32 results for "Biography"

Don't stop believin'

Newton-John, Olivia
For more than five decades, Olivia Newton-John has been one of our most successful and adored entertainers. A four-time Grammy Award winner, she is one of the world's bestselling recording artists of all time, with more than 100 million albums sold. Her starring roles in the iconic movies Grease and Xanadu catapulted her into super-stardom. Her appeal as a performer is timeless. In addition to her music and screen successes, Olivia is perhaps best known for her strength, courage, and grace. After her own personal journeys with cancer, she has thrived and become an inspiration for millions around the world. A tireless advocate for countless charities, her true passion is as the founding champion of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre in her hometown of Melbourne, Australia. Olivia has always radiated joy, hope, and compassion--determined to be a force for good in the world. Now she is sharing her journey, from Melbourne schoolgirl to international superstar, in this deeply personal book. Warm, candid, and moving, Don't Stop Believin' is Olivia Newton-John's story in her own words for the very first time.
Gallery Books 2019-03-12 334 pages

Murdoch's world: the last of the old media empires

Folkenflik, David
"NPR's media correspondent delves into the most influential media company in the world, News Corporation, showing how Murdoch survived the corruption scandal that nearly tore it apart In July 2012, testifying before a British parliamentary inquiry about the News of the World telephone hacking scandal, Rupert Murdoch experienced what he called "the most humble day of my life." Murdoch seemed certain to lose control of the monolithic news company he had built from a single Australian daily. The drama was all the more remarkable because of his unrivaled political and cultural influence worldwide, through Britain's take-no-prisoners tabloids, the top-rated Fox News Channel, the New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal. Within months, Murdoch, bloodied but not bowed, reasserted his hold by splitting News Corp into two companies. The summer's stories of the jockeying among Murdoch's children and corporate lieutenants to succeed him were silenced; what promised to be the second half of King Lear never unfolded. News Corp marched on, its king aging but firmly on the throne. In Murdoch's World, David Folkenflik tells the story of how News Corp survived this tumultuous chapter, and of the man who makes the news, literally: Rupert Murdoch"--
PublicAffairs 2013-10-22 373 pages

Half deaf, completely mad: the chaotic genius of Australia's most legendary producer

Cohen, Tony,Olson, John (Producer-engineer)
The music and mayhem behind the seminal sounds of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Models, The Go-Betweens, Hunters & Collectors, Cold Chisel, The Saints, The Cruel Sea and so many more 'The most obsessive, single-minded character I've ever seen, outside of the mirror' -Nick Cave 'I first met Nick Cave ... at Richmond Recorders in January. I appeared shoeless, red-eyed and late. As usual. The grand piano was overflowing with bits of metal, microphone stands, anything that wasn't nailed down. "That should sound interesting," I said. It was the start of a great love affair.' Maverick music producer-engineer Tony Cohen defined Australia's punk and rock sounds in the late '70s, '80s and '90s. His long and celebrated career took him from the studios of Melbourne and Sydney to West Berlin and London's Abbey Road, working with innumerable bands up until his death in 2017. In candid reflections, Tony shares details of his decades-long relationship with Nick Cave (The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) and provides behind-the-scenes access to recordings by Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, Cat Stevens, Jim Keays, Lobby Loyde, The Ferrets, Split Enz, Laughing Clowns, Models, Magazine, The Reels, The Go-Betweens, Hunters & Collectors, Cold Chisel, Beasts of Bourbon, The Saints, X, Michael Hutchence, The Cruel Sea, TISM, Paul Kelly and so many more. Half Deaf, Completely Mad is a hilarious, tragic and triumphant memoir that reveals a chaotic genius who lived hard and LOUD.
Schwartz Books 2023 233 pages

Between the lines: my story uncut

Donovan, Jason
The ultimate Eighties heart-throb Jason Donovan came close to destroying his body, mind, soul and career with drugs. Never one to shy away from the truth, Jason writes candidly about Kylie and winning the battle with his demons in the paperback of his bestselling bombshell autobiography. Jason Donovan burst onto our TVs in the 80s as Scott Robinson from Neighbours, one half of TV couple Scott and Charlene with Kylie Minogue. Kylie and Jason became the celebrity couple of the eighties and released the number one Stock, Aitken and Waterman hit Especially For You in 1988. But behind the squeaky-clean popstar image was a man increasingly addicted to recreational drugs and on a spiralling downwards path until the love of a good woman pulled him through. His pop career launched, Jason went on to sell over 30 million records worldwide and appeared in West End musicals such as Joseph and His Technicolour Dreamcoat and, more recently, The Rocky Horror Show. But just as Jason reached the pinnacle of his career, everything collapsed around him. When Jason sued style magazine The Face for calling him gay, the press tore him apart. Years of binge drug taking and partying to excess followed. In his frank and honest account of his life, Jason talks candidly about the drugs that nearly saw the end of his career, about his relationship with the princess of pop, Kylie Minogue, and how he finally got his own very happy ending with the woman who saved him, his partner Angela and their two children.
HarperCollins 2008-07 292 pages

