Previews - Autobiography
Sylwetki
Author: Feliks Pisarewski
ISBN: 0 949 873 61 6
Publisher: Hudson Publishing
Address: PO Box 537, Hawthorn, Vic, 3122
Written and published in Polish.
Michael Kelly - A Peaceful Man
Author: John J Kelly
ISBN: 0 646 29688 4
Publisher: John J Kelly
Address: 11 Verletta Avenue, Castle Hills, NSW, 2154
A genealogical record of the descendants of Michael William Kelly and
his wife Susannah Ireland.
Michael Kelly was born in 1806 at Athione, County Roscommon, Ireland. Arriving
in Australia in 1831 as a convict serving a seven year sentence for violent
assault, Michael Kelly was to be remembered in the Illawarra district as
"a quiet and unpretentious man of a most peaceable disposition."
His wife Susannah Ireland, was born around 1814 in County Galway, Ireland,
and arrived in Australia as a free woman, living firstly and briefly in
Tasmania. They were to have eight children, many of whom were to take up
farming on the New South Wales South Coast.
This record includes nearly 900 members of the Kelly family and will be
a valuable document for many tracing their family links.
Milton Memories & Other Writings
Author: Bert Bishop
ISBN: 0 646 28284 0
Publisher: Brynwood House
Address: 88 Deepwater Road, Castle Cove, NSW,2069
Compiled posthumously by the daughter of the author, this collection of
stories tells of a lifelong joy of writing and love of the Milton area.
While some have been previously published, many are stories that were found
only after the death of author. They include some of the author's earliest
writings as a prize winning child writer through to beautifully constructed
short stories of the war and its aftermath.
Bishop's writing about war is compelling in its simplicity. Stories that
tell of the smallness, the awesomeness, the tragedy and waste of war, they
bring together what it meant for those left at home as well as for those
who had to take an active role.
"Girls Were My Jury" explores the horror of having to decide to
take someone's life. The author writes his thanks for a parcel of socks
to a schoolgirl back home and thus starts a correspondence one side of which
is regularly read to the class. Returning after the war, he is invited to
address the school at assembly, a prospect almost as daunting as the battle
field in his mind. Not knowing how to approach this ordeal, he settles for
telling of a night on sentry duty when he did not kill a German, and invites
the collected girls to vote on whether he did the right thing.
"My Pal Peter" is a moving tribute to a friend who at the time
of his death of war wounds seemed to be just there to help ensure his mate
did not also die in a boating accident. Maybe just maybe, Pete, freed of
his earthly bondage did make a quick trip back to his beloved Narrawallee.
As the author concludes, "Who knows? Sometime, somewhere, I may be
able to ask him." And maybe he now knows the answer.
"Smivvy's 'Teef'" is typical of the humour that runs through most
of the work and again, is an excellent example of the way the author is
able to find in a small illustration a way to show the reader the broader
landscape of war.
The vignettes that comprise the piece, "Easter Sunday in the War Museum"
typify the understatement and the perception that identifies this author's
writing. It demonstrates why those who have never had first hand knowledge
of war would do well to inquire and thus understand, even if just a little,
how it shaped the lives of millions and millions of people and, in various
arenas around the world, continues to do so.
The Prisoner
Author: Doris V Allsop
ISBN: 0 646 28123 2
Publisher: Doris V Allsop
Address: 4/16 Wattle Ave, Glen Huntley, Vic, 3163
An autobiography, this bleak story starts as a story full of happiness
and promise for a bright future. However, the author's unhappy marriage
has left a mark of terrible dimensions that have affected her life ever
since.
For the author, the legacy of the war was a marriage that bore the brunt
of local prejudice and bigotry. Meeting her husband, Emil during the war
at an army camp party, she was to learn he was a Czech who came from a town
some 90km from Prague in German Sudetenland and, along with many other prisoners
of war, was unable to return home. He had been training as a dentist but
with outbreak of war was conscripted into the German army to end up as a
prisoner of war in England.
Although fond of him, it seems it was more concern for him than love that
resulted in her accepting his marriage proposal. And from thereon the unexpected
animosity she encountered from both friends and relations began to take
its toll.
A tragic story of someone who increasingly saw herself not only as a victim
but as someone continually victimised, "The Prisoner" is a disturbing
read.
