Come Back to Mona Vale

Come Back to Mona Vale
Author: Alexander McKinnon
Publisher:
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2022-02-28
Genre:
ISBN: 9781990048067

Come Back to Mona Vale is a beautifully written, compelling narrative/memoir that sets about unravelling the mysteries and anomalies behind the public history of a wealthy Christchurch business family in the first half of the 20th century. The author-as narrator gradually becomes aware that his family heritage isn't necessarily the norm, nor what he expected. He realises that family members don't speak to each other about the most private events. The story unfolds like a crime or detective tale, and also delves into the history of the Canterbury colony, contrasting Christchurch's public values, aspirations and beauty with its murkier private behaviour. And yet the story is told with a graceful touch and an eye for the vivid, comic and telling detail. Alexander McKinnon's explorations of his family's past is the record of a beautiful and grand (yet gradually crumbling) manor interwoven with social history - with a sense of the Gothic, of obsession, and of a tight-knit circle where secrets wreak a terrible climax leading to a form of inter-generational haunting.

Old Black Cloud

Old Black Cloud
Author: Jacqueline Leckie
Publisher: Massey University Press
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2024-06-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1991016735

Mental depression is a serious issue in contemporary New Zealand, and it has an increasingly high profile. But during our history, depression has often been hidden under a long black cloud of denial that we have not always lived up to the Kiwi ideal of being pragmatic and have not always coped.Using historic patient records as a starting place, and informed by her own experience of depression, academic Jacqueline Leckie' s timely social history of depression in Aotearoa analyses its medical, cultural and social contexts through an historical lens. From detailing its links to melancholia and explaining its expression within Indigenous and migrant communities, this engrossing book interrogates how depression was medicalised and has been treated, and how New Zealanders have lived with it.

New Wave Vision

New Wave Vision
Author: Hayden Cox
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2016-10-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1925310612

'At only 33, Hayden Cox is one of the surf industry's most successful and innovative businessmen. He revolutionised design by creating the Hypto Krypto, an initially weird-looking surfboard that has become the biggest selling model in world surfing history' -- The Australian 'Hayden is like a hip quantum physicist. He buzzes with numbers, degrees, fibre weaves and parabolas' -- Surfing Magazine 'A young Australian inventor who has reshaped surfboard technology for the better' -- GQ Magazine This book is about creating something -- no matter your passion, age or industry. Behind every innovative product there is a creator, a vision and a story. New Wave Vision centres around Hayden Cox's story -- a young person in business who started his brand Haydenshapes at age 15, challenged an industry and, through passion, grit and enterprise, created a global bestselling surfboard brand known for innovative design and collaborations with the world's best. This book is experience driven and shares the realities, the lessons, the highs and the lows. It is not an overnight success story nor is it a how-to. It's a candid first-hand take on nearly two decades of building from ground up, innovation, surviving through challenges and backing yourself -- with insights and real experiences shared by some of the most influential names in the business world, from the co-founder of Google Maps to skater Tony Hawk, the founder Oakley, Aesop, and others.

To the Outskirts of Habitable Creation

To the Outskirts of Habitable Creation
Author: Stuart D. Scott
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 569
Release: 2013-03-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1475976739

One of American historys lost stories, To the Outskirts of Habitable Creation is the fascinating account of American and Canadian convicts exiled to an Australian penal colony. In 1837 an armed rebellion at Toronto against the colonial administration of British Canada spilled across the border, and U.S. citizens joined the cause. The so-called Patriot War kept the frontier in a climate of fear and uncertainty as a series of battles in Canadian territory continued throughout 1838 in the hope of instigating political change. With the failure of each attempt to cross into Canada and revive the Rebellion, combatants were taken into custody. Trials resulted in hangings, acquittals, or pardons. One group of ninety-two prisoners, however, was sentenced to penal transportation for life in Australias far distant island of Van Diemens Land (Tasmania). Drawing on a wide variety of letters, diaries, and personal reminiscences, the author tells the story through the experiences of men and women who lived it. To the Outskirts... is more than the story of the Rebellion of 1837. It is also the story of one womans tenacious audacity that saved some of the men facing the gallows for their actions in the conflict.

They'll Never Hold Me

They'll Never Hold Me
Author: Michael Adams
Publisher: Affirm Press
Total Pages: 405
Release: 2024-10-29
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1923135511

In 1959, Australians thrilled to every move made by a new criminal underdog, a Ned Kelly for the rock 'n' roll era. Kevin John Simmonds was a charismatic crook whose brazen crime spree had scored him a lengthy prison sentence. But as he was led from court, he boasted, 'They'll never hold me.' Two months later, Simmo made good on his promise, staging a daring escape from Long Bay Gaol. When his bid for freedom took a deadly turn, legendary Detective Ray 'the Gunner' Kelly took charge of the search, putting the fugitive in the crosshairs of the biggest armed manhunt in Australian history. They'll Never Hold Me is the true story of an antihero with a code of honour who captured the public's hearts and minds even as he enraged the cops and the establishment. Brilliantly researched and written by Michael Adams, of the Forgotten Australia podcast, this never-before-told tale takes us beyond the public adventures that made Simmo into Public Enemy No. 1 to reveal the haunting tragedies he was trying to outrun - and the terrible fate that even he might not escape.

