Rogues and vagabonds, idle, pimping, 'spunging' slaves and lechers. 'Honest hypocrites' and 'the motley representatives of human nature.'That's how actors were described back in the day. It wasn't until around 150 years ago that the profession of acting was considered even remotely respectable.Exits and Entrances is the author's personal and often biased account of how theatre and the people who worked in it have evolved since the golden age of Eli...

'Love is like a red red rose' - beautiful, desirable, prickly and not always easy to find.A collection of stories about love in adversity: Love unrequited, or unwanted. Love obsessive, love unexpected; love that makes the world go around and turns people mad.If all we need for a peaceful and happy world is to love one another, why don't we simply do so?Why does a simple thing like love have to be so complicated?

In the 19th century Australia went from struggling penal colony to a thriving community with a bright future.George Matcham Pitt's life spanned the greater part of this century. A larger than life character and a master of rhetoric, fond of quoting from classic poets, opinionated and generous to a fault, GM, as he was known, went from humble farmer to landowner, auctioneer and the founder of one of Australia's first and best-known stock and station agents Pitt, Son...

In 1787 a handful of people - convicts, marines and government officials - sail across the world to settle a new colony and call it New South Wales.In 1801 Mary Pitt, a widow with five children, migrates to New South Wales from her home in Dorset to live among these same convicts.Why?Two hundred odd years later Mary’s great great great great granddaughter travels to what is now Australia to discover the answer to why her ancestress risked the lives of her e...

WHY were men and women in New South Wales once ordered to wear skirts for sea bathing?WHAT did famous writers such as Mark Twain and Anthony Trollope have to say about Australia?HOW did the miracle known as the Sydney Opera House ever see the light of day?WHAT'S the point of family history?Australia And How To Find It is a mixture of odds and sods about that weird, eccentric country...