Random House Australia: 1821 books

Love him or loathe him, Ned Kelly has been at the heart of Australian culture and identity since he and his gang were tracked down in bushland by the Victorian police and came out fighting, dressed in bulletproof iron armour made from farmers' ploughs. Historians still disagree over virtually...

Few years can justly be said to have transformed the earth: 1914 did. In July that year, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Britain and France were poised to plunge the world into a war that would kill or wound 37 million people, tear down the fabric of society, uproot ancient political systems and...

The assassination of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, by a Bosnian-Serb terrorist in Sarajevo on 28th June 1914, precipitated the July crisis that brought war to Europe. Yet none of the great powers, in the days following the murder, believed it would lead to war. Extraordinarily,...

A hybrid of history, travel and journalism. Kurt has long been captivated by 'the communists' from his immigrant grandparents' past, transfixed by stories of the Soviet Union, the place where history happened. In the West, the Soviet universe has long been consigned to the dustbin of history,...

The autobiography of three time Tour de France Green Jersey winner.Professional road cyclist Robbie McEwen will do whatever it takes to win on a bike. He is proud of his reputation as a 'competitive little bugger' and 'a bit of a hard bastard in the peloton', yet he is at pains to point out that what...

The true story of Keith Bennett D.F.C, his crew and a Dutch girl's letter that would change their war This is the true story of the Lancaster G2 bomber crews in World War II and their humanitarian drops over Holland hrough the eyes of one,19 year-old Australian pilot, Keith Bennett D.F.C. Dubbed...

In 1948, Ben Carlin set out from New York City with an audacious, lunatic plan to circumnavigate the world in an army surplus amphibious jeep called Half-Safe. Fuelled by cigarettes and adrenaline, the Australian army major pushed his fragile, claustrophobic vehicle through fierce Atlantic hurricanes,...

The untold story of the Sandakan death marches of World War II. After the fall of Singapore, in February 1942, the Japanese conquerors rounded up tens of thousands of British and Australian soldiers and shipped them to prison camps scattered throughout Hirohito's newly won Empire. The...

The Incredible story of the Australian Navy's elite unit.Rising out of the Second World War, the Australian clearance diver has become one of the most respected and versatile operators in the military world. In cold, murky water, working by touch alone, the Australian clearance diver can defuse a...

In cold, murky water, working by touch alone, they defuse a mine powerful enough to sink a battleship: welcome to the thrilling and dangerous world of the Royal Australian Navy clearance divers. In the thick of the Vietnam War another elite unit of clearance divers went to Vung Tau retrieving...

Passchendaele epitomises everything that was most terrible about the Western Front. The photographs never sleep of this four-month battle, fought from July to November 1917, the worst year of the war: blackened tree stumps rising out of a field of mud, corpses of men and horses drowned in shell holes,...

Cars, cars and more cars! Who thought it was a good idea to call a car Gremlin, or Cedric or Touring Bruce? Which will fly first: the Moller Skycar or the pig? Hear about the floating car that sank? Hear about the show car so ugly the company had to promise they'd never build another that looked...

Retirement can be murder! The adventures of a former Sydney detective from 21 Division who, in his prime, collared some of the most murderous criminals in Australian history yet, on retiring to the Gold Coast in Queensland, along with half of the criminal milieu he once pursued, is shot, king-hit,...

Brimming with warmth and wit, Susan Duncan's first novel is a delicious tale of friendship and love, and the search for a place to call home...Ettie Brookbank is the heart and soul of Cook's Basin, a sleepy cluster of dazzling blue bays where the only way home is by boat. However, as idyllic as her...