Collection: Adult Non Fiction - Biography

Alana Valentine has carved a career bringing other people's lives to the stage. Often labelled a verbatim playwright, Alana has consistently pushed the boundaries of the form to find deeper truths and create what she describes as 'close work theatre'. In Bowerbird she brings her know-how to the p...

n this raw and hilarious memoir, a boy of humble beginnings in working-class Melbourne goes from dressing up his teddy to designing for Melbourne's high society. Gregory Ladner lifts the lid on a world of gorgeous women, glamorous gowns and salacious secrets. It's a rags-to-riches story - without...

From the bush of Baradine to the corridors of Canberra, this is Craig Emerson's story of triumph and courage over adversity. In the mid-1960s, in the small town of Baradine in north-western New South Wales, the Emerson family was in continual crisis. The mother suffered from deep depression, and ...

How does a self-described 'skinny Aboriginal kid' overcome a legacy of family tragedy to become an AFL legend? One thing's for sure: it's not easy. But then, there's always been something special about Eddie Betts. Betts grew up in Port Lincoln and Kalgoorlie, in environments where the destructiv...

Growing up in a small village in the Rhymney Valley, south Wales, Luke Evans' early life was shaped by his Jehovah's Witness upbringing. While most children of his age spent their Saturday mornings watching Going Live on television, young Luke would dress in a suit and tie and join his parents to...

On a balmy Townsville night in 1944, young serviceman Warwick Meale is found beaten to death under a bridge. The army and police do not, or will not, conduct a proper investigation and history forgets the killer - until now. Nearly eighty years on, Warwick's descendant Jonathan Butler dusts off t...

A powerful family memoir from the award-winning author of The China Garden. Kristina Olsson's mother lost her infant son, Peter, when he was snatched from her arms as she boarded a train in the hot summer of 1950. Yvonne was young and frightened, trying to escape a brutal marriage, but despite th...

"The first volume of the long-awaited, near-mythical biography of Nick Cave, by award-winning writer, Mark Mordue. A beautiful, profound, profane and poetic biography of the early formative years of the dark prince of Australian rock 'n' roll, Boy on Fire is Nick Cave's creation story. This is th...

Even in the midst of a global pandemic, the death of Stirling Moss on 12 April 2020 at the age of 90 made headlines, almost 60 years after he retired from Formula One. In The Boy, Richard Williams assesses what made him such an iconic figure. Told in 50 brief chapters, Williams builds a fascinati...

This is the remarkable story of Roald Dahl's early years at school and with his family. Like his stories, Dahl's childhood tales are unmissable. This edition has a new end section of facts about Roald Dahl.