Sheer Abandon

Sheer Abandon
Author: Penny Vincenzi
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 642
Release: 2007-05-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0385523149

A #1 bestseller from one of Britain’s most popular novelists. • An all-consuming story revolving around the consequences of a desperate act. • "Nobody writes page-turning women's fiction like Vincenzi." —USA Today Martha, Clio, and Jocasta meet by chance at Heathrow airport in 1985 as they are starting off on separate backpacking adventures, and they decide to spend the first few days of their trips together in Thailand. When they go their separate ways, they vow to get together in London the following year. But many years pass before the three cross paths again, and the once-capricious, carefree girls now all have thriving careers. One of them, however, harbors a terrible secret: On her return from her pre-college excursion, she abandoned her just-born daughter at Heathrow. Clio has fulfilled her ambition of becoming a doctor, only to find herself trapped in a marriage to an arrogant surgeon who belittles her and her professional achievements. Martha is a highly paid corporate lawyer, just embarking on a political career. Dedicated to her job, she has had little time for personal relationships and lives a busy, but lonely life. Jocasta, a tabloid newspaper reporter with an infallible instinct for the big story, is in love with a charming colleague who can’t make the permanent commitment she longs for. The infant abandoned at Heathrow has grown up under the loving care of her adoptive family. Now a beautiful teenager named Kate, she sets out to find her birth mother—a quest that unexpectedly brings the women together and exposes the secret buried so many years before. Impossible to put down, Sheer Abandon is top-notch women’s fiction.

Dark Side of the Harbour

Dark Side of the Harbour
Author: Jennifer Bacia
Publisher: Booktopia Editions
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2020-09-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1925995380

It’s the Swinging 60s. Post-war Australia is booming and the excitement of Sydney lures two young women, Rose and Margot, eager for adventure in these rapidly changing times. They meet through work, and country-girl Rose is in awe of glamorous, worldly Margot who makes it clear her ambitions stretch far beyond the cosmetic sales counter of David Jones, Sydney’s iconic department store. At a coffee bar in cosmopolitan Kings Cross, they encounter two debonair Europeans, Stefan and Josef, former Polish army officers seeking to rebuild their lives. Friendship grows between the foursome, and the women’s eyes are opened to a world of experience and ideas very different from the Australia they grew up in. Rose is drawn to the handsome, reserved, Stefan, but he is a complex man clearly marked by his wartime experiences. And Margot, well, penniless immigrants certainly aren’t her style. Instead, ignoring the danger signs, she has her sights set on the city’s most eligible bachelor. But it’s a tragedy neither woman sees coming which is about to change their lives forever. Fast-forward over two decades later, and a top-rating media program has begun investigating a long-ago murder on the sleepily opulent Northern Beaches. The locals are abuzz with speculation. Some have reason to feel nervous – including the police. Others, who’ve stayed silent for years, are at last tempted to tell the truth. A truth Margot and Rose could never have imagined. From Sydney’s deceptive glitter, to the grit of Warsaw under siege, Dark Side of the Harbour is a masterpiece of suspense, a story of courage, resilience and deadly secrets – where only the strongest bonds survive.

Return of the Light Prince

Return of the Light Prince
Author: Howard Dimond
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2010-09-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1453518223

Return of the Light Prince Dear reader This novel contains some of the most profound and provocative ideas about a subject that many of us have already formed an opinion on. This in itself is the reason why this novel was kept by me for some time in an unpublished state and yet I remained unsure what to do, or the next step to take. Id like to quickly explain the quandary I am experiencing but to understand you need to keep asking why, and never stop. Some questions of a factual nature could be ~ Why does the planet Earth travel on an orbital path at about eighteen and a half miles per second, or why does Mercury complete an orbit around our Sun in eighty eight days? Yes, it is true the answer to these questions above can partly be found in physics but this is clearly a statement of the obvious without any explanation as to why. However the most immediate responses can be found from those, whose mindset sits mainly, in one of three camps. That is the acceptance of creationism, evolutionary theory or a growing body of pragmatists who believe in their mind of doubts that there maybe another equally more plausible answer. Writing this book was not easy. The harder part though is breaking through the mindset of hundreds of years of work and research, including the special work completed by the naturalist Darwin. There is no shortage of support for a range of advocates of religious history and equally for the continuing and developing theory of evolution and herein lies the problem. This book does raise and explain another equally plausible reason. We will all go home tonight to the rest of our lives. But consider this, have you ever had an experience so confronting in nature, so rich in ideas that you have felt compelled to stop and listen and be measured by its effect. This for me has been the most exciting life experience of my time. The real impact of this work will break through via the medium of moving images rather than just the mere words in the book I have written. The reasons for this are the obvious ones. The mass audience this work lends itself to, will rationalize more on what they have seen given that most of us have a depth of interests that try to keep up with issues on a day to day basis. I hope you enjoy reading this work as much as I had the enjoyment in writing it. Howard Dimond Author