Enough rope with Andrew Denton

Denton, Andrew
By the end of its first season, Enough Ropeproved itself to be intelligent, provocative, must-see TV. Every Monday evening, one million viewers tuned in to see Andrew Denton conduct fascinating interviews with an eclectic range of individuals that included celebrities, politicians, activists, artists and unsung 'ordinary' people with their own compelling stories to tell. He has an uncanny knack of engaging his guests in an engrossing conversation and encouraging them to reveal themselves in unexpected ways.Enough Ropecontains highlights from this year's most talked-about talk show. Come and relive some of Andrew's most stimulating conversations with some remarkable individuals including Russell Crow, Jim Carrey, Helen Caldicott, Rene Rivkin, Rebecca Gibney, the Wiggles, Molly Meldrum, Paul Hogan, Gina Riley and Jane Turner, and the removalists, truckies and fisherman who also found themselves on the show. Andrew Denton adds his own views on why each guest was chosen and how the interview proceeded.
ABC Books 2003 273 pages

Alva's boy

Collins, Alan
"This book is a frank, confronting yet surprisingly funny memoir based on the life experiences and recollections of a Jewish childhood over a time span from 1928 to the mid-forties. In some telling, names of people, places and dates have been changed. Mercifully, those named who are or were of a repellent nature have long since gone to God. The stories present incidents from the life of one person, the first-person narrator. The memoir is purposely unsentimental. The writer has worked hard to circumvent cheap emotion. Some readers might find it confronting. The linked stories encompass a childs unsparingly honest observations as he is buffeted by events which range from indifference and naked cruelty to sparkling life-affirming exuberance."--Provided by publisher.
Hybrid Publishers 2008 180 pages

Unrequited love: diary of an accidental activist

Altman, Dennis
Dennis Altman first travelled from Australia to the United States when Lyndon Johnson was President, beginning a long obsession with the US. In the early 1970s he was involved in New York Gay Liberation; his 1971 study Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation, is widely regarded as a classic work in its field. In the 1980s Altman lived in San Francisco during the onset of the AIDS epidemic. Later he sat on the Australian National Council on AIDS and international organisations including, as president, the AIDS Society of Asia and the Pacific. The election of Donald Trump took place while Altman was back in California on one of his frequent visits. In this diarised memoir, moving between Australia, the United States, Europe and parts of Asia, Gore Vidal, James Baldwin, Susan Sontag, Christopher Isherwood and many others people a story of a half century of activism, intellectualism, friendship and conflict.
Monash University Publishing 2019 231 pages

My animated life: the story of how I survived the German occupation to become Australia's legendary animation filmmaker

Gross, Yoram
Yoram Gross' recollections of his life, told simply and directly, cannot be read without emotion. This is the story of a youth who was forced to grow up during the Nazi occupation of his country, Poland. The book also recounts his life in Australia as an animator of such film classics as "Blinky Bill" and "Dot and the Kangaroo."
Brandl & Schlesinger 2011 227 pages

Many paths to peace: the political memoirs of Norman Rothfield

Rothfield, Norman
Autobiography of this notable peace campaigner, focusing on his political and social activities. Discusses his work to foster peace in the Middle East and his involvement with many organisations working in the interests of peace and social justice, such as the Jewish Council to Combat Fascism and Anti-Semitism. Gives an account of his interactions with many political leaders and also provides a record of post-war left-wing political movements in Australia. Includes index. The author is the founder of the journal 'Paths to Peace'.
Yarraford Publications 1997 213 pages

Sunrise west

Rosenberg, Yaakov ben Gershon
Navigating between the two worlds of wartime experiences in Europe and new life in Australia, this moving memoir of & a Holocaust & survivor is & imbued with an element of fiction. This deeply personal narrative travels from darkness to hope as the author loses his family at Auschwitz, spends the war in concentration camps, and ultimately emigrates to Australia with his wife, leading to an eventual restoration that remains colored by a tragic past.
Brandl & Schlesinger 2007 194 pages