A Knockabout Sort of Fellow
Author: Mervin Lynam
ISBN: 0 646 26977 1
Publisher: Mervin Lynam
Address: C/- PO Cracow, Qld, 4719
"Being the random reminiscences of Bunny Lynam, soldier, sailor,
fighter, diver, rabbiter, shearer, station hand, roo shooter, factory worker,
navvy, grazier and milestone inspector.
"Who while making no claim to having led a very good, moral, temperate,
or even sensible life, has still managed to grow old without repudiating
a debt, going back on a mate, or betraying a friend or dog."
In writing of these books, one of the pleasures is the opportunity to select
an author to interview each month. By the end of this book, I was determined
to meet the author. Not only did I want to meet him, I wanted my children
to meet him. On the penultimate page I wondered why this autobiography ended
in 1986. My anticipation at travelling to Cracow (wherever it is in Queensland)
turned to disappointment and sadness when I turned the page to learn the
work had been published posthumously.
Bunny Lynam could be described by some as a battler, a survivor, a conservationist,
a working class struggler, an environmentalist, an egalitarian, a champion
of equal rights and opportunities, a jack of all trades and master of most.
Taking some of his writing at face value, those who support political correctness
could call him a bigot, a racist, a sexist, a philistine, the victim of
abuse as a child (at the hands of his mother), the victim of neglect (at
the hands of his father), but they would be wrong. They would be the people
who read the words and terminology without understanding the openness and
generosity of spirit that underpins the person who has been educated in
the university of life, the person who uses words as tools not weapons.
Lynam never saw himself as a victim. So his upbringing could not result
in a damaged person despite the circumstantial evidence.
He is the iconic Australian male. The one we hear about but now doubt ever
existed. We think today this person is just a myth. Bunny Lynam is real.
He is best described in his own words, those words quoted above.
He may be many things. A writer of great literature he is not. A story-teller
he most certainly is. His story is worth reading.
All Around the World in Eighty Years
Author: Cedric E Gregory
ISBN: 0 646 26974 7
Publisher: Cedric Gregory
Address: 30 Wiangaree Drive, Toowoomba, Qld, 4350
The story of a man who at fourteen had never heard of high school, let alone
knew what it was, but nonetheless after a career as a mining engineer became
an Emeritus Professor, travelling through, living and working in 129 different
countries.
Gregory's first career was as a camel driver at the age of thirteen having
completed his education at the local school at Oodnadatta, a town described
as a "dead end in the middle of nowhere", in the Dead Heart of
Australia in the desert country of the far north of South Australia.
Unaware that most of the rest of Australia considered Oodnadatta as the
back of beyond, this nation's answer to Timbuctoo, Gregory had a pleasant
and uncomplicated upbringing. After leaving school, a subsequent teacher
went back through his records and suggested he would be better served going
to high school than driving camels.
And so it was off to Adelaide where he boarded with friends and relations
throughout his schooling. His future was decided and it was to mining that
he turned.
Growing up in a place like Oodnadatta meant that for Gregory working as
a mining engineer in places like Cue, Mount Magnet and Norseman in the 1930s
was taken in his stride. The Mt Isa of the thirties was simply a challenge
to introduce trees, lawns and social activities. Broken Hill was civilisation.
And it was in this New South Wales mining town that Gregory was to meet
his wife.
From one remote and challenging place to another, Gregory spent 1938 to
1940 in charge of New Guinea Goldfields. The mountainous rain soaked country
presented very different problems.
Enlisting in the services, he was to spend most of the war in frustration
moving from one camp to another within Australia but with the end of the
war served in various Engineering Units operating in Indonesia and Borneo
fulfilling various requirements of the terms of the surrender.
A post-war career primarily in secondary industry was cut short by an horrendous
accident in which he was badly burned by phosphorus and not expected to
live. He did, but his hands never fully recovered.
Two years of convalescence followed during which Gregory determined not
to become an invalid returned to university and studied for his Bachelor
of Economics.
Efforts to secure a job however proved frustrating and unsuccessful. Too
qualified for some, another position was finally not granted to him, Gregory
being told ". . . they have finally decided against your appointment
because it would not be nice for their clients to shake hands with the GM
with hands like yours."
Without a useful pair of hands, he was reduced to earning a living with
his mouth. Gregory decided his options were becoming a cleric, an auctioneer,
a politician or university don.
