When Nelson Mandela commenced his long walk to freedom, just over a decade ago, he wanted to know whether Sir Donald Bradman, Australia's only cricketing knight, was still alive. A few days ago 'The Don'celebrated his 92nd birthday (born 27/8/08)and despite finishing his Test cricket career in 1948 is still regarded as the greatest Australian. Bradman's name is synonymous with fair play, modesty and excellence. His Test average of 99.94 per innings is double that of most other top-line batsmen (Graeme Pollock of South Africa is second, with an average of 60.97, and I deem myself as very fortunate in seeing his best score of 274 at Durban in 1970). British Labour peer, Lord Charles Williams, has written a superb book which places Bradman's outstanding feats in the context of Australia growing-up in the world. As Williams notes,the heroes of most other nations are symbolised by the warlike spirit of nationalism. However, Australia has never had a civil war or national revolution, nor has it ever been at war with near- neighbours. Thus, for Australians sport has become an integral part of politics and Aussie sporting champions achieved a status several notches higher than elsewhere.Accordingly, Bradman's deeds against an English 'army' clad in white was not to be compared to Babe Ruth's baseball feats (and the pair did meet in 1932)but rather to George Washington's victories against the British redcoats!( yes, I am exaggerating and The Don would have cringed at such suggestions but it simply helps to explain why opinion polls of today invariably rate him as the greatest Australian-not just the best cricketer or sportsman).Williams taps into the Australia psyche brilliantly and records just how important Don Bradman was to a fledgling Depression-era nation at the end of the world. Bradman and champion racehorse Phar Lap gave Australians something to cheer about as both proved themselves against the great nations of the world ( Phar Lap won brilliantly at his only start in the USA before dying in his paddock). For anyone remotely interested in Australia or cricket this book is required reading. UPDATE (27/8/01) Sir Donald Bradman would have been 93 today-but unfortunately he died on 25 February 2001, an event that almost brought the nation to a standstill, causing much introspection about the man, his deeds, and his influence on the nation.

.When Nelson Mandela commenced his long walk to freedom, just over a decade ago,he wanted to know whether Sir Donald Bradman, Australia's only cricketing knight, was still alive.As I write this review "The Don" is only one day off his 92nd birthday(born 27/8/08). Any lover of cricket, the world over, knows the name of Bradman-his name is synonymous with fair play, modesty and excellence.His test batting average of 99.94 runs per average is almost double other quality test batsmen.(I consider myself fortunate in seeing the second best, South Africa's Graeme Pollock,average 60.97, make his best score of 274 in Durban in 1970). In fact Bradman only needed to make 4 runs in his last test innings to average a 100-instead he was out for 0-one of the few 'ducks'of his career. British Labour peer, Lord Charles Williams,has written a superb book which is as much about Australia as it is on our nation's greatest sportsman.Williams places Bradman's great feats in the context of Australia growing up in the world. As Williams notes, the heroes in almost every other country symbolised the spirit of warlike nationalism. However Australia has never had a civil war or revolution, nor been at war with her near-neighbours.For Australians sport became an integral part of politics and sporting champions achieved a status several ranks higher than elsewhere. Thus, Bradman's deeds against an English 'army'clad in white,were akin not to Babe Ruth's baseball feats (and the pair did meet) but rather, as significant as George Washington's victories against the British redcoats!! Even today, many years retired, Bradman is always rated as the greatest Australian in opinion polls ( not just the best sportsman).Williams taps the Australian psyche brilliantly, particularly the Depression era where a fledgling nation, at the end of the earth, needed heroes. The two 'stars' who provided the boost to national confidence in those dark days are still remembered as Australian icons-'Big Red' (the champion racehorse Phar Lap, who died in the USA after brilliantly winning at his only American start)and Don Bradman. For anyone remotely interested in Australia and cricket this is a must-read.

This is a great book, for surfers and non-surfers alike. An exciting and humorous, and at times sad, book to read. Rabbit's life is a series of twists and turns and very human mistakes. I especially liked the stories of his first trip to the Hawaiian Islands, North Shore. I was laughing a lot and couldn't put the book down. A good chronicle of the "Aussie Invasion" of the mid-1970's, and all of the crazy stuff that happened during that time.Pro Surfing nowadays seems very tame in comparison. And to think, Rabbit Bartholomew is now the President of the ASP!

