Although there are several biographies of big game fishing bestselling American author Zane Grey, none of them focus on his two visits to Australia.

 

Author Vicki Hastrich is also a fishing enthusiast, so when she came across Zane Grey by accident, her interest was piqued. How had this handsome athletic man become the world’s first millionaire author? And why did he leave the US to set up camp on the south coast of NSW with a large entourage, generating massive public and media interest?

 

The Last Days of Zane Grey documents a man with a complex temperament driven by a larger than life appetite for the chase - of big game fish at sea, and of women on land. With a flair for hyperbole and self-promotion that was ahead of his time, Grey is part Hollywood, part Hemingway.

 

Hastrich’s lively and entertaining biography sparkles with prose that brings the ocean to shimmering life on the page while also capturing almost farcical moments of mishap involving a fake shark.

Although there are several biographies of big game fishing bestselling American author Zane Grey, none of them focus on his two visits to Australia.
&nbsp;
Author Vicki Hastrich is also a fishing enthusiast, so when she came across Zane Grey by accident, her interest was piqued. How had this handsome athletic man become the world&rsquo;s first millionaire author? And why did he leave the US to set up camp on the south coast of NSW with a large entourage, generating massive public and media interest?
&nbsp;
The Last Days of Zane Grey documents a man with a complex temperament driven by a larger than life appetite for the chase - of big game fish at sea, and of women on land. With a flair for hyperbole and self-promotion that was ahead of his time, Grey is part Hollywood, part Hemingway.
&nbsp;
Hastrich&rsquo;s lively and entertaining biography sparkles with prose that brings the ocean to shimmering life on the page while also capturing almost farcical moments of mishap involving a fake shark.

What is the secret to writing a really juicy biography? Author Caroline Baum interviews seasoned players and persistent newcomers who share their experience of navigating sensitive territory in the search for the real story behind a person’s life. Whether they are writing about the famous or the forgotten, whether their version of events is authorised or
unauthorised, biography is a high-stakes quest full of twists and turns.

What is the secret to writing a really juicy biography? Author Caroline Baum interviews seasoned players and persistent newcomers who share their experience of navigating sensitive territory in the search for the real story behind a person&rsquo;s life. Whether they are writing about the famous or the forgotten, whether their version of events is authorised or unauthorised, biography is a high-stakes quest full of twists and turns.

Life Sentences Podcast

What is the secret to writing a really juicy biography? Author Caroline Baum interviews seasoned players and persistent newcomers who share their experience of navigating sensitive territory in the search for the real story behind a person’s life. Whether they are writing about the famous or the forgotten, whether their version of events is authorised or unauthorised, biography is a high-stakes quest full of twists and turns.

What is the secret to writing a really juicy biography? Author Caroline Baum interviews seasoned players and persistent newcomers who share their experience of navigating sensitive territory in the search for the real story behind a person&rsquo;s life. Whether they are writing about the famous or the forgotten, whether their version of events is authorised or unauthorised, biography is a high-stakes quest full of twists and turns.

Life Sentences

Big Fish

Fearless Beatrice Faust is an overdue biography of a significant reformist force in the women’s liberation movement of the 60s and 70s in Australia.

 

Written by political scholar Dr Judith Brett, this lively biography returns Bea to the prominence she once enjoyed as a controversial media figure and activist, primarily championing abortion rights. But it also explores the shadows in her life; including her struggles with her mental and physical health, and her lifelong fascination with all aspects of human sexuality, including her own, which she regarded as androgynous. When it came to Bea Faust, nothing was taboo; her contemporary Helen Garner declared she was not afraid of anything, and this book certainly confirms that fearlessness and curiosity were key aspects of her intellect.

Fearless Beatrice Faust is an overdue biography of a significant reformist force in the women&rsquo;s liberation movement of the 60s and 70s in Australia.
&nbsp;
Written by political scholar Dr Judith Brett, this lively biography returns Bea to the prominence she once enjoyed as a controversial media figure and activist, primarily championing abortion rights. But it also explores the shadows in her life; including her struggles with her mental and physical health, and her lifelong fascination with all aspects of human sexuality, including her own, which she regarded as androgynous. When it came to Bea Faust, nothing was taboo; her contemporary Helen Garner declared she was not afraid of anything, and this book certainly confirms that fearlessness and curiosity were key aspects of her intellect.

