Vivacious, confident and striking, young Australian Sheila Chisholm met her first husband, Lord Loughborough, in Egypt during the First World War. Arriving in London as a young married woman, she quickly conquered English society, and would spend the next half a century inside the palaces, mansions and clubs of the elite. Her clandestine affair with young Bertie, the future George VI, caused ruptures at Buckingham Palace, with King George offering his son the title Duke of York in exchange...

Born on a NSW sheep station, she wedded earls and barons, was feted by London and New York society, and when she died was a Russian princess.Sheila wedded earls and barons, befriended literary figures and movie stars, bedded a future king, was feted by London and New York society for forty years and when she died was a Russian princess.Vivacious, confident and striking, Sheila Chisholm met her first husband, Francis Edward Scudamore St Clair-Erskine, a firs...

The marvellously strange but true story of the family behind the famous Darrell Lea confectionery company.In the early 1930s, the Australian family confectionery company Darrell Lea was a sensation, its shops stacked with delicious chocolates, marshmallows, nougat and much more in line with the company's motto to 'Stack 'em high, watch 'em fly'.It was at this time that Montague Lea met the vivacious teenage 'ticket writer' Valerie Everitt. Monty fell hard f...

From the bestselling author of Sheila comes the story of a bewitching Australian socialite who fascinated the world.Enid Lindeman stood almost six feet tall, with silver hair and flashing turquoise eyes. The girl from Strathfield in Sydney stopped traffic in Manhattan, silenced gamblers in Monte Carlo and dared walk a pet cheetah on a diamond collar through Hyde Park in London.In early twentieth-century society, when women were expected to be demure and obedient, the grandd...

From the bestselling author of Sheila comes the story of a bewitching Australian socialite who fascinated the world.'A wonderfully racy biography, full of comedy and tragedy and populated by some of the most dissolute and eccentric aristocrats of the 20th century.' Daily Mail, UKEnid Lindeman stood almost six feet tall, with silver hair and flashing turquoise eyes. The girl from Strathfield in Sydney stopped traffic in Manhattan, silenced ...

'In this highly readable biography of Nellie Melba...Robert Wainwright tells the story of the girl with the incredible voice who, by sheer force of her personality and power of her decibels, took the operatic world by storm and managed to escape from her violent husband' Ysenda Maxtone Graham, DAILY MAILNellie Melba is remembered as a squarish, late middle-aged woman dressed in furs and large hats, an imperious Dame whose voice ruled the world for three d...

WINNER OF THE TIMES 2017 BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR PRIZESHORTLISTED FOR THE 2016 BOARDMAN TASKER PRIZE FOR MOUNTAIN LITERATURE'One of the two best Alpinists of his time - Mallory was the other.' The TimesIn the spring of 1901 a teenager stood on top of a hill, gazed out in wonderment at the Australian landscape and decided he wanted to be a mountaineer. Two decades later, the same man stood in a blizzar...

The Australian actress who became one of London's most famous suffragists.Discover the most inspiring woman you've never heard of ...In 1909, a young Australian actress made headlines around the world when she took to the sky over London in an airship emblazoned with the slogan 'Votes for Women' and dropped leaflets over the city. Muriel Matters was dubbed 'that daring Australian girl', and the American media declared it to be the world's first aerial protest.Just m...

The first full-length biography of George Ingle Finch - maverick Australian mountaineer, scientist, concert pianist and father of actor Peter Finch.George Ingle Finch, mountaineer, soldier, scientist, rebellious spirit, boy from the bush, was in his day one of the most famous men in the world. In 1922 he stood at the highest point on Everest, a feat not bettered for 30 years. He invented the predecessor to the puffer jacket and pioneered the use of oxygen in climbing. A World War I...

In the stifling Australian heat of October 1993, a campsite the size of a small town was spontaneously created at a lonely desert roadhouse by the side of the Stuart Highway, which links Darwin with Alice Springs. The 1200 men and women who swagged on the unforgiving ground beside their horses, cars, trucks and even helicopters had come to this isolated place Dunmarra to help solve a mystery and save a life.A local son had disappeared without a trace. No-one was certain if he had b...

The forgotten, unique and fascinating story of Australia's first and only duchess, from the bestselling author of Sheila and Enid.When an unassuming young Melbourne woman bumped into a handsome naval lieutenant in a Colombo hotel swimming pool in 1926 she would never have dreamed of one day being the wife of an English duke with three castles.Demure but feisty Nell Stead and Alexander 'Mandy' Drogo Montagu, son of the ninth Duke of Manches...

In 1908 Muriel Matters, known as 'that daring Australian girl', chained herself to an iron grille in the House of Commons to demand votes for women, thus becoming the first woman to make a speech in the House. The following year she made headlines around the world when she took to the sky over the Houses of Parliament in an airship emblazoned with 'Votes for Women'.A trailblazer in the suffrage movement, Muriel toured England in a horse-drawn caravan to promote the cause. But femin...