If you've ever gone out at 5 in the morning to catch a wave before school. Or gone out during lunch break even if it's flat. You'll love this book. Nuff said.

In reviews of this book, much is made of the author's race and sexual orientation; little has been said about his talent for fashioning words and sentences into crystalline, jewel-like stories. Quan explores themes of self-discovery and the search for identity among shifting layers and labels, and accumulates a number of exotic literary passport stamps along the way. This is fiction the way fiction ought to be written. Quan's prose is poignant, taut, and lucid: he finds just the right way to put things, free from excess, and achieves small miracles with this minimalist technique. ... his writing is so transparent, non-writers overlook his technical skill to yap about the politics. This does the book a disservice. Check this one out. Andy's a hell of a storyteller, and the themes he explores speak to a broad range of human experience. I had to get a friend to send me this book from Canada well before it was available in the States, and it was worth the effort. This is a writer to watch.

A few years ago, a Yale graduate named Eric Liu published The Accidental Asian, an eloquent series of essays tracing the young author's quest to come to grips with his Oriental heritage after growing up under the Euro-dominant influence of continental USA. That book now seems rather quaint beside the Canadian-authored Calendar Boy. It isn't just Andy Quan's value-added "otherness" of queer sexuality that gives this book more edge - although some of the bitchy irony that drives these stories surely arises from that. It's rather that Quan is a lot funnier about cultural disharmony, less forgiving of polite society and more aggressive in taking the piss out of PC earnestness. In "What I Really Hate", there's as much disdain for the cha-cha-cha-ing Chinese dancers as for the drooling rice queens. His take on fetishism is refreshingly inventive, as in "How to Cook Chinese Rice" and "Hair", and yet there's a haunting sort of beauty in the darker subject of a Japanese girl's attempted suicide ("Almost Flying"). With a disciplined, poet's eye - short, punchy sentences and well-rendered visuals - this book's a keeper (review originally published on Red Salamander's website.)

This is the 2nd book of a series of 3 that describe in details the complete range of Carnivorous/Insectivorous Plants in Australia. In the same format as the other two books, each species is described in one page of text giving a brief botanical description and any significant charactristics. A fairly decent line drawing faces this page of a typical full grown plant shwing the leaf, flower, and root form in detail as required. There are also a number of full colour photographs of each species in the wild showing plants in flower, etc.

A good book, one of the better CP ones (see my Review of Vol. 3 as well). Buy the book if you can - if not try and have a look at a copy and see what you are missing......

This is the long awaited third book in a series that documents the complete range of Australia's Carnivorous/Insectivorous Plants. Like the two before it, the book combines short (single page) semi-botanical descriptions of each species with a high quality sketch illustrating the form and a number of colour photographs showing typical (and sometimes atypical) plants in their natural environment.

This book is not so aimed at the 'how to grow them' shelf, but, at the accurate identification of numerous Australian Drosera (sundews), etc. In this respect it is a 5* hit and a must for any CP grower. Add it to your collection NOW before the print run is sold out (I pre-ordered last year!) - Vol.s 1 and 2 are now hard to get hold of and sell at a premium and a re-print may not occur for a long time.

ONE OF THE BETTER CP BOOKS

This book has proved to be useful on a daily basis. It deals with large numbers as the title suggests and the recipes are given for 25, 50, 100 which I have found, working in a boarding school, to be a great resource. Most of the recipes are basic but are easily modified.

An absolute god send. I have been in the hospitlaity industry for 25 years and never have I seen a book geared especially to the large scale market. It has given me so many ideas. Where is volume 2 and 3 and 4.

I have long wanted to read a general history of Austrailia, and when I read. on April 3, 1988, The Fatal Shore, by Robert Hughes, I said to myself, in my post-reading note: "I am glad I read this book, but maybe I'd've done better to read a plain history of Australia than this long account of this aspect of its beginning." I am shamed to say that it has taken over 12 years to do what I thought I should have done back then. This book goes up to 1999, and portrays very well the current dilemmas facing Australia. If you enjoy the articles in Current History, as I do, this book reminds me of those articles, except it is less bland and neutral. Ordinarily I avoid histories with designations such as "short" or "concise" figuring that I want a fuller treatment. But when one knows as little of a country as I do of Australia, I thought this a good introduction to its history.