Chasing asylum

Orner, Eva
Filmmaker Eva Orner takes us on a personal, gripping and compelling journey to show us how she came to make her documentary about Australia's asylum seeker policies. ' My work as a filmmaker has taken me to some wild, dangerous places ... It's been a crazy, nomadic kind of life, taking me to conflict zones and desperately poor, chaotic, unstable countries. I've been sick, injured, scared and had too many close calls to mention. I spend a lot of time alone, in airports, lugging camera gear, gazing up at flickering departure boards.' But I love it. I love the feeling I get when I am heading into the unknown.' Angry and frustrated with Australia's asylum seeker and refugee policies, Eva Orner, Academy Award®-winning filmmaker, returned home after a decade living in the States to make the documentary Chasing Asylum about the issue. Embarking on a tumultuous eighteen months, Eva travelled to Indonesia, Cambodia, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iran, spending time with and filming asylum seekers, as well as interviewing politicians, activists and commentators including David Marr and Malcolm Fraser. She smuggled a pen camera into an Indonesian jail to interview a convicted people smuggler, she talked to whistle blowers in Australia, and in Iran she met with the family of the man killed in the Manus Island riot. Chasing Asylum is a compelling insight into a filmmaker's journey, and a very personal story of the cost, risks and rewards of putting yourself on the line for a film and for a cause. The Guardian writes of the film Chasing Asylum: 'The full, muscular weight of the feature documentary format has finally tackled the subject with Chasing Asylum, a viscerally intense expose given gravitas by Academy and Emmy award-winning film-maker Eva Orner ... not just successful, but awfully and unforgettably effective: vital, evocative and gut-wrenching.' 'Eva Orner is no stranger to bravery ... she manifests this steadfastness in relating story after story where pain, violence and horror frame her narrative, interspersed by accounts of the daily life of a filmmaker ... Orner is brave not just emotionally, but also physically, risking imprisonment, illness and violence to uncover the stories of those who have sought refuge ... It is a story that must be told.' Sydney Morning Herald
HarperCollins Publishers 2016 293 pages

Book of life

Conway, Deborah (Singer)
" A no-holds-barred memoir that charts the rise and fall - and rise - of one of Australia's most iconic music performers. You think you know Deborah Conway? You think seeing her striding and scowling down Sydney's back streets in an oversize coat or galavanting around a golf course wearing a close approximation of plus fours means you know who Deborah Conway is? She figures you probably don't know the half of it. And there's a lot to know. If you have listened to any of Deborah Conway's songs and were half curious about the origins; if you have ever wondered whatever happened to that chick who covered herself in Nutella and was photographed shovelling cream cakes in to her mouth; if you gave a nanosecond of thought to whose bare arse adorned the giant Billboard ads for Bluegrass jeans in the 1980's and how much someone could get paid to do that; if you liked Tracey Mann's vocals in The Takeaways but asked yourself, ""did she really sing them?""; if you were a movie buff who thought Running On Empty was a classic BEFORE it became a cult phenomenon and need behind the scenes gossip, now's your chance to find out all this and so much more. Conway pulls back the curtain on the fevered world of a 1980's post punk band, the spectacular rise and fall and rise of one of the more obstreperous women working inside Australia's music industry, a woman who has straddled the high arts and the low without losing her footing or her mind and whose fierce independence has seen her produce her best work. Book Of Life : the good, the bad, and the ugly of being alive in the 20th and 21st centuries from the vantage point of a music insider (and outsider) with a deep need to tell the truth about it all. "
Allen & Unwin 2023 400 pages

My life as a Jew

Gawenda, Michael
Born in a displaced persons' camp two years after the end of the Holocaust, Michael Gawenda spent his childhood and teenage years in a left-wing non-Zionist Jewish youth group in Melbourne. This shaped the sort of Jew he became - a secular Jew who loved the Yiddish language and Yiddish culture. Gawenda went on to become a public figure during his 40 years as a journalist, including his role as editor-in-chief of The Age - the only Jewish editor-in-chief in the newspaper's history. Throughout this time, and since, he became dismayed and pained by the growing hostility of the left to Israel and to Jews like him who were not prepared to declare themselves as anti-Zionists. This has also forced him to examine his own Jewish identity and his relationships with his Jewish friends, and to forensically examine the basis of the critiques of Israel. At a time of rising anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, My Life as a Jew is a controversial book. It is also a vital book. It should be read by activists for Israel and Zionism, as well as for the Palestinians. It should be read by readers of all political stripes. It should be read by journalists, as it is in part about journalism and its failings. And it should also be read by people interested in the remarkable life and career of its author, Michael Gawenda.
Scribe Publications 2023 277 pages