‘It’s a good story, Samuel. You’re a piece of living history.’Oxford 1863: Young Samuel Speed sets a barley stack alight in the hope it will earn him a bed in prison for the night. He wants nothing more than a morsel of food in his belly and a warm place to sleep off the streets. What he receives is a sentence of seven years’ servitude, to be served half a world away in the penal colony of Fremantle, Western Australia.When Samuel boards the transport ship Belgr...

Billy Young was a boy of 15 when he joined the AIF in 1941. He was an orphan – hungry, broke, with nowhere to sleep – and the army offered him a feed, a blanket and five shillings a day in his pocket.The trouble was, the army sent him off to Malaya where he became a POW when Singapore fell to the Japanese. From Changi, 'Billy the Kid' went on to spend the rest of his teenage years in some of the most barbaric Japanese prisons: the notorious labour camp at Sandakan (from which he es...

'His heart was in the land and he thought of nothing else.'At the close of the First World War, and after surviving a gas attack on the Western Front, Captain Walter Eddison moved his family from war-ravaged Britain to start a new life in Australia. The Eddisons were offered 'land fit for heroes' under the Australian government's soldier-settlement scheme, but the grim realities of life in the remote bush were not easy for a family used to the green pastures of England.Walter...

The enthralling story of Captain Cook's voyage to Australia, as seen through the eager eyes of a cabin boy.When young Isaac Manley sailed on the Endeavour from England in 1768, no one on board knew if a mysterious southern continent existed in the vast Pacific Ocean. It would be a voyage full of uncertainties and terrors.During the course of the three-year journey, Isaac’s eyes are opened to all the brutal realities of life at sea – floggings, storms, pres...

A small boy, an orphan of the First World War, wanders into the Australian airmen's mess in Germany, on Christmas Day in 1918. A strange boy, with an uncertain past and an extraordinary future, he became a mascot for the air squadron and was affectionately named 'Young Digger'. And in one of the most unusual incidents ever to emerge from the battlefields of Europe after the Great War, this solitary boy was smuggled back to Australia by air mechanic Tim Tovell, a man who cared for the boy s...

In Darwin in 1942, Gunner’s barking alerted an entire army base of impending air raids, well before the enemy planes appeared on radar. Following an ambush, Sarbi the explosive detection dog was held captive by the Taliban for over a year, before heading home a hero. And when 135000 horses left Australia for the First World War, why was General Bridges’ charger Sandy the only one to return home?Drawing from first-hand sources and interviews with those who were there, Anthony Hill b...

'What are they saying?' Isaac asked Taiata.'They are calling us tupua*. . . goblins and demons.'*'And what else?''They say they will come back and kill us all.'When young Isaac Manley sailed on the Endeavour from England in 1768, no one on board knew if a mysterious southern continent existed in the vast Pacific Ocean. It would be a voyage full of uncertainties and terrors.During the course of the three-year ...

A full-length dramatisation of Hill's novel Soldier Boy about the youngest Australian Anzac. Jim Martin is just 14 when he lies about his age, enlists and dies of typhoid after just seven weeks on Gallipoli.Act One is Jim joining up. Compulsory school cadets - the outbreak of war - the emotional blackmail of his parents by threatening to run away if they don't sign a consent letter. A real threat, and like others they give way.Act Two sees Jim under fire. A torpedo...

On 28 June 1915, young James Martin sailed from Melbourne aboard the troopship Berrima – bound, ultimately, for Gallipoli. He was just fourteen years old.Soldier Boy is Jim's extraordinary true story, the story of a young and enthusiastic school boy who became Australia's youngest known Anzac.Four months after leaving his home country he would be numbered among the dead, just one of so many soldier boys who travelled halfway around the world for the chance of adven...

TINY HOUSE LIVINGThe tiny house revolution is quickly taking over the world. It consists of people from all walks of life-couples, singles, nomads, and the elderly. Small spaces have become popular because they are eco-friendly, cost-effective, and provide people with the opportunity to make their dream spaces come to life.This book covers every detail of planning and building your tiny home, from what materials to use to ensuring functionality. In addition, we will explo...

‘Our discoveries have been great, but the risks and misfortunes many.’John Franklin always wanted to be a sailor. As a volunteer in the Royal Navy at age fourteen, he found himself in the Battle of Copenhagen, but nothing could prepare him for the adventure of a lifetime, when he set off in 1801 with his cousin Matthew Flinders on HMS Investigator as it sought to chart the first circumnavigation of Australia.Taking on responsibility for the chronometers, u...

MINIMALISMMinimalism is a way of simplifying your life. It means eliminating what you do not use or need. It provides you the time and space to figure out what is important to you so you can start living intentionally-whatever that means for you. Whether you want to focus on your health, have more time for family, hobbies, learning a new skill, or you simply want to declutter your home, minimalism frees you from excess, so you have more time and energy to focus on what's importan...