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Franquin: master showman
By Jennie Rowley Lees. 1997
From an early age Franquin had been fascinated by hypnotism and, like his gypsy mother, had an uncanny knack of…
reading people's minds. With these talents and his showmanship he developed an entertainment that excited the curiosity of thousands. As a master showman, keeping up a ceaseless flow of speech, he enthralled his audiences with mind reading, memory skills and hypnotism. This is a fascinating book that describes a remarkable life and recreates the era of a great showman.The Addams chronicles: everything you ever wanted to know about the Addams family
By Stephen Cox. 1991
In a marvelous tribute to the Addams' oddball creatures and the television show that made them instant celebrities, "The Addams…
Chronicles" contains lively behind-the-scenes stories and exclusive interviews with cast members and the show's creator.Mao's last dancer
By Cunxin Li. 2003
In 1961, three years of Mao's Great Leap Forward - along with three years of poor harvests - had left…
a rural China suffering terribly from disease and deprivation. Li Cunxin, his parents' sixth son, lived in a small house with twenty of his relatives and, along with the rest of his family, subsisted for years on the verge of starvation. But when he was eleven years old, Madame Mao decided to revive the Peking Dance Academy, and sent her men into the countryside searching for children to attend. Chosen on the basis of his physique alone, Li Cunxin was taken from his family and sent to the city for rigorous training. What follows is the story of how a small, terrified, lonely boy became one of the greatest ballet dancers in the world.And now for something completely different
By Robyn Williams. 1995
The author has acted with the Monty Python crew, worked on the Snowy Mountains Scheme, been a TV stand-in for…
Tom Jones and even died and come back to life. Apart from that, he's a world renowned science broadcaster with a love of stories. Contains some coarse language.The lost mother: a story of art and love
By Anne Summers. 2009
"My mother had just turned ten in mid-1933 when a young woman approached her as they were both leaving Mass…
at St Joan of Arc's in Brighton... The woman was an artist . . . and she would like to paint her portrait..." After her mother's death in 2005, Anne Summers inherits a portrait of her mother as a child. Mesmerised by this image, she finds herself drawn into the story of how the portrait was painted and eventually found its way into her family. She soon learns the artist painted another portrait of her mother; this time as the Madonna. In a gripping narrative that is part art history, part detective story and part meditation on the relations between mothers and daughters, Anne's search for the Madonna painting and the mysterious Russian émigré collector who bought both paintings takes her down unexpected paths. Her search soon turns into a parallel quest to rescue Constance Stokes, the artist, from obscurity, and to learn why the collector suddenly abandoned the paintings. Along the way Anne finds she must face the truth of the relationship she had with her mother.Blood and tinsel: a memoir
By Jim Sharman. 2008
Jim Sharman takes us on an epic personal journey from his colourful childhood in his father's boxing troupe to Tokyo,…
London, Berlin and Sydney via the international successes of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar. Whether recounting conversations with Lou Reed, giving us the inside story about Rocky Horror or describing a fateful meeting with Patrick White, Jim Sharman casts a brilliant story of the people and events that have shaped the times. Blood & Tinsel ranges from the rough and ready world of outback Australia in the fifties, where boxers and panto dames shared the stage, to the cultural explosions in which Sharman played a part. Blood & Tinsel is a remarkable story about Australia. It is also a moving tribute to a family legendary in the entertainment stakes.Modern love: the lives of John & Sunday Reed
By Lesley Harding, Kendrah Morgan. 2015
Much has been written about the lives and art of Heide, but finally the remaining members of the inner circle…
have entrusted the truth to be told through this intimate biography of John and Sunday Reed. Equal parts romance and tragedy, Modern Love explores the lives of these champions of successive generations of Australian artists and writers, whose works and personalities John and Sunday carefully curated to suit their artistic tastes and sexual passions. It is a story of rebellion against their privileged backgrounds and a bohemian existence marked by extraordinary achievements, intense heartbreak and enduring love, a remarkable partnership that changed all those who crossed the threshold into Heide and altered the course of art in Australia.Great disasters of the stage
By William Donaldson. 1984
Collection of often humorous anecdotes of theatrical disasters through the ages. The disasters are not caused only by drink, amnesia,…
and acts of god, but also by hooliganism, off-stage vendettas, audiences who throw things, faulty props and bad luck.Picturesque pursuits: colonial women artists and the amateur tradition
By Caroline Jordan. 2005
