Told alternately, by Colleen, an idealistic young white teacher; Frank, a black high school football player; and Evelyn, an experienced black teacher, Freedom Lessons is the story of how the lives of these three very different people intersect in a rural Louisiana town in 1969. Colleen enters into the culture of the rural Louisiana town with little knowledge of the customs and practices. She is compelled to take sides after the school is integrated—an overnight event for which the...

A frank and powerful memoir of the life of an Aboriginal woman, from her early years on the Lake Tyers mission to discovery of her talent as a painter.'It's bad luck to catch a black swan.'Eileen Harrison grew up at the Lake Tyers Aboriginal Mission Station in the 1950s as one of eleven children in a tight-knit and loving family. When the new assimilation policy comes in, they are wrenched from the Mission and sent off to Ararat in the hope that they will b...

Freedom Lessons begins in Louisiana 1969 as Colleen, a white northern teacher, enters into the unfamiliar culture of a small Southern town and its unwritten rules as the town surrenders to mandated school integration. She meets Frank, a black high school football player, who is protecting his family with a secret. And Evelyn, an experienced teacher and prominent member of the local black community, who must decide whether she’s willing to place trust in her new wh...

An affectionate and hilarious tribute to the childhood of another era, from one of Australia's favourite authorsA memoir of love, laughter, loss and billycarts Peter FitzSimons's account of growing up on the rural outskirts of Sydney in the 1960s is first and foremost a tribute to family. But it is also a salute to times and generations past, when praise was understated but love unstinting; work was hard and values clear; when people stood by each other in adversity. Above all, in t...

*In a minute she'd beg me to do anything I could to save the garment. That's what they always did. Begged and pleaded. There was usually a lover involved, and a cheated-upon spouse. I, as the mender, would be saving their life. People had actually said I was worth my weight in gold . . .But it wasn't my skill the clients were grateful for. No. It was my collusion. What lies are worth: their weight in gold.*You'd think that mending clothes would be an uneventful, uncomplicat...

The heart-wrenching but triumphant story of rebuilding a life and a family.'My body, suddenly, carries two stories of loss ... One is easy for people to recognise. My mother died of cancer. I watched her age twenty-five years in eight weeks ... My other story marks me as different. It is more silent and more savage, it is not pure and no one knows how to approach it. Somewhere I lost my husband.'When Maggie Mackellar's vibrant young husband, father to a fiv...

Sheryl McCorry is a woman in a million. In her bestselling memoir Diamonds and Dust and its follow up Stars over Shiralee, Sheryl shared her amazing life story from a childhood in the Top End to mustering cattle in the outback to becoming the first woman in the Kimberley to run two million-acre cattle stations.In Love on Forrest Downs, Sheryl's inspiring story continues as she and her soulmate Michael bat...

_______________'Runcie has captured the truth about love ... he is the simple chronicler of English post-war life, using irony and understatement to lay bare the pathos of ordinary lives ... Beautifully done' - Sunday Telegraph'A tender, intimate account of post-war England which left me both wistful and elated ... So engaging, so well-shaped and so unsparingly, generously truthful' - Jim Crace______...

Fabulous yarns and memories of going to school and teaching in the Outback.If your teacher commuted to school in a plane; if you had to watch out for rogue bulls rather than traffic; if your daily pick-up was done by a horse - you probably went to an outback school.this collection of more than sixty stories, gathered by Bill 'Swampy' Marsh in his travels across Australia, perfectly captures the experience of life growing up in the outback. Whether you loved school or not, these stor...

This heart-warming new book from Georgina Walker is packed full of real-life encounters with loved ones who have passed over. Here everyday people share their remarkable stories of amazing synchronicities and unexpected moments of magic in amongst the overwhelming grief that surround times of separation and loss. Many accounts tell of guidance by departed loved ones, some of funny incidents that bring laughter amidst the tears. Most importantly each story contains further insights into the...

Five kids orphaned by a terrible accident . . .A struggling family living in the most isolated spot on earth . . .A single dad battling to cope in a house falling down around his ears . . .A desperately ill woman in the middle of nowhere . . .In the great Outback traditions of mateship, resilience and generosity come these stories of ordinary people who, against seemingly insurmountable odds, help out those who inhabit Austra...

The best of the best …This essential book takes a decade of Best Australian Stories and selects the most outstanding short fiction by the country’s finest writers. These stories range widely in style and subject matter: there is drama and comedy, subtlety and extravagance, tales of suspense, love, fantasy, grief and revenge. Together they showcase the strength and diversity of Australian fiction at its very best.Contributors include: Murray Bail, D...