Stella Miles Franklin was born in the Australian bush and‚ at the age of twenty−one‚ became an international publishing sensation with My Brilliant Career. The book struck a chord with women and girls all over the country‚ and more than a century later is still regarded as an Australian classic.

"From the beginning, Hefner's personal experiences provided the stuff of his public career. The private man relentlessly pursued his dream of "personal, political, and economic freedom" and viewed his pursuit of fun not as immature, something critics often charged, but as a happy embodiment of childhood optimism in a cynical world.

From prize-winning journalist to chat show king on a show voted one of the top ten British TV programmes of all time, Michael Parkinson's starry career spans over four decades.

DAWN FRENCH is one of the greatest comedy actresses of our time, with a career that has spanned nearly three decades, encompassing a vast and brilliant array of characters. Loved for her irreverent humour, Dawn has achieved massive mainstream success while continuing to push boundaries and challenge stereotypes.

Although she started writing early in life it was not until her fifties that Elizabeth Jolley received the recognition her talent deserved. She won The Age Book of the Year Award on three occasions as well as the Miles Franklin Award. She has won the Western Australian Premier’s Prize for both fiction and non-fiction.

Moving quickly on from the devastating crash that nearly killed him he ranges widely over his life and times: a visit to Glastonbury with James May reminds of him of his early years of playing in a band and how and why he never quite made it as a rock star; the stunts and other perils that come his way like the Top Gear North Pole race (why is it Richard who is out in the howling elements in a dog

In this superb and distinctive memoir, Jim Sharman takes us on an epic personal journey from his childhood in his father's renowned boxing troupe, via the international success of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, to Los Angeles, Tokyo and London.

Just in time for the film, both parts of Persepolis in the one volume, Marjane Satrapi's brilliant memoir-in-comic-strips about growing up in Iran during and after the Islamic revolution.

Moving from the corridors of the Sorbonne and the chestnut groves in the Limousin, to the cafes of Paris' Left Bank, this book helps to discover how the strikingly beautiful and gifted young Simone came to fall in love with the squinting, arrogant, hard-drinking Jean-Paul.

Asian-Australians have often been written about by outsiders, as outsiders. In this collection, compiled by award-winning author Alice Pung, they tell their own stories with verve, courage and a large dose of humour. These are not predictable tales of food, festivals and traditional dress.