Biography & Autobiography : Historical

I was born on 18 August 1932. I am a Torres Strait ‘Solwata Woman’, Wagadagum Tribe, of the Kadal and Dangal Totems. My father was Tomi Loban from Banda Neira, Indonesia. He was a pearl shell grader on Thursday Island. My mother was Geti Loban (nee Summers) from Mabuiag Island, Torres Strait. This book I am writing is about the journey I wish to share with readers. It has been 24 years since my first and only book Somebody Now was published and I have been approached by young Torres Strait women to document achievements since then. My family also have encouraged me to try and accept this challenge because my medical problems restrict me, with time spent in hospital, and my physical and mental capacity of endurance. So, thank you Sylvia Tabuai for raising the issue. My book is based on memory and reflection. There are many issues still facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and I must put down my thoughts about them. I leave behind in this book some ideas for the future so that others may learn from them. Ellie Gaffney AM more...

Price: $36.00

My Schools and Schoolmasters is Hugh Miller's account of his extraordinary life - from the hardships of is early life in Cromarty, in North Eastern Scotland, where he originally worked as a stonemason, to his later years as a scientist, journalist, lecturer and defender of Christianity against the Evolutionists. By the time of his tragic suicide in 1856, Miller's pioneering work in the field of Geology had secured his place as one of the foremost thinkers of his time, while his writing - on subjects as diverse as poetry, folklore, education, history and religion - had made him one of the best known of Victorian literary figures, admired by the likes of Thomas Carlyle, Charles Dickens and John Rusdkin. Written with wit, humour and humanity, Miller's autobiography is both a remarkable personal narrative and a fascinating picture of nineteenth century Scottish life. more...

Price: $8.99

Nelson continues to fascinate academics as well as the general public. He is still considered one of Britain’s greatest heroes and featured within the top ten of the BBC poll of such figures. But why does Nelson still remain such a prominent figure in the national imagination? more...

Price: $9.99

A true story of murder, love, and headhunters, Now the Hell Will Start tells the remarkable tale of Herman Perry, a budding Romeo from the streets of Washington, D.C., who wound up going native in the Indo-Burmese jungle—not because he yearned for adventure, but rather to escape the greatest manhunt conducted by the United States Army during World War II. An African American G.I. assigned to a segregated labor battalion, Perry was shipped to South Asia in 1943, enduring unspeakable hardships while sailing around the globe. He was one of thousands of black soldiers dispatched to build the Ledo Road, a highway meant to appease China’s conniving dictator, Chiang Kai-shek. Stretching from the thickly forested mountains of northeast India across the tiger-infested vales of Burma, the road was a lethal nightmare, beset by monsoons, malaria, and insects that chewed men’s flesh to pulp. Perry could not endure the jungle’s brutality, nor the racist treatment meted out by his white officers. He found solace in opium and marijuana, which further warped his fraying psyche. Finally, on March 5, 1944, he broke down—an emotional collapse that ended with him shooting an unarmed white lieutenant. So began Perry’s flight through the Indo-Burmese wilderness, one of the planet’s most hostile realms. While the military police combed the brothels of Calcutta, Perry trekked through the jungle, eventually stumbling upon a village festooned with polished human skulls. It was here, amid a tribe of elaborately tattooed headhunters, that Herman Perry would find bliss—and would marry the chief ’s fourteen-year-old daughter. Starting off with nothing more than a ten-word snippet culled from an obscure bibliography, Brendan I. Koerner spent nearly five years chasing Perry’s ghost—a pursuit that eventually led him to the remotest corners of India and Burma, where drug runners and ethnic militias now hold sway. Along the way, Koerner uncovered more...

Price: $26.95

"MARVELOUS . . . BREATHTAKING." --The New York Times Book Review "MAILER SHINES . . . Explaining Kennedy's assassination through the flaws in Oswald's character has been attempted before, notably by Gerald Posner in Case Closed and Don Delillo in Libra. more...

Price: $15.95