Believing a cleric was not in his line, and with no opportunities coming
his way as an auctioneer, Gregory dabbled with politics. After coming third
in a preselection ballot, he turned his attentions to universities. An appointment
as a Senior Lecturer in Mining Engineering at the University of Queensland
was to lead ultimately to a professorship in the United States and then
in Saudi Arabia.
An interesting and full life, Gregory has been passionate about travelling
and it is with travelling that the book is mainly concerned, especially
from the sixties onwards.
For me, the most interesting material is not the holiday travelling but
reading of his life in mining - the boy from Ooodnadatta who made it to
Emeritus Professor.
Perpetuum Mobile
Author: Bozena Samankova
ISBN: 0 646 26508 3
Publisher: Bozena Samanlova
Address: PO Box 380, Petersham, NSW, 2049
The third in the author's trilogy, this autobiographical account covers
the difficulties of migrating to a new country.
Bozena Samanek presented herself to Czech readers in Sydney in 1991, when
she published her first novel "Utek z domova" (describing her
family's escape from Czechoslovakia). In her second book, "Andelske
schody", published in 1994, she returns to her childhood and to her
life as a young woman responsible for a family in the war years.
"Perpentuum mobile" is the closing part of the trilogy and describes
the difficult beginnings after arrival in Australia covering the story of
her family in this country.
Without A Rifle (and Without a Six-Gun)
Author: James F Gall
ISBN: 0 646 26522 9
Publisher: James F Gall
Address: 33 Taronga Parade, Caringbah, NSW, 2229
One young man's war, 1941 to 1946, and his later work as a Sheriff's
Officer, during which time he showed no success as a soldier nor as a Sheriff's
Officer and succeeded mostly in losing the best years of his youth.
However, as during the time covered by this autobiography the author met
and married his wife with whom he was to have six children, arguably he
may have lost his youth but gained quite a bit more.
The sequel to "The Boy from the Bay", this autobiography covers
the author's war years, a time spent in the Coastal Defence Forces as a
five bob a day chocko (chocolate) soldier, largely because his father didn't
want his son fighting any Pommy's war and it would be useful work defending
Australia against the enemy-elect who'd been given the metal to make their
war machines by Australia's own Prime Minister, Pig Iron Bob Menzies. It
also avoided having to take his chances in the ballot for compulsory enlistment.
But it didn't keep him out of war zones. Dispatched to Darwin, the author
saw out the bombings and air raids of 1942, ending up far too close for
comfort on a number of occasions. But without a gun. And without a gun he
was to remain for the rest of the war.
This was certainly a war spent without a gun and without the glory but in
the uniform nonetheless.
This autobiography concludes with a thumbnail sketch of life as a Sherrif's
Officer, mostly spent in outback New South Wales, where like the postman,
come rain, hail, shine, flood or guns at your head, the summons must be
delivered.
Along Life's Highway!
Author: Clifford Abdul
ISBN: 0 646 26140 1
Publisher: Clifford Abdul
Address: 8/33 Bekley Road, Campsie, NSW, 2194
Sixteen autobiographical short stories covering different periods of
the author's life ranging from his experiences as a child extra at Elstree
Studios to his years working in the Merchant Marine sailing around Asia
and Africa, watching torpedoes miss his ship in the Mediterranean, working
as a musician in England and later in Australia and as a more than reluctant
hitchhiker in a rain drenched America.
One of the most interesting stories tells of the local cinema manager, adored
by the young author. As his sister worked at the box office, he was the
recipient of free tickets. Also courtesy of the manager, he was the recipient
of free icecreams and lollies. But it was not for this alone the cinema
manager was so popular. During the increasingly regular bombings, his assurances
during screenings that all his customers would be safe in his cinema was
extemely comforting. Just why this man was able to offer this comfort with
such authority was something the townspeople were to discover to their dismay.
With an Indian father and an English mother, the author's looks ensured
him some work at Elstree during the heyday of Sabu - from "Elephant
Boy" on. His close encounter with Charles Laughton, was both terrifying
and memorable.
These sixteen short stories chart a life from England to Australia, years
in the Merchant Marine, the war, working as a musician and migration to
Australia.
