Mary Boleyn by
Alison Weir $32.95 Paperback (Jonathan Cape)
Mary
Boleyn is remembered by posterity as a ‘great and infamous whore’. She was
the mistress of two kings, Francois I of France and Henry VIII of England, and
sister to Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife. She may secretly have borne
Henry a child and it was because of his adultery with Mary that his marriage to
Anne was annulled. It is not hard to see how this tangled web of relationships
has given rise to rumours and misconceptions that have been embroidered over the
centuries. In this, the first full-scale biography of Mary Boleyn, Alison Weir
explodes much of the mythology that surrounds her subject and uncovers the facts
about one of the most misunderstood figures of the Tudor age.
Michael
Kirby is one of Australia's most admired public figures. At a time of spin and
obfuscation, he speaks out passionately and straightforwardly on the issues that
are important to him. Even those who disagree with him have been moved by the
courage required of him to come out as a high-profile gay man, which at times
has caused him to be subjected to the most outrageous assaults on his character.
This is a collection of reminiscences which reveal the private Michael Kirby. He
opens up as never before about his early life, about being gay, about his
forty-two year relationship with Johan van Vloten, about his religious beliefs
and even about his youthful infatuation with James Dean. A fine and moving
autobiography.
That
Woman by Anne Sebba $35 Paperback (Weidenfeld & Nicholson)
‘That
woman' was not only one of the most talked about women of her generation. In
death she has become one of the most written about and reviled. But she has also
become a symbol of female empowerment as well as a style icon. And yet Wallis
Simpson remains an enigma. A witty woman who lived on her wits. 'A woman can
never be too rich nor too thin' was one of her aphorisms. Neither beautiful nor
brilliant, both her assumed as well as her known moral transgressions add to her
aura and dazzle. Accused of fascist sympathies and Nazi friends, she is the
object of fascination that has increased with the years.
Why be Happy When You
Could be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson $29.95 Hardback (Jonathan Cape)
This
book is the story of a life’s work to find happiness. It is a book full of
stories: about a girl locked out of her home, sitting on the doorstep all night;
about a tyrant in place of a mother, who has two sets of false teeth and a
revolver in the duster drawer; about growing up in an northern industrial town
now changed beyond recognition, part of a community now vanished; about the
Universe as a Cosmic Dustbin. It is the story of how the painful past Jeanette
Winterson thought she had written over and repainted returned to haunt her later
life, and sent her on a journey into madness and out again, in search of her
real mother. An important biographical background to Winterson’s unique body
of literary work.
A Point of View by
Clive James $32.99 Paperback (Picador)
Read
along with Clive as he reflects on everything from wheelie bins to plastic
surgery, Elizabeth Hurley to the Olympics, Harry Potter to giving up smoking,
car parks to Chinese elections, Britain's Got Talent to the expenses scandal –
and plenty more besides. Essentially a chronicle of life in twenty-first century
Britain, Clive James A Point of View
is informed and informative, thoughtful and thought-provoking – but above all
it is marvellously entertaining.
Cocktail
Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller $29.99 Paperback (Simon
& Schuster)
This
fabulous biography by the author of Don’t
Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight tells the story of the author's mother, Nicola
Fuller. Nicola and her husband were a glamorous and optimistic couple and East
Africa lay before them with the promise of all its perfect light, even as the
British Empire waned. They had everything, including two golden children - a
girl and a boy. However, life became increasingly difficult and they moved to
Rhodesia to work as farm managers. They returned to England where the author was
born before returning to Rhodesia and to the civil war. The last part of the
book sees the Fullers in their old age on a banana and fish farm in the Zambezi
Valley. They had built their ramshackle dining room under the Tree of
Forgetfulness. A fascinating read about an eccentric couple.
Charles Dickens by
Claire Tomlin $39.95 Hardback (Viking)
Charles
Dickens was a phenomenon. Perhaps the greatest novelist in the English language,
the creator of characters who live immortally in the English imagination, Mr
Pickwick, the Artful Dodger, David Copperfield, Little Nell, Pip, Miss Havisham
and many more. He was also a demonically hard-working journalist, father of ten
children and tireless in his support of liberal social causes. At the age of
twelve he was sent by his affectionate but feckless parents to work in a
blacking factory. By the time of his death in 1870 he drew adoring crowds to his
public appearances, had met princes and Presidents on both sides of the
Atlantic, and had amassed a fortune. When he died, the world mourned, and he was
buried - against his wishes - in Westminster Abbey.