Fearless

American film critic Carrie Rickey has written the first biography of celebrated French cinema pioneer, Agnes Varda.

 

Varda was born in Belgium but found her creative community in the southern French port town of Sete, which cemented her love for the beach and for many other things that would reappear in her films, especially the ordinary lives of working people. She once said that if you opened her up, you would find beaches inside her.

 

After studying art she became a photographer, tutored by Georges Brassaï. When she turned her attention to film, she became the only female member of the so called Nouvelle Vague or New Wave in French cinema, alongside Francois Truffaut, Jean Luc Godard, Alain Resnais and Eric Rohmer.

 

Defying categorisation she made both feature films and documentaries, zig zagging between the two, following her curiosity wherever it led for more than sixty years. Her marriage to fellow film-maker Jacques Demy was unconventional in that both were bi-sexual, but their love was enduring.

 

Varda received an honorary Oscar and an honorary Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. She died in 2019 at the age of 90, of cancer. She remains a revered figure in world cinema, admired by directors and audiences alike, more popular than in her lifetime.

 

Biographer Carrie Rickey is an American film critic met Varda on several occasions informally at film festivals but never discussed the possibility of writing her biography. Her book A Complicated Passion: The Life and Work of Agnes Varda was written without the co-operation of Varda’s family but with the help of many of her collaborators and friends.

American film critic Carrie Rickey has written the first biography of celebrated French cinema pioneer, Agnes Varda.
&nbsp;
Varda was born in Belgium but found her creative community in the southern French port town of Sete, which cemented her love for the beach and for many other things that would reappear in her films, especially the ordinary lives of working people. She once said that if you opened her up, you would find beaches inside her.
&nbsp;
After studying art she became a photographer, tutored by Georges Brassa&iuml;. When she turned her attention to film, she became the only female member of the so called Nouvelle Vague or New Wave in French cinema, alongside Francois Truffaut, Jean Luc Godard, Alain Resnais and Eric Rohmer.
&nbsp;
Defying categorisation she made both feature films and documentaries, zig zagging between the two, following her curiosity wherever it led for more than sixty years. Her marriage to fellow film-maker Jacques Demy was unconventional in that both were bi-sexual, but their love was enduring.
&nbsp;
Varda received an honorary Oscar and an honorary Palme D&rsquo;Or at the Cannes Film Festival. She died in 2019 at the age of 90, of cancer. She remains a revered figure in world cinema, admired by directors and audiences alike, more popular than in her lifetime.
&nbsp;
Biographer Carrie Rickey is an American film critic met Varda on several occasions informally at film festivals but never discussed the possibility of writing her biography. Her book A Complicated Passion: The Life and Work of Agnes Varda was written without the co-operation of Varda&rsquo;s family but with the help of many of her collaborators and friends.

French Wave

The Bravest Scout at Gallipoli is a fascinating biographical investigation into the life of Harry Freame - a half Australian, half Japanese military Scout who defied the odds at the front in some of the most vicious fighting of World War One. Some believe he deserved the VC for his bravery but was denied because of being partly Asian.

 

After the war Harry faces a new challenge: becoming a soldier settler and orchardist. This proves to be harder than war, while his family life is messy and puzzling. Much later, at an age when many would be contemplating retirement, he is recruited into Australian intelligence, but totally unprepared for the role. His cause of death is disputed and he is denied a military headstone.

 

When he discovers this final injustice, author Ryan Butta becomes indignant and goes beyond the role of biographer to intervene on behalf of Harry and those like him who never got the acknowledgement they deserved.

The Bravest Scout at Gallipoli is a fascinating biographical investigation into the life of Harry Freame - a half Australian, half Japanese military Scout who defied the odds at the front in some of the most vicious fighting of World War One. Some believe he deserved the VC for his bravery but was denied because of being partly Asian.
&nbsp;
After the war Harry faces a new challenge: becoming a soldier settler and orchardist. This proves to be harder than war, while his family life is messy and puzzling. Much later, at an age when many would be contemplating retirement, he is recruited into Australian intelligence, but totally unprepared for the role. His cause of death is disputed and he is&nbsp;denied a military headstone.
&nbsp;
When he discovers this final injustice, author Ryan Butta becomes indignant and goes beyond the role of biographer to intervene on behalf of Harry and those like him who never got the acknowledgement they deserved.

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