Sketched on small pieces of card with embossed borders, painted on tiny squares of ivory or pressed between tissue paper…
in leather-bound albums, the artwork of nineteenth century women is easily overlooked, but no less beautiful and beguiling than work carried out on a larger scale. As amateurs, women such as Mary Morton Allport, Annabella Boswell and Georgiana McCrae worked in sketchbooks rather than on canvas; in pencil and watercolour rather than in oils, and in miniature rather than full scale. They employed the genres deemed suitable for their gender: miniature portraits, flower paintings and picturesque landscapes. Some produced works on commission, but most worked from the privacy of their own home, painting intimate portraits of their loved ones and delicate sketches of the local flora and fauna, displayed only to family and friends. Picturesque Pursuits explores the breadth and diversity of these women and their work, showing that Australia's heritage of talented women artists began long before the brilliant Modernist generation of the 1920s and '30s.The survival factor
By Mike Birkhead, T. R Birkhead. 1989
Lawsie: well ... you wanted to know
By John Laws. 2017
John Laws is acknowledged as the greatest radio broadcaster Australia has produced. For more than 60 years he has ruled…
the airwaves, making the 'talk back' genre his own and inspiring a raft of imitators. Still going strong into his 80s, so much has been written about his life Laws, for the first time, tells his remarkable story in his own words. In Conversations with John Laws, 'The King of Radio' addresses the critics and controversies, his success and his radio rivals, and the famous and infamous people he met along the way . Johnny Cash, Roger Miller, Kerry Packer, John Singleton and a host of prime ministers and politicians. Not bad for a Depression-era kid evacuated to Sydney from Papua New Guinea during World War II; one who suffered from polio as child (and again as an adult), was a loner at school and then lost his father when he was just 15 years old. From this 'nothing', as Laws saw his early life, he made something special.Super Aussie soaps: behind the scenes of Australia's best loved TV shows
By Andrew Mercado. 2004
Australian soaps are watched and loved by audiences all over the world, particularly the phenomenally popular Prisoner, Neighbours and Home…
and Away. From the innocent charms of the 50s and 60s, to the sex 'n' sin sagas of the 70s, through to the decadent 80s until everything was thrown on its head with the unbelievable success of the suburban Neighbours, every soap, in its own way, led to the later successes. Now, for the first time, the complete history of all these shows is told, in chronological order from 1958 to the present. Which soap had a visit from the then-Australian Prime Minister? Which soap had questions asked about it in Moscow parliament? Which soap featured a cameo from Olivia Newton-John? Which soap featured an early performance from Nicole Kidman? Which soap was originally pitched as being about an undercover nun? Author Andrew Mercado has spent years researching Aussie Soaps, interviewing the stars and producers for a humorous, affectionate, behind the scenes look at one of Australia’s most important export and cultural businesses.Colour: travels through the paintbox
By Victoria Finlay. 2002
Colour tells the remarkable story of Victoria Finlay's quest to uncover the many secrets hidden inside the paintbox. On her…
travels she visited remote Central American villages where women still wear skirts dyed with the purple tears of sea snails; learned how George Washington obsessed about his green dining room when he should have been busy with matters of state, and investigated the mystery of Indian Yellow paint, said to have been made from the urine of Indian cows force-fed with mango leaves. From mascara to violin varnish, from nomadic carpets to stained glass to pillar boxes to crayons, the story of colour is the story of the efforts of artists and artisans to reproduce the rainbow - and the impact their work has had on the world.King: the life and comedy of Graham Kennedy
By Graeme Blundell. 2003
Graham Kennedy, the King of Comedy, reigned over Australian television for forty years as talk-show host, game-show presenter and iconoclastic…
jester. He shared the microphone with Nicky Whitta on Melbourne’s favourite radio program, Nicky and Graham, in the 1950s, then went on to become the shining light of Australian TV, hosting In Melbourne Tonight, Blankety Blanks and Coast to Coast. Looking for a new challenge, Graham Kennedy moved into films and starred in Don’s Party and The Club among others. Graeme Blundell traces the career of the star from working-class Melbourne, who tilted Australia’s television to an unforgettable angle with his disrespectful buffoonery, then mysteriously disappeared into the Southern Highlands of New South Wales.My friend the fanatic: travels with an Indonesian Islamist
By Sadanand Dhume. 2008
My Friend the Fanatic is a portrait of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, painted through the travels of…
a pair of unlikely protagonists. Dhume is a foreign correspondent, an Ivy League-educated Indian with a fondness for John Updike and an interest in economic development. His companion, Henri Nurdi, is a young Islamist who hero-worships Osama bin Laden.