Ben Cousins has one of the most extraordinary stories in modern Australian sport. He's perhaps the most gifted player of his generation - a former captain of the West Coast eagles, a Brownlow medallist, a premiership winner, voted the AFL's Most Valuable Player - but he's best known for what he's done off the footy field rather than on it.Ben is a self-confessed drug addict, whose drug binges would last for days and involve incredible amounts of cocaine, crack and ice. But what's r...

Notions of land and agrarian reform are now well entrenched in post-apartheid South Africa. But what this reform actually means for everyday life is not clearly understood, nor the way it will impact on the political economy. In the Shadow of Policy explores the interface between the policy of land and agrarian reform and its implementation; and between the decisions of policy ‘experts’ and actual livelihood experiences in the fields and homesteads of land reform projects.Starting w...

The struggle over land has been the central issue in Zimbabwe ever since white settlers began to carve out large farms over a century ago. Their monopolisation of the better-watered half of the land was the focus of the African war of liberation war, and was partially modified following Independence in 1980. A dramatic further episode in this history was launched at the start of the last decade with the occupation of many farms by groups of African veterans of the liberation struggle and t...

The embrace of socio-economic rights in South Africa has featured prominently in scholarship on constitution making, legal jurisprudence and social mobilisation. But the development has attracted critics who claim that this turn to rights has not generated social transformation in practice. This book sets out to assess one part of the puzzle and asks what has been the role and impact of socio-economic strategies used by civil society actors. Focusing on a range of socio-economic rights and...

The economic and political rise of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), and powerful middle-income countries (MICs) such as Argentina, Indonesia and Turkey, has far-reaching implications for global agrarian transformation. These countries are key sites of agricultural commodity production, distribution, circulation and consumption and are contributing to major shifts in the character of agro-food systems.This comprehensive collection explores these i...

Mattress Actress is the story of Annika Cleeve's eighteen years as a sex worker.Her troubled childhood in Queensland led to working in a brothel on the Sunshine Coast at the age of fifteen, and from there Annika worked her way up to the high-end parlours, agencies and private work in various parts of Australia and internationally.In this book Annika reveals the truth of a sex worker's life; the clients, thegirls, the parlou...

Unflinching in its honesty, My Journey is the extraordinary memoir of Jim Stynes: Irishman, footballer, Brownlow Medallist, Reach co-founder and former president of Melbourne Football Club whose very public battle with cancer touched the lives of everyone who knew him.When Jim was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 43, he was given nine months to live. The diagnosis caught him by surprise – and he didn't have time for illness. He was a busy father, husband, brother, mento...

In the world of Australian football, no-one has been more notorious than Wayne Carey. Once hailed as The King, and widely acclaimed as one of the greatest footballers of his generation, Carey fell from the highest pinnacle of the game to the lowest of lows.In his extraordinary memoir, Wayne Carey goes where no Australian sportsman has gone before - telling the whole, uncensored truth about a career whose implosion was as spectacular as Carey's legendary on-field exploits.

When Nina Morey gets her perfectly pedicured toe on the first rung of the highly-competitive magazine publishing ladder, she can't believe her luck.Then she lands the hottest man in town AND her best friend relocates from the other side of the world to help her paint the town neon pink. Nina's life has suddenly turned from dull to dream come true.Soon she's scaling the magazine ladder faster than you can say 'Anna Wintour', securing dream job after dream job, while schmoozi...

One man. One bike. A whole lotta trouble. MEET SLIM. He bought his first motorcycle, a Bridgestone 175 cc, at age sixteen in 1968. Since then, he's been in and out of trouble (mainly in) and experienced the thrills and perils of riding on the highway. He's been a guest inside some of Australia's toughest jails where he learned a lifetime's worth of human behaviour and handy life skills, such as how not to do an armed hold-up. Never one to shy from a punch or retreat from a fight, Slim is a...

Welcome to Long Bay, Australia's hardest prison. For the first time, guards and inmates of the notorious South Sydney facility reveal what really goes on behind its towering concrete walls.Opened in 1909 Long Bay Jail, originally a women's reformatory, has a dark and extraordinary history.From ghosts to legendary prisoners, there has been an infamous collection of Long Bay 'guests', including the formidable Neddy Smith, convicted rapists the Skaf brothers a...

Kathryn Bonella lifts the lid on Bali's nightmarish narcotics underworld.Among the island's drug dealers 'It's snowing in Bali' is code that the south-east Asian paradise is full of cocaine. For the men who run the country's drug empires, it's time to get rich and party hard.Snowing in Bali is the story of the drug trafficking and dealing scene that's made Bali one of the world's most important destinations in the global distribution of narcotics. Kathryn B...