What A Day for It
Author: Ronald Ince
ISBN: 0 646 25189 9
Publisher: Ronald Ince
Address: 33 Thornhill Drive, Forest Hill, Vic, 3131
Recommended Retail Price: $12.95
"What A Day for It" is the author's recollection of his early
life, growing up during the 1930s and 1940s in Liverpool, England, until
the age of eighteen.
Living through the depression and the war, Ince recalls the little details
that made up the day to day life of his childhood. He draws a picture that
will be familiar to many - from the playground, to street cricket matches,
pocket money, Saturdays at the cinema, to bombings and the evacuation and
rationing that followed, the many ways that the population of all ages contributed
to the war effort. An ordinary life lived in extraordinary times.
Enough Blue
Sky - the Autobiography of Mona Brand,
an Unknown Well-Known Playwright
Author: Mona Brand
ISBN: 0 646 25863 X
Publisher: Tawny Pipit Press
Address: 10 Little Surrey Street, Potts Point, NSW, 2011
That this should be a thoroughly enjoyable read will come only as a
surprise to those who are not familiar with Brand's skills as a playwright
- and as Brand would admit, as an unknown well-known playwright, that could
be a large number of people. If you are unfamiliar with her vast body of
work, then start here with her autobiography.
As Leslie Rees says in his foreward: "While it is set in a world of
political dissension and near-military East-West conflict - with roamings
in some unusual place - she writes with a style and an easy lucidity . .
. leavening hard facts with wit and anecdote is her way at the drop of a
comma".
By her twenties "her image crystallises as that of a person dismayed
by the injustices and deceits of the human world . . . Without any education
of a serious kind in Socialist thinking she found herself on paths leading
to the conviction that the only hope of an economically and sociologically
war-free future was through the growth and spread of the Soviet experiment
in government and that she, like many other young people of the time, must
work to that hope."
Working in Vietnam in the 1950s with her husband, Len Fox, Brand was early
to question how well this experiment was working in the USSR. Concerned
by the undercurrents of Ehrenburg's novel "The Thaw", she was
mildly prepared for the bombshell that arrived with Khrushchev's speech
delivered to the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union in 1956, in which he gave his now famous account of the atrocities
committed by Stalin during his regime.
What was almost as alarming to Brand was the way this speech was to be treated
as "secret" - crushed and discredited by Communists of the west.
Her concerns with the way in which Communism had developed in the USSR did
not, however, change her fundamental philosophies - a commitment to peace,
to a society not driven by greed, to equality of the distribution of income
and resources.
In Australia, Brand found that the very Australian concerns of the Australian
Communist Party enabled her to embrace its goals. Her years in Vietnam in
the 1950s had provided her with a background and an understanding of the
war that few in the west shared.
The Australian Communist Party's campaign to end conscription and withdraw
from the war was enthusiastically supported by Brand.
Her philosophies are manifest in all her work. Her plays, her important
role in the establishment and development of the New Theatre are all testimony
to her principles.
An insecure upbringing brought about by the nature of her father's work,
he was a marine engineer, and the death of her mother when Brand was a child,
was obviously, nonetheless, clearly influenced by the egalitarian principles
her father held dear. Always a man who enjoyed the company of fellow sailers,
as an officer he ignored rules that prohibited officers mixing with ratings
and was sacked from his position for fraternising with crew members. It
was this news that led tragically to his wife's death - the result of a
self administered abortion. With three children to raise and an unemployed
husband, she had felt another child too much to bear.
Moved from Sydney to Queensland and back, from the care of one set of relatives
to the next, and then to those who would take her as a boarder, it was a
difficult childhood. But rather than make her bitter, it seems only to have
made her stronger and more determined than ever to fight for a humane world.
Through her times as a copy writer to working at the BBC, visiting the USSR
as an invited guest of writers' organisations to working in Vietnam, and
then in Sydney, her life has been one that has been lived to the full.
The Great Unknown
Author: Peter Mitchell
ISBN: 0 646 26298 X
Publisher: Peter Mitchell
Address: 43 Baulkham Hills Road, Baulkham Hills, NSW, 2153
"The Great Unknown" is an autobiography in song. It comprises
this book and a triple Compact Disc set and has been produced by Ian Mitchell
and Peter Mitchell whose work together includes membership of several lyrical
rock bands in the eighties and nineties. This book is a collection of songs,
poems, drawings and stories by Peter Mitchell.
