Non-Fiction Books
Lightning Meets The West The Malaita Massacre
A rollicking tale of ship life and the seductive charm of the Pacific Islands. Peter Corris uses his formidable storytelling skills to bring us the 'true story' surrounding famous mutineer Fletcher Christian and the mutiny on the Bounty. Sourced from mysterious journals obtained while researching his family ancestry.
Drawing on crime-scene photos, witness testimony, trial transcripts, and newspaper articles, this novel blends the author's imagination with a true crime case. William Cyril Moxley was hanged at Sydney’s Long Bay Gaol in 1932—the first execution in New South Wales in eight years. His crimes were the brutal rape and murder of 21-year-old Dorothy Ruth Denzel and the vicious beating and killing of her boyfriend, Frank Barnby Wilkinson. How did this World War I army deserter, small-time thief, con man, and police informer come to be the infamous murderer known as "Mad Dog" Moxley? Was it simply a robbery gone wrong? Did his blackouts and migraines stem from a head injury, as he claimed, or was Moxley the monstrous sociopath described by the prosecution and the tabloids? Answering these and many other questions, this suspenseful narrative reconstructs two murders from long ago.
This is the revealing, personal story of the man behind the controversial pro-euthanasia movement, told in his own words. Medical doctor, humanist, author and founder/director of Exit International, Philip Nitschke's life has always been in the spotlight. The books spans Philip's early days, from his curious, activist student days in Adelaide, to working with Aboriginal land rights groups in Australia's Far North; to his successful campaign to have euthanasia legalised in Australia and his assistance in four people ending their lives before the law was overturned. It covers the controversy surrounding Philip's work, including the banning in Australia of his international bestselling book The Peaceful Pill , and disturbing reports that many young people overdosed on Nembutal, the drug that Exit International recommends for suicide. Ultimately, Philip believes that the right to one's own death is as fundamental as the right to control one's own life: 'It seems we demand humans to live with indignity, pain and anguish whereas we are kinder to our pets when their suffering becomes too much.'