When did Australia first show a distinctive foreign policy? This is the question that has troubled historians for some time. Meaney's book, however, appears to have settled the issue. The book is chronological in style and sets out the history of Australian defence and foreign policy, from the colonial administrations of the late 19th Century, through to the start of the First World War. It appears to be the first of a series of three which, if the first is anything to go by, will be the definitive account of Australia's foreign relations and defence planning in the early 20th century. Meaney's scholarship is meticulous, and the book is written in a style that will satisfy both the scholar and the lay reader with an interest in the history of this formative period. I highly recommend the work as a valuable (almost invaluable) contibution to our understanding of Australia and its place in the world.

Kirsty Brooks set out to write a book about hitchhiking. She got a car and headed out, looking for hikers to pick up.

She found less than a dozen.

So she went out and collected stories from all over the world of the strangest occurrences that have happened, from drink-driving mayors in France to hitchhiking in Japan, where the drivers will give you their umbrellas when you stop.

It's a great read, interlaced with some wonderful picture-postcards, making the whole book a very attractive package.

This book is not out of print. A remrkable book, it is neither complimentary to the Japanese military, nor to Canberra politicians. It tells of atrocities and bureaucratic bungling that left over one thousand Australians dead, and the lives of many American airmen. In many respects it is a proud book, highlighting the incredible feats of nearly fourteen hundred soldiers left to defend the indefensible against the might of the Japanese war machine. Abandoned by the Australian command against an inevitable invasion, they fought and ran. The inhospitable New Britain jungle took its toll - the Japanese did the rest. At Tol Plantation, over 150 Australians were lined up and slaughtered. Many more were captured and sent to Japan as prisoners of war. Most did not make it - an American submarine saw to that. Of the original garrison of some 1400 men, only four hundred would return to Australia. During three and a half years of Japanese occupation, hundreds of kilometres of tunnels were dug from the volcanic soil surrounding Rabaul. The Japanese burrowed in whilst American Flying Fortress bombers and Australian Beauforts bombed the harbour into useless isolation in Operation Cartwheel. Many US flyers were rescued by Australian coastwatchers. Rabaul was hell in paradise. Peace came for the interned missionaries, the remaining prisoners of war, the Tolai natives and indeed the Japanese themselves in September 1945. Many of the original residents would never return. Rabaul and its magnificent harbour were a shambles. On the seabed lay fifty ships. Those in shallow water became easy prey to Australian and Japanese salvage operators seeking non-ferrous metals. The definitive work on the Pacific war in Rabaul, from its pre-war history, through to Japanese invasion and occupation, US bombing and airmen rescues, the native peoples, and the final surrender and salvage.

A beautifully woven piece of work that shares the trials and travails of parenthood, Taylor's return to surfing in the formidable yet inspiring waters of Byron Bay, and a reminder of how to love even the most minute aspects of life.

Beyond excellent, without a doubt. Enjoy.

It is a truism that success rarely comes to three successive generations of a family. But Jamie Packer is the fourth generation success story in the media-owning family which never seems to strike failure.

"The House of Packer" goes back to Jamie's great-grandfather, R C Packer, newspaper and magazine proprietor in Sydney in the inter-war years, then on to R.C.'s son (later Sir) Frank Packer who started the Australian Women's Weekly and, later, TV Channel Nine.

It is a company history rather than a group biography, so there is information on union disputes, the introduction of new technology, Federal election campaign coverage, competition with other media companies and so on.

But it is the larger than life characters, so typical of journalism in the early to mid-twentieth century and so lacking today, which give the book its human interest. Along with the bold and vigorous writing.

The book concludes with Sir Frank's death and his son Kerry (Jamie's father) taking over the reins. It is an absolute must for people interested in media studies, economic history, political intrigue or just plain power.

I was absolutely hooked after reading the first page- this man had unbelievably captured the details of my life. After reading the book, i became self-informed as to how "Australian" I was. Several times the wit and sharp observances of Treborlang had me in stitches, and literally laughing out loud over comments like: "Hell hath no fury like an Australian scorned."

The satirical nature of "How to be normal in Australia" is a definite must read and experience- particularly for those carefree and impenetrable Australians.

"No worries... we could all use a good ole laugh at ourselves once in a while love..."