It briefly tells a story common to musicians based in a country where the
population base will not sustain a particularly large industry - where the
costs of promotion outweigh potential returns in the home population. This
story is not unique to the music industry - it is a tune often sung in the
film industry. However, unlike the film industry, the music industry with
its smaller budget requirements has not attracted the government support
of the film industry.
The dilemma is an ongoing one facing independent and major record companies
alike - how to capture a great live band and package them up appropriately
so they might take their place in the age of video rock. A dilemma solved
by relatively few bands - Midnight Oil, INXS, Hunters and Collectors are
the exception rather than the rule.
Mitchell's band, Captains of Industry, was not to enjoy the airwave space
captured by the few elite bands. A change in fire restrictions changed the
face of live music in pubs and caused the demise of many a good band.
As Mitchell says himself, "many of my problems in life are the bitter
fruits of this frustration. I have used it to excuse and justify all I have
become. It is time to lay it to rest."
In laying it to rest, he offers it to us, the readers.
In Search of a Home
Author: Nick Manning
ISBN: 0 646 26269 6
Publisher: Nick Manning
Address: 132 Bellevue Road, Bellevue Hill, NSW, 2023
A story of war and survival, "In Search of a Home" is Nick
Manning's account of his early years - years of poverty, hardship, war-time
occupation, imprisonment, civil war and finally peace and freedom, - "In
Search of a Home", is a journey from Greece to Australia.
A story of contrasts, Manning's life was lived for years from one extreme
to another - from food to practically no food, from a comfortable bedroom
to no shelter, from freedom to imprisonment.
A peaceful secure childhood changed forever on August 6, 1936, when General
Ioannis Metaxis seized power, ostensibly because of the threat posed to
Greece by the communists, a move supported by the King of Greece, King George
II. Manning's father was a highly principled newspaper editor. With his
left wing politics well known, he was an early target. Arrest and incarceration
followed. His father's refusal to sign a statement denouncing socialism
and pronouncing Metaxis the saviour of Greece was to become his death sentence.
From Manning's youthful viewpoint, his father had left because he didn't
want to be with his son, later revised to a view that it was Manning's behaviour
that had forced his father to leave.
It was not until 1944, in the Greek mountains fighting with the guerilla
ELAS forces, that Manning would meet someone who would cause him to think
of his father in another light. His father was never again to see freedom.
Incarcerated by countrymen he was executed by Nazis just before the end
of the war, in May 1944.
Thus Manning was thrust into a world of uncertainty, not to mention poverty,
some years before the outbreak of war and the occupation of Greece. War
saw him thrust into adulthood when he had barely reached puberty. His story
is one of pluck, determination and bravery. His mother's story is one of
courage and resilience.
Manning's resistance to the invasion and occupation of Greece led to an
alliance with the guerillas fighting the civil war in the mountains, an
attempted escape, imprisonment and an unfailing determination to find a
life of freedom, and a home, for his mother.
Reaching Sydney, Manning knew he had found that place. Joining him later,
his mother refused to leave until she had the security of an Australian
passport.
This personal story of a quest for freedom and peace is a sobering reminder
for all those who can read quietly in the free world of the value of what,
in the having, is so often taken for granted.
Massacre on the Baltic
Author: Eva Nagler
ISBN: 0 646 25670
Publisher: Eva Nagler
Address: 36/8 Church Street, Randwick, NSW, 2031
A personal account of the massacre on the Baltic, this book is far more
than a straightforward memoir of the Holocaust. A story of unspeakable tragedy,
horror and despair, it is also a story of triumph written by someone with
a breathtaking generosity of spirit and a ravenous will to survive and to
live.
With a deceptive simplicity of style, Eva Nagler is able to allow the reader
access to a young life lived in the Holocaust. It is a fitting tribute to
those who did not survive written with evident love for and understanding
of those who died.
But it is the lack of bitterness and the genuine regard for humanity and
its potential that marks out this work. With Nagler's relentless determination
to see all human beings for who they are as individuals, her lack of bigotry
and hatred, "Massacre on the Baltic" is an eloquent statement
for peace and understanding. Despite the almost unbelievable horror that
is the crux of her story, this is more than a recording of despair, it is
a work of hope and triumph of the human spirit.
