See, new historical studies, and chairing the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway.

'Tim Fischer emerges as a man of energy and ambition but also of humanity, courage and love.' (Publication summary)

'Through a precious cache of WWII letters, a story of war is revealed. But also, most movingly, a story of love, resilience and survival, from award-winning and bestselling writer, Peter Rees and Sue Langford..

'Doug Heywood was a teenager when he discovered, in a shoebox hidden in a wardrobe, hundreds of letters, all written by his father, Scott Heywood. As a POW on the infamous Burma Railway, Scott wrote almost daily to his young wife, Margery, on scraps of paper that had to be hidden from guards. These letters tell of an enduring love – and also, intriguingly, of how Scott dealt with the most brutally testing circumstances.

'Scott's story has echoes of another story happening 7000 kilometres away at the same time. Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist, was rounded up with his family and sent to Auschwitz in September 1942. Frankl later wrote in his classic book Man's Search for Meaning that the last of the human freedoms was the ability 'to choose one's attitude in any set of circumstances'. Scott Heywood and Viktor Frankl, on opposite sides of the world, found their own ways to survive that were uncannily similar.

'This is the untold story of one man, one ordinary man, and his war. Woven through it is Margery's story, as she waited anxiously with their two young children in rural Victoria, trapped in an emotional rollercoaster, unaware that he was writing letters to her that could not be posted. This is a powerful and moving story of love, resilience and survival.' (Publication summary)

'He was our first Aboriginal fighter pilot, he flew multiple sorties during Australia's World War II Pacific campaign, and he should have had a world of opportunity ahead of him at the war's end, but Len Walters became the missing man in the country's wartime flying history

Len Waters was the first and only Aboriginal to serve as a fighter pilot during World War II. Although Australia had officially barred or restricted the recruitment of Aborigines in earlier periods (out of fear that they might side with the enemy), these impediments were significantly relaxed after Japan entered World War II, and Australia came under direct attack for the first time. Although he had not completed his schooling, Len volunteered for service in the RAAF and was accepted.

When he was posted to New Guinea as a pilot, the Kittyhawk he was allocated had by chance been nicknamed by its previous pilot 'Black Magic' and those words were painted on its nose. Len found the name of his plane an amusing coincidence and chose to retain it. He flew 95 sorties in it.

After the war, Len attempted to join the burgeoning Australian commercial airline industry without luck. He never flew a plane again. He wrote later that, having taken off his uniform, he simply 'returned to being a blackfellow'. What happened to him afterwards is simply heartbreaking.' (Source: Publisher's blurb)

'Charles Bean was Australia's greatest and most famous war correspondent. He is the journalist who told Australia about the horrors of Gallipoli and the Western Front. He is the historian who did so much to create the Anzac legend and shape the emerging Australian identity in the years after Federation. He is the patriot who was central to the establishment of one of this country's most important cultural institutions, the Australian War Memorial. Yet we know so little about him as a man. Bearing Witness rectifies that omission in our national biography.

'This is the first complete portrait of Charles Bean. It is the story of a boy from Bathurst and his search for truth: in the bush, on the battlefield and in the writing of the official history of Australia's involvement in World War I. But beyond this, it is a powerful and detailed exploration of his life, his accomplishments and a marriage that sustained and enriched him.

'Insightful, unexpected and compelling, Bearing Witness gives rich personality to a remarkable life.' (Publication summary)

'What great instruments Zara and her friends play in their band.' (Publication summary)

'A beautiful story of how a little lantern can shine so much light in the world.' (Publication summary)

'More than 10,000 Australians served with Bomber Command, a highly trained band of elite flyers who undertook some of the most dangerous operations of World War II. They flew raid after raid over France and Germany knowing that the odds were against them. Stretched to breaking point, nearly 3500 died in the air. Their bravery in extreme circumstances has barely been recognised.

'Peter Rees traces the extraordinary achievements of these young aviators. He tells their hair-raising stories of battle action and life on the ground. And he recounts how, when they returned to Australia, they were greeted as Jap dodgers and accused of 'hiding in England while we were doing it tough'.

'Exciting, compelling and full of life, Lancaster Men is a powerful tribute to these forgotten Australian heroes of World War II.' (Publisher's blurb)

'By the end of the Great War, forty-five Australian and New Zealand nurses had died on overseas service and over two hundred had been decorated. These were the women who left for war looking for adventure and romance but were soon confronted with challenges for which their civilian lives could never have prepared them. Their strength and dignity were remarkable.

'Using diaries and letters, Peter Rees takes us into the hospital camps and the wards and the tent surgeries on the edge of some of the most horrific battlefronts of human history. But he also allows the friendships and loves of these courageous and compassionate women to enrich their experiences, and ours.

'Profoundly moving, Anzac Girls is a story of extraordinary courage and humanity shown by a group of women whose contribution to the Anzac legend has barely been recognised in our history. Peter Rees has changed that understanding forever. ' (Publication summary)

'By the end of The Great War, forty-five Australian and New Zealand nurses had died on overseas service and over two hundred had been decorated. These were women who left for war on an adventure, but were soon confronted with remarkable challenges for which their civilian lives could never have prepared them. They were there for the horrors of Gallipoli and they were there for the savagery of the Western Front. Within twelve hours of the slaughter at Anzac Cove they had over 500 horrifically injured patients to tend on one crammed hospital ship, and scores of deaths on each of the harrowing days that followed. Every night was a nightmare. Their strength and humanity were remarkable. Using diaries and letters, Peter Rees takes us into the hospital camps, and the wards and the tent surgeries on the edge of some of the most horrific battlefronts of human history. But he also allows the friendships and loves of these courageous and compassionate women to enrich their experiences, and ours.'

Source: Book jacket.

'On the morning of 4 July 1975, Juanita Nielsen, a wealthy heiress, Sydney newspaper publisher and anti-development campaigner went to appointment at a Kings Cross nightclub and simply disappeared. For over a quarter of a century, the Juanita Nielsen case has remained one of Australia's great unsolved murder mysteries.

Written with all the suspense and drama of the best crime fiction, Killing Juanita is the true story of that crime and of the characters involved: Loretta Crawford, drag queen and night club receptionist, the last person to see Nielsen alive; powerful businessman and property developer, Frank Theeman; his involvement with legendary Kings Cross figures James McCartney Anderson and Abe Saffron; and hired hands like Eddie Trigg for whom Juanita Nielsen's murder was no loss to society as all'.

It is also a story about greed, police corruption, dirty politics and cover-ups. From failed police investigation to reinvestigation more than two decades later, from coronial inquest to federal parliamentary inquiry, Killing Juanita is an unflinching examination of a crime that remains a shameful blot on the administration of justice. It finally puts to rest the mystery of Juanita Nielsen's disappearance.' (Source: Publisher's blurb)