Professor Good has written a timely and brave book. It is honest, clear and full of the detached passion of Orwell's incisive wit. It is indeed readable and concise in its just over 100 pages of careful prose. The mumbo-jumbo that has pervaded English departments in North America in the guise of so-called literary theory is the bane of clarity, intellectual growth and analytical rigour. It is, as Professor Good claims, anathema to the freedom of the individual and independent thought: precisely what a good liberal humanist education should aim for. What we have is ideology masked as education where seminar rooms have been turned into indoctrination sessions in which any attempt to be different through providing an argument against a vacuous idea by Derrida, a mystically misplaced one by Focault, or the Geertzean-induced glaze of Greenblatt is deemed 'reactionary' etc. In other words conform, or you're out. It is time for all clear thinking people to take a stand and fight for the right to be different as a responsible individual in society. Professor Good's book, though polemical, provides arguments in a systematic manner as to why that time is now. My only caveat to an otherwise excellent book, is at one point a slightly simplified portrayal of Nietzsche's ideas occurs. True, Nietzsche could be read as being misogynist, or anti-democratic etc, but he did say a lot of things to upset people: that was his style and part of his radical individualism. For in his inconsistencies and contradictions (deliberate or otherwise) Nietzsche provided an original view of the individual who could be strong by defying the norm, and those norms would include those set up as sacrosanct by the high priests of Theory today. But one can see why the simpler version of Nietzsche's thought was used in this instance, as it is an antinomy probably used as a rhetorical device to make more effective the stance against the Theorists' misappropriation of Nietzsche as defender of ideologically driven 'oppressed' people, genders and those of differing sexual orientation of the world, some of whom (I stress, some) have decided to again reinvent and misuse Nietzsche's dictum "the world is the will to power and nothing besides". The last group of people with a grievance who did the same thing were the Nazis.

I first learned of Dr Freeman's history of the 50th Battalion, 1st AlF, in early 1990. At that stage the book was still being written, and being a former South Australian, I had a special interest in the 50th Battalion. One of my relatives, Lt ETJ Rule, was an "original" of the 10th Battalion who transferred to the 50th upon its formation in 1916. He was killed in action on 2 April 1917 in the 13th Brigade's attack on Noreuil, along with four other officers and 95 O.Rs. One of those O.Rs, Pte L Eglinton, happened to be one of my wife's relatives. Another relative, Pte EH Topperwien, was captured on 13 September 1918, in some of the last action seen by the 50th Battalion. Given these links with the 50th, I contacted Dr Freeman, a radiologist, who was most generous in his assistance with my own research.
I anxiously awaited the book and was not at all disappointed when it arrived. It is coffee-table book size and is the most lavishly illustrated AlF battalion history I have encountered. There are hundreds of photographs of individual members (nearly 1,400 individuals are identified), many group photographs, and nearly two dozen Anzac day and reunion group photographs from 1919 to 1982. Clearly, the book has been aimed, primarily, at former members and their relatives and at historians interested in biographical detail and personal accounts of service in the First World War. Each of the significant actions in which the 50th participated is briefly introduced and then related through personal accounts of events from numerous diary and letter extracts. The Battle Honours of the 50th battalion include Pozieres, Bullecourt, Messines Ridge, Polygon Wood, Passchendale, Ancre, Villers Bretonneux, Amiens, and the Hindenburg Line.
The book contains 360 pages, is divided into 34 chapters, and has nine appendices, including: a complete listing of an honours, awards and recommendations together with the citation from the Gazette for each one; the honour roll; a diary of events; information on all officers; a complete nominal roll; an index to photographs of individuals; and dates of death of a large number of those who survived the war. The book is a remarkable memorial to the men of the 50th Battalion. It captures the camaraderie, humour, bravery , suffering and personal feelings of the members of the Battalion like no other battalion history has done, notwithstanding that it was written over 70 years after its disbandment. However, it is unlike many other battalion histories, in that the military action is not discussed at a strategic level in any detail, but appears to rely almost entirely on personal accounts of the action. Nevertheless, to supply such strategic detail possibly would be to merely repeat what has already been done by CEW Bean. The book deserves to be on the shelf of every South Australian -the 50th being one of three Ist AlF battalions composed almost entirely of South Australians (the lOth and 27th were the others, their histories were written shortly after the war) -and every military historian who already knows the strategic history but who wants to obtain several different personal perspectives on particular battles in which the 50th Battalion participated, or obtain details on some of the famous personalities in the Battalion, e.g. Lt Col NM Loutit DSO & Bar, and Lt Col AG Salisbury DSO & Bar, CMG, Legion of Honour, and Cpl JC Jensen VC.

"I see what you mean" and Steve's more recent program and series "Info Active" should be an essential acquisitions for teachers of our young children. He is able to take complex ideas of visual literacy and oral communication through factual texts and present them simply for the teacher to integrate them into key learning areas. Brilliant in all regards, but it needs a good look at, particularily the teacher backup. Unfortunately teachers haven't always got the time.

This is a quiet, contemplative book. There's not a lot of "action" and nothing blows up, which I found rather restful. The hero, Wirrun, sees the world through a traditional Aborigine viewpoint, and the book does a good job of portraying how different his world is from that of the white people who interact with him. A wealth of detail and some nice plot twists near the end kept up my interest, and by the end of the book I felt I was starting to get a "feel" for the way Wirrun thinks.

Those who love C.J. Cherryh's detailed portrayals of alien societies should love Patricia Wrightson's portrayal of a society equally "alien" to many "modern" readers, but much closer to home.