The youngest of five children, Eva Nagler was to lose both parents, two
sisters and one brother before World War II was over. Her mother's only
two brothers left Poland long before the war for Australia, and thus Eva
was to eventually settle in this country. Of the 300 members of the extended
family living in Poland at the time of the war, Eva and her brother were
the only two to survive and it was to be eight years after the declaration
of peace before they were reunited.
Spending most of the war in the ghetto in Lodz where her father died of
TB, Eva was deported to Auschwitz with her mother, aunt and sister. Surviving
Auschwitz, they were moved first to the camp at Stutthof. Stutthof was to
be where her mother died. Sonia, her adored sister, and Eva were sent to
Schipppenbeil, which they survived. And the two girls survived the death
march that followed. But Sonia was to be mown down at the massacre beside
the Baltic. Eva was one of only a handful of thousands to survive the slaughter,
left for dead.
Her indomitable spirit, her will to live and the help given her occassionally
by strangers saw her survive under a pseudonyn, acquiring false papers and
working alongside prisoners of war from all over Europe as a nursing assistant.
Surviving endless bombing raids, Eva was finally to see Liberation Day.
And through it all emerge the stories of wonderful people who provide the
basis for a reason to live. Many of whom died having lived in appalling
conditions - her mother, and her sister in particular. Clearly their generosity,
humanity and courage were instrumental in Eva's survival.
My Three Loyalties
Author: Arnold Samuelson
ISBN: 0 646 26082 0
Publisher: Arnold Samuelson
Address: 23A/33 Bernard Road, Padstow Heights, NSW, 2211
The author's memoirs of a long life lived in three cultures in three
nations - Israel, England and Australia. The author sets out his intention
with this memoir succinctly in the preface:
"I titled this book "My Three Loyalties" because
I wanted to show just as a man can love his parents, his wife and children
in three different ways and be loyal to them, so can a man be loyal to three
different countries and love them for different reasons and be loyal to
them."
In three sections, the first deals with Samuelson's life in Palestine, now
Israel, and covers his first twenty one years from 1906 to 1927.
The second chapter covers the next two decades, spent in England, during
which time Samuelson fell in love, with the country and with his wife.
The final chapter covers the forty seven years spent thus far in Australia.
An extremely adaptable person, Samuelson has lived happily in these three
countries and worked happily in a vast array of professions, working for
others and for himself, in situations as varied as banking, travel, hairdressing,
import and export, retail, and real estate.
From Two Hells
Author: Lita Nadel
ISBN: 0 646 25028 0
Publisher: Lita Nadel
Address: 1/4 Marathon Road, Darling Point, NSW, 2037
On the night of April 13, 1940, the political police arrived at the
home of Lita Nadel and her mother in Lvov, Poland. Packed like cattle into
a wagon, after 18 days travelling, they arrived homeless somewhere in Russia's
winter. "From Two Hells" is Lita Nadel's autobiography, relating
her life with her mother through this extraordinary time in history.
The story begins in September 1939 at the point when Lita was robbed of
her worry-free existence and her life enjoying the pleasures lovingly bestowed
on her as an only child in an upper class comfortable Polish Jewish home.
Lita was to lose her father, drafted into the army and subsequently massacred
along with many other Polish officers in the forests of Katyn. It was her
extraordinary mother who was responsible for seeing young Lita survive.
As Lita herself says: "My achievements in this story are nil. It's
true I lived through it, but I had a wonderful, enterprising, energetic
and obviously very daring mother. Our triumph over death was her achievement
and her miracle; I only gave her the reason to do it. She obviously willed
me to survive, at all costs."
Taken from their grandmother's home and abandoned in the middle of a Russian
winter close to the Chinese border, where the NKVD were everywhere in evidence,
escape seemed so unlikely that they were not imprisoned, just abandoned
to fend for themselves if they could. And they did. And they escaped from
the USSR.
By December 1941 they were back in Poland, and far from being free of danger.
Lita's mother's resourcefulness and courage saw them survive under assumed
identities, continually on the move, never safe. Surviving the Warsaw Uprising,
the duration of the war and the Russian blockade of Berlin, they discovered
that life was not easy in war ravaged France. In 1948, deciding there was
no future for them in Europe, they departed for Australia.
Surviving against all odds, this is a story of courage, bravery and determination.
It is the story of a mother's love for her daughter.