Van Gogh by Steven
Naifeh and Gregory White Smith $59.99 Hardback (Profile)
Vincent
van Gogh created some of the best loved works of art ever made, from the early
The Potato Eaters to his late masterpieces Sunflowers and The Starry Night. He
had worked as an art dealer, a missionary and as a teacher in England, and only
in his late twenties did he begin a life that would be fundamental in shaping
modern art. But when he died in Auvers-sur-Oise in 1890 at the age of
thirty-seven he was largely unknown. Written with the unique cooperation of the
Van Gogh Museum, these two authors recreate his extraordinary life - and the
inside of his troubled mind. Drawing for the first time on all of his (and his
family's) extensive letters, which offer exquisite glimpses into his thoughts
and feelings, this is the definitive portrait of one of the world's cultural
giants.
Hockney by Christopher
Simon Sykes $35 Paperback (Random House)
In
this astounding first volume of his authorised biography Christopher Sykes
explores the fascinating world of the most popular living artist in the world
today. David
Hockney’s career has spanned the last five decades. His story is
one of precocious achievement at Bradford Art College, the Swinging 60s in
London where he befriended many of the iconic cultural figures of the
generation, to California and the cool of the swimming pool series of paintings,
through the acclaimed set designs for countless operas around the world. With
unprecedented access to interviews, family and friends and Hockney’s own
notebooks and paintings, this volume will deliver as honest and revelatory
account of the man who many believe to be Britain’s greatest living artist.
Mawson by Peter
Fitzpatrick $49.95 Hardback (Random House)
Sir
Douglas Mawson,
born in 1882 and knighted in 1914, remains Australia's greatest Antarctic
explorer. On December 2, 1911, his Australasian Antarctic Expedition left Hobart
to explore the virgin frozen coastline below Australia, 2000 miles of which had
never felt the tread of a human foot. He was on his way to fulfil a national
dream he had first conceived three years earlier. Even as Mawson
and his men were approaching Antarctica, two other famous Antarctic explorers
were already engaged in nothing less than a race to become the first men to
reach the South Pole. As Mawson
and his men make their home on the windiest place on earth and prepare for their
own record-breaking treks, with devastating drama to be their constant
companion, the stories of Amundsen and Scott similarly play out.
An
Eye for Eternity by Mark McKenna Hardback $54.99 (MUP)
An
Eye for Eternity paints a sweeping
portrait of Manning Clarke who gave Australians the signature account of their
own history. It tells of his friendships with Patrick White and Sidney Nolan. It
details an urgent and dynamic marriage, ripped apart at times by Clark's
constant need for extra marital romantic love. A son who wrote letters to his
dead parents: An historian who placed narrative ahead of facts: A believer who
flirted with Catholicism-Clarke was a controversial public figure who marked
slights and criticisms with deeply held grudges but he played an important role
in the writing of Australian history.
Good
Living Street by Tim
Bonyhady Paperback $35 (A&U)
In
1900 Vienna was one of the most exciting places to live in the world It was the
centre of an exploding arts movement that set the tone for the following
century. Tim Bonyhady's great-grandparents were leading patrons of the arts in
fin de sičcle Vienna. In Good Living Street he follows the lives of
three generations of women in his family in an intimate account of fraught
relationship and romance. They enjoyed a lifestyle of luxury and privilege-until
everything changed for families of Jewish origin like his. In 1938, his family
fled Vienna for a small flat in Sydney, taking with them an outstanding private
collection of art and design.
The
Churchills by Mary Lovell Paperback $35 (Little Brown)
The
story of one of the most famous of all British families - the Churchills.
‘There never was a Churchill from John of Marlborough down who had either
morals or principles’, so said Gladstone. From the First Duke of Marlborough -
soldier of genius, restless empire-builder and cuckolder of Charles II -
onwards, the Churchills have been politicians, gamblers and profligates, heroes
and womanisers. This is a richly layered portrait of an extraordinary set of men
and women - grandly ambitious, impulsive, arrogant and brave. And towering above
the Churchill clan is the figure of Winston - his failures and his triumphs -
ultimately one of the greatest of Britons.