Stuart's work is an excellent overview of Australian history from the dreamtime to the present. He captures the major periods and events that shaped the progress of Australia towards federation and beyond, into the current malaise over national identity and the development of a unique and identifiable cultures.

Modern thought increasingly accepts the indigenous problems that were part of Australian colonisation, and Stuart probes these and other contemporary issues by drawing from both sides of the debate. He illustrates research that examines the language of overland explorers, to determine whether they were 'exploring' or 'conquering', and he comments on modern interpretations of the constitution by the high court. Readers not well versed in Australian issues may pass over these slights of hands without understanding their importance in the nature of forging an Australian history, culture and identity.

I would recommend this book as a necessary overview for any person interested in the history of the country, including potential tourists.

On the advice of a friend who knows one of the "Cast Of Characters" (a "Yank In The Bank"), I ordered a used copy of this long out of print book. What an eye opener. It's amazing what a group of "former" senior military officers and spooks can get up to when allowed to run amok overseas. You name it and they got away with it. Even though some of the principals are dead, nobody has been held accountable for the myriad of crimes that have occurred abroad. With the lack of support rendered by the U.S. government (especially the F.B.I.), it makes one wonder how "former" some of the players really were. It's amazing how many of these same people reared their ugly heads years later during "Iran-Contra". Read the book and then decide for yourself.

As an Australian I was both surprised and gratified that an American journalist should want to trace the extraordinary history of the Nugan Hand Bank's Australian operations. This great document decribes the most cut-throat, heroin dealing, crime syndicate ever to have sullied our shores, and all under the covert auspices of the C.I.A. Kwitny's research is exhaustive and his even handed way of presenting his findings is exemplary of fine journalism. The implications hatched in this veritable can of worms will have net-sleuths busy for years tracing the myriad references to the numerous associates of Nugan Hand who vanished into the night only to surface again in the Irangate scandal. Essential reading for anyone trying to come to terms with the scourge of heroin, the world arms trade and those members of the U.S.'s covert agencies that spread misery in their own and other countries...Read it if you dare!

Fans of Patrick O'Brian will love Amasa Delano's Voyages. Delano's travels took him through the same uncharted waters and touched the same exotic lands as O'Brian's intrepid Captain Jack Aubrey and his ever-curious companion Stephen Maturin, but with a difference: O'Brian's heroes live in fiction; Delano was for real.

Seldom have I read a seafarer's account with so many varied and interesting observations about the world through which he traveled. Joseph Banks, Charles Darwin and other professional naturalists wrote a good deal about the flora and fauna they studied, of course, but Delano's curiosity takes him everywhere and informs the reader about an amazing range of contemporary details of life and human behavior.

Berkshire House Publishers and Eleanor Seagraves have performed a service of great value in resurrecting this account of sea voyages that played a critical role in establishing America's place in the field of maritime commerce and exploration. Truth can be stranger than fiction. Delano's extradordinary exploits are every bit as fascinating as the tales told by Patrick O'Brian and will appeal to the same readership. Handsomely illustrated.

This book is a story of comradeship and fighting spirit among ordinary people in the face of tyranny and the most acute evil. The Summer of 1944, when Allied forces were sweeping towards Paris, was the beginning of the end for Hitler's Third Reich. However for a group of downed airmen evacuated from Fresnes Prison ahead of the advancing troops, the worst of the war was about to begin. 168 Allied airmen (including several from Australia and New Zealand) were transported illegally to the infamous Buchenwald concentration camp where they experienced first-hand the black heart of Nazism. Miraculously they survived the order for their mass execution, but not before members of their group had died through starvation, brutality and neglect. The author, Colin Burgess, has interviewed many of the survivors and carried out extensive research to create this gripping account of the full story - from tense days in the care of the French Underground through to the only recently resolved fight for proper compensation.

This marvellous book is a must-read for anyone interested in this subject.