Cricket is a strange game. It is a team sport that is almost entirely dependent on individual performance. Its combination of time, opportunity and the constant threat of disaster can drive its participants to despair. To survive a single delivery propelled at almost 100 miles an hour takes the body and brain to the edges of their capabilities, yet its abiding image is of the gentle village green, and the glorious absurdities of the amateur game.In The Meaning of Cricket, ...

Bodybuilding is the wildest, wierdest sport in the world, but it's more than just a sport. It's a whole way of life for the supermen who scale its Olympian heights. Muscle is a journey through a land of giants, men for whom life is given meaning by the pursuit of the perfect pec and who worship at the shrine of Schwartzenegger.Jon Hotten has a 40-inch chest and 12-inch arms. Undaunted, he fights his unpromising genetics to hitch up with the bodybuilding circus, hanging out...

Bat, Ball and Field is a wonderful foray into the history and culture of cricket.‘Hotten is not just good, he is one of the best’ CricketerChronicling the evolution of the sport since its earliest years, highlighting transcendent moments as well as tragedies, Jon Hotten lifts the seemingly impregnable veil from the Laws, batting strokes, types of bowling and the sometimes absurd names given to where fielders stand, allowin...

Bat, Ball and Field is a wonderful foray into the history and culture of cricket.‘Hotten is not just good, he is one of the best’ CricketerChronicling the evolution of the sport since its earliest years, highlighting transcendent moments as well as tragedies, Jon Hotten lifts the seemingly impregnable veil from the Laws, batting strokes, types of bowling and the sometimes absurd names given to where fielders stand, allowin...

Racer and broadcaster Neil Crompton has had the best seat in the house for the last 40 years of Australian motorsport, an amazing lifetime upgrade to a first-hand, front row seat to see the biggest names, machines and events of this high-speed, high-octane sport.A kid from Ballarat in country Victoria obsessed by speed with an undying passion to pursue a career in the sport, Neil ended up finding his way to lining up on the grid at the biggest race in Australia, the Bathurst 1000, ...

Racer and broadcaster Neil Crompton has had the best seat in the house for the last 40 years of Australian motorsport, an amazing lifetime upgrade to a first-hand, front row seat to see the biggest names, machines and events of this high-speed, high-octane sport.A kid from Ballarat in country Victoria obsessed by speed with an undying passion to pursue a career in the sport, Neil ended up finding his way to lining up on the grid at the biggest race in Australia, the Bathurst 1000, ...

Stories and yarns about my favourite bits of Down UnderPaul Hogan's ancestors were a couple of Irish blow-ins who arrived in the colony of New South Wales by boat, with a little assistance from the judges of the Old Bailey. Blow-ins from everywhere have been coming ever since, and while it hasn't always been a walk in the park, Hoges reckons this mixed-up mob of old and new inhabitants works most of the time. In fact, according to Hoges, Australia may well be the b...

The desperate manhunt to bring down Australia's most notorious outlawWhen Ned Kelly and his band of young tearaways ambushed and killed three brave policemen in a remote mountain camp in 1878, they sparked the biggest and most expensive manhunt Australia had seen. The desperate search would end when Kelly and his gang, wearing suits of armour, tried to derail a train before waging their final bloody gun battle with police in the small Victorian town of Glenrowan.

On how our sense of balance has defined us as a nation and will safeguard our future.In the years that John Howard served in the national parliament he came to understand the special character of Australia; to appreciate its strengths and weaknesses; and most importantly to respect the sense of balance in the formulation of public policy that has long defined us as a nation and made Australia an attractive destination for people from across the world.In this book he explore...

FROM THE HOST OF THE HIT PODCAST I CATCH KILLERSTHE BESTSELLING TRUE CRIME BOOK OF 2022As a cop, I used to sit on one side of the interview room table facing murderers, child abductors and rapists. Now I'm sitting on the other side: disgraced, forced out of the police and judged to be a criminal. I want to show you what the world looks like from here.Talking to crooks, cops, forensic psychologists, scientists and victims, I've gone ...

The extraordinary life of the Gallipoli veteran and WWI Flying Corp gunner who founded Qantas and gave Australia its wingsBy the critically acclaimed author of bestselling biographies of John Monash, Banjo Paterson, Joseph Banks, Lachlan Macquarie and Henry Lawson, this is a fascinating, lively and thoroughly researched portrait of a modest, resolute family man with a steady hand during turbulence, a man who guided Australia's national airline from its humb...

Larry Emdur is one of Australia's most popular and enduring TV personalities. Happy As is a memoir of becoming Larry.Gold Logie Winner for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television 2024Long before the game shows and morning TV, Larry Emdur was just Larry, a cheeky kid from Bondi who grew up paddling round the kiddies' pool on a foam surfboard, and rocking a safari suit and bowl haircut. It was an idyllic childhood growing u...