Dante
in Love by AN Wilson Hardback $55 (Atlantic)
For over half a millennium, The Divine Comedy has inspired
writers from Shakespeare to Beckett. Dante's epic journey - out of the raging
inferno to the gates of paradise - continues to dazzle readers today. In Dante
in Love, A N Wilson presents a glittering study of an artist and his world,
arguing that without an understanding of medieval Florence, it is impossible to
comprehend the meaning of Dante's great poem. He explains how the Italian states
were at that time locked into violent feuds. He explores Dante's preoccupations
with classical mythology, and the great Christian philosophers which inform
every line of the Comedy.
The
Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal Paperback $24.95 (Vintage)
264
wood and ivory carvings, none of them larger than a matchbox: potter Edmund de
Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in the Tokyo. Later,
when Edmund inherited the ‘netsuke’, they unlocked a story far larger than
he could ever have imagined…The Ephrussis came from Odessa, and at one time
were the largest grain exporters in the world; in the 1870s, Charles Ephrussi
was part of a wealthy new generation settling in Paris. Charles’s passion was
collecting The Anschluss and Second World War swept the Ephrussis to the brink
of oblivion. Almost all that remained of their vast empire was the netsuke
collection, dramatically saved by a loyal maid when their huge Viennese palace
was occupied.
Notebooks by Betty Churcher
Hardback $49.99 Paperback $44.99 (MUP)
Faced with
possible deteriorating eyesight, Betty Churcher, the former director of the
Australian National Gallery revisited her favourite works round the world
including masterpieces by Rembrandt, Goya, Manet, Velazquez, Courbet, Vermeer
and Cezanne. A trained artist, Betty's sketches reveal the secrets within the
artworks and the processes of their creation. With the gift for making art
accessible she gently leads your eye to these paintings' intimate details,
describing their kinship with other masterpieces and their place in the history
of art. Churcher's deeply held belief that art has the power to transport the
viewer to another place and time is evident in this delightful book.
The Last Resort by
Douglas Rogers Paperback $24.99 (Faber)
For
many years, Lyn and Ros Rogers were the owners of Drifters, a resort in
Zimbabwe. But when President Robert Mugabe launched his violent land reclamation
programme, everything changed. The Rogers found their home under siege, and
their lives in danger. But instead of leaving, as their son Douglas pleaded with
them to do, they hauled out a shotgun and stayed. Soon afterwards, Douglas
returns to find the country of his birth in chaos, and his home transformed. And
yet, in spite of it all, the Rogers - with the help of friends and locals, black
political dissidents - hold on. And Douglas begins to see his parents in a new
light: unbowed, even heroic.
Wait
for Me by Deborah Devonshire Paperback $35.00 (John Murray)
Deborah
Devonshire is a natural writer with a knack for the telling phrase and for
hitting the nail on the head. She tells the story of her upbringing, lovingly
and wittily describing her parents (so memorably fictionalised by her sister
Nancy); she talks candidly about her brother and sisters, and their politics
(while not being at all political herself), finally setting the record straight.
She writes brilliantly about the country and her deep attachment to it and those
who live and work in it. As Duchess of Devonshire, Debo played an active role in
restoring and overseeing the day-to-day running of the family houses and
gardens, and in developing commercial enterprises at Chatsworth. She tells
poignantly of the deaths of three of her children, as well as her husband’s
battle with alcohol addiction.
Reading
by Moonlight by Brenda Walker $29.95 Hardback (Hamish
Hamilton)
This
beautifully produced little hardback is good to hold in the hand and good for
the mind and soul. The first time Brenda went into hospital she wondered which
book to take with her. As a writer and lecturer her life has been about reading
and writing. Books had always been her solace and sustenance and now she needed
them more than ever. In this exceptional book Brenda writes about the five
stages of her cancer treatment and how different authors and books helped her
through. As well as offering wonderful insights into the work of writers like
Dante, Beckett, Nabokov, Tolstoy and others, her book demonstrates how the
process of reading and exploring the ideas of great minds becomes a mental and
physical healing in itself.