Book picks similar to
The Commando: The life and death of Cameron Baird, VC, MG by Ben Mckelvey
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military
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biography
Charlotte Brontë: A Fiery Heart
Claire Harman - 2015
The genius of this biography is that it delves behind this image to reveal a life in which loss and heartache existed alongside rebellion and fierce ambition. Claire Harman seizes on a crucial moment in the 1840s when Charlotte worked at a girls' school in Brussels and fell hopelessly in love with the husband of the school's headmistress. Her torment spawned her first attempts at writing for publication, and the object of her obsession haunts the pages of every one of her novels--he is Rochester in Jane Eyre, Paul Emanuel in Villette. Another unrequited love--for her publisher--paved the way for Charlotte to enter a marriage that ultimately made her happier than she ever imagined. Drawing on correspondence unavailable to previous biographers, Harman establishes Brontë as the heroine of her own story, one as dramatic and triumphant as one of her own novels.
Barefoot in the Bindis
Angela Wales - 2019
What he lacked in experience and expertise, he made up for in enthusiasm. Or so he hoped.When the family arrived on a lonely hill in northern New South Wales, they had no electricity, no running water, no telephone and no choice but to make that tangle of bush their home. From Angela Wales, eldest of the five kids, comes this extraordinarily vivid and evocative account of the next ten years as they tried to tame six thousand acres and navigate the challenges of country life.Filled with drama and hilarity, joy and back-breaking toil, Barefoot in the Bindis portrays a childhood spent in the bush, and is a sensational picture of Australia past.
Defiance: The Bielski Partisans
Nechama Tec - 1993
Winner of the 1990 Christopher Award. 11 halftones; 2 line drawings.
The Last Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Final Combat Mission of World War II
Don Brown - 2017
Yellin enlisted two months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on his 18th Birthday. After graduating from Luke Air Field as a fighter pilot in August of 1943, he spent the remainder of the war flying P-40, P- 47 and P-51 combat missions in the Pacific with the 78th Fighter Squadron. He participated in the first land based fighter mission over Japan on April 7, 1945, and also has the unique distinction of having flown the final combat mission of World War II on August 14, 1945 – the day the war ended. On that mission, his wing-man (Phillip Schlamberg) was the last man killed in a combat mission in WWII. After the war ended, Jerry struggled with severe undiagnosed PTSD. He always wondered why he survived, while so many of his comrades died during the war.Don Brown, a former U.S. Navy JAG officer and Special Assistant United States Attorney, is the author of eleven bestselling legal and military books. His work includes the novel Treason (2005) and the exposé Call Sign Extortion 17: The Shoot-Down of Team Seal Six (2015), a highly detailed account of the most deadly American loss-of-life in the Afghan War—the shoot-down of a U.S. Army Chinook helicopter carrying thirty Americans, including seventeen members of the vaunted SEAL Team Six.
Minefields: A life in the news game - the bestselling memoir of Australia's legendary foreign correspondent
Hugh Riminton - 2017
It is proof that, 'if you go looking for trouble, you'll probably find it'.
Over nearly 40 years as a journalist and foreign correspondent, Hugh Riminton has been shot at, blown up, threatened with deportation and thrown in jail. He has reported from nearly 50 countries, witnessed massacres in Africa, wars and conflicts on four continents, and every kind of natural disaster. It has been an extraordinary life. From a small-town teenager with a drinking problem, cleaning rat cages for a living, to a multi-award-winning international journalist reporting to an audience of 300 million people, Hugh has been a frontline witness to our times. From genocide in Africa to the Indian Ocean tsunami, from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to slave-trading in Sudan, Hugh has seen the best and worst of human behaviour. In Australia, he has covered political dramas, witnessed the Port Arthur Massacre and the Thredbo disaster and broke a major national scandal. His work helped force half-a-dozen government inquiries.Entertaining, deeply personal and quietly wise, MINEFIELDS is a compelling exploration of a foreign correspondent's life.
'His story is a triumph' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War
Tobias Wolff - 1994
Whether he is evoking the blind carnage of the Tet offensive, the theatrics of his fellow Americans, or the unraveling of his own illusions, Wolff brings to this work the same uncanny eye for detail, pitiless candor and mordant wit that made This Boy's Life a modern classic.
Huckstepp: A Dangerous Life
John Dale - 2000
Throughout her short life, Sallie-Anne Huckstepp lived a dangerous existence. This is a true story, brilliantly told, of someone who was gutsy and determined – and who paid the ultimate price for speaking out against corruption and murder.In 2014, Xoum is proud to release a new edition of this seminal work.Praise for Huckstepp by John Dale‘A marvellous book, brilliantly written and researched.’ Louis Nowra‘A significant, original work that challenges as much as it reveals.’ The Australian‘Dale nails the treachery, corruption and decadence of a part of Sydney society that traces its origins to the Rum Corps.’ Andrew Rule‘A brilliantly constructed record of one of Kings Cross’ most infamous characters. A great city story.’ The Australian‘A fine and disciplined piece of writing.’ HQ‘As gripping as a thriller.’ The Northern Star‘Only the very famous – or infamous – are known by a single name. Huckstepp conjures memories of the bad old days in Sydney; of a time when cops and crims were as likely to be allies as enemies. In the age of Underbelly, John Dale’s new edition of Huckstepp is a timely reminder of the human cost behind the headlines. Through extensive interviews with those who knew, loved and used Sallie-Anne Huckstepp, Dale vividly recreates a time when heroin was currency, and corruption and murder were the everyday tools of violent men. It is a deadly, dangerous, brutal world, depicted with realism, not romanticism. For some, the name Huckstepp will forever carry a frisson of excitement, the promise of secrets, sex, drugs and crime. In this book, Dale ensures that Sallie-Anne’s name will also forever remind us of that fateful moment when a young woman with a gap-toothed smile and a story to tell naively believed that publicity would guarantee her protection. Huckstepp is still famous, but her story runs deeper than the headlines. In this book, Dale takes the reader beyond the underbelly, into the very belly of the beast.’ P.M. Newton