Robert Macklin

In 1858, 14-year-old Narcisse Pelletier sailed from Marseilles in the French trader Saint-Paul. With a cargo of Bordeaux wine, they stopped in Bombay, then Hong Kong, and from there they set sail with more than 300 Chinese prospectors bound for the goldfields of Ballarat and Bendigo. Around the eastern tip of New Guinea, however, the ship became engulfed in fog, struck reefs and ran aground. Scrambling aboard a longboat, the survivors undertook a perilous voyage, crossing almost 1000 kilometres of the Coral Sea before reaching the shores of the Daintree region in far north Queensland, where, abandoned by his shipmates and left for dead, Narcisse was rescued by the local Aboriginal people. For seventeen years he lived with them, growing to manhood and participating fully in their world - until in 1875 he was discovered by the crew of a pearling lugger and wrenched from his Aboriginal family. Taken back to his 'real' life in France, he became a lighthouse keeper, married and had another family, all the while dreaming of what he had left behind... Drawing from firsthand interviews with Narcisse after his return to France and other contemporary accounts of exploration and survival, and documenting the spread of European settlement in Queensland and the brutal frontier wars that followed, Robert Macklin weaves an unforgettable tale of a young man caught between two cultures in a time of transformation and upheaval.

The extraordinary survival story of Narcisse Pelletier, a young French cabin boy shipwrecked on Cape York in 1858

Castaway

In this book, high-profile Australians including childrens author Mem Fox, comedian Anh Do, retired Chief Justice Michael Kirby, broadcaster Alan Jones and The Chasers Julian Morrow, along with contributors from all walks of life, share very personal stories of their favourite teachers.

My Favourite Teacher

The Battle of Brisbane

Rob Maylor

A gritty, no-holds-barred, behind-the-scenes memoir of life as one of the world's top snipers Sniper Elite takes readers inside the closed world of the elite Special Forces sniper, detailing the dark art of sniping and touching on the history of the world's greatest marksmen. As one of Australia's most highly trained and successful combat marksmen, Rob Maylor tells the story of his years on the front lines, from his early service with the Royal Marines in Northern Ireland to action in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he was involved in some of the heaviest fighting in the conflict. He also chronicles his near-death experience in a Blackhawk helicopter that crashed off Fiji, killing two of his friends, and how he would walk for hours, sometimes days, through hostile country until he found the right position. Then, when the moment was right, he aimed-and with absolute precision, put the bullet just where it was going to have the most effect. Filled with dark humor and the almost-religious sense of brotherhood within such an exclusive group of warriors, this is an explosive and revealing combat memoir-and an inside look at the shadowy world of the modern sniper. "Maylor toured the world, enduring surprisingly grueling exercises from the Arctic to the jungle...training, horseplay and nuts-and-bolts military minutiae along with the usual fireworks." -Kirkus Reviews

The World of a Top Special Forces Marksman

Sniper Elite

Peter Thompson

'Morrison was the first Australian to break into Fleet Street's elite corps of foreign correspondents. Everyone who followed owes him an enormous debt. He set the benchmark: courage, truthfulness and the need to be there, face to face. His amazing life, splendidly and succinctly told, is an inspiration. If Morrison has been largely forgotten, this book will change that forever.' - Phillip Knightley, author of The First Casualty, a history of war correspondents This is the compelling story of 'Chinese Morrison', who bestrode continents, helped bring down a dynasty and chronicled his times so brilliantly that he not only wrote history but changed it as well. In 1882, at the age of 19, George Ernest Morrison's strong sense of courage and devotion to reporting the truth led him to expose the Australian Kanaka slave trade. It marked the beginning of what was to be an illustrious career. In the decades that followed, Morrison achieved international fame for his work as a correspondent for the London Times in the decadent and dangerous Chinese capital of Peking, not least when he helped to organise the defence of the legations during the 55-day siege of the Boxer Uprising. Then, as adviser to the fledgling Chinese Government, he was a pivotal figure in the fall of the last Emperor and the birth of the Chinese Republic. Peter Thompson and Robert Macklin have written a powerful and gripping biography of an Australian journalist and adventurer who paused only to tell his stories and to plan his next foray among the great events and leading figures of his day.

The Life and Adventures of Morrison of China

The Man Who Died Twice is the compelling story of Morrison of Peking', who bestrode continents, helped bring down a dynasty and chronicled his times so brilliantly that he not only wrote history but changed it as well. George Ernest Morrison's strong sense of courage and devotion to reporting the truth led him, at only 20, to expose the Australian Kanaka slave trade. He then walked, alone and unaided, from the Gulf of Carpentaria to Melbourne only 21 years after explorers Burke and Wills had perished in the same endeavour. And in attempting the first crossing of New Guinea, he was almost killed in an ambush which left two spear tips embedded in his body. However, it was Morrison's work as a correspondent for the London Times in the decadent and dangerous Chinese capital at the turn of the century that brought him international fame, not least when he helped to organise the defence of the legations during the 55-day siege of the Boxer Uprising. Then, as adviser to the fledgling Chinese government, he was a pivotal figure in the fall of the last Emperor and the birth of the Chinese Republic. Peter Thompson and Robert Macklin have written a powerful and gripping biography of an Australian journalist and adventurer who paused only to tell his stories and to plan his next foray among the great events and leading figures of his day.

Robert Macklin

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