Jim Corones and Quilpie
Author: Vassilia Corones
ISBN: 0 646 25692 0
Publisher: Polyurn Press Address: 28 Carabella Street, Kirribilly, NSW,
2061
An account of the life of Jim Corones who migrated from Greece in 1905,
and lived his life in the tiny outback Queensland town of Quilpie with generosity,
courage and good fellowship leaving the town the better for his unflagging
involvement in all aspects of life in this "oasis" in a harsh
country.
Leaving Kythira in the Greek Ionioan Islands with his uncle, Harry Corones,
Jim Corones was eleven when he landed in Australia. From humble but typical
beginnings, both Harry and Jim were to become extremely successful businessmen.
The first years in Australia were years of low wages, long hours and terrible
conditions. Moving from Sydney and cleaning fish to a better opening in
Brisbane, Harry ensured that Jim had a good education.
Within five years Harry was in a position to buy a cafe in Charleville and
thus the path of both men's lives was set.
From a cafe in Charleville, Harry and Jim were to become two of Queensland's
foremost hoteliers. It was in Harry's Charleville Hotel that plans for the
establishment of an airway were discussed, later to become Qantas. Jim and
Harry were foundation shareholders.
By 1929, Harry's dream was realised with the completion of the first class
Corones Hotel, graced over the years celebrity guests that included the
Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, Charles Kingsford Smith, Amy Johnston and
Gracie Fields.
Harry thrived in Charleville and in recognition of his services to the community,
he was awarded the MBE in 1969.
Jim meanwhile had moved on to "nearby" Quilpie (138 rail miles
from Charleville) and gave of himself to Quilpie as Harry gave of himself
to Charleville. Devising a means to supply electricity, in 1933 Quilpie
was an outback rarity - street night lighting and electricity to all the
shops as well as the Corones owned hotels and properties.
As with the Corones hotels in Charleville, the Corones hotels in Quilpie
were a delight to locals and travellers alike, situated as they were in
the middle of nowhere but with decor, service and food expected only in
the best hotels of Brisbane and Sydney.
Five hundred or more arrived from across Queensland and New South Wales
for Jim's funeral in 1966.
In his panegyric, Brother Max Timbrell of the Bush Brotherhood said jim
"was a man of rich character, a man of great energy and talent. The
monuments to his talents are visible in our town- public utilities which
even today could not be closed because they were built to give service.
That service was of a pioneering nature."
This book tells the story of these two men from the Greek island of Kythira
who helped develop western Queensland, making Australia their home.
Eye Can See Clearly Now
Author: Barbro Spry
ISBN: 0 646 25843 5
Publisher: Single X Publications
Address: 40 Old Tapley's Hill Road, Glenelg North, SA, 5045
In this simply told but moving story, Barbro Spry tells of her life,
in many ways a difficult one, being vision impaired and born with cerebral
palsy. Yet her sense of humour and determination triumph and it is a story
of hope.
"Throughout my life I was always taught that wherever there was an
obstacle, there was always a way around it". And so Barbro Spry starts
her autobiography.
As John Vincent says in the foreward, "I'm sure most of us who have
a chronic illness or disability feel sorry for themselves from time to time
and ask, "Why me?" Barb Spry seems to say, "What disability?"
Published in the Year of Tolerance, this book is likely to make the reader
feel better about themselves and more understanding of those with disabilities
as they try and live in a world where they are not viewed as normal. It
is also a tribute to the strength and courage of those parents and caregivers
who sacrifice so much personally as they support people with disabilities.
Life was fulfilling but by no means easy for Barbro's parents. Bringing
up six children, one with disabilities, they nonetheless managed to get
by. In a poignant chapter, Barbro tells of an essay written at the age of
nine submitted to a competition entitled "Why My Parents Need a Holiday".
That she won was credit to Barbro and a delight for her parents who, in
the summer of 1968, enjoyed their first holiday in twenty nine years. Barbro's
father died eight months later.
Contracting rubella during the first three months of her pregnancy, Barbro's
mother was unaware of the complications it could cause. A few days after
her birth, Barbro's mother noticed a problem with her eyes. Barbro had cataracts
on both eyes. Surgery at twelve months was followed by life threatening
complications and shortly thereafter the diagnosis of cerebral palsy.
Born the fifth in the family, Barbro was the youngest by eight years, and
something of a surprise to her parents. Their bravery and love for their
children was evident in their decision to have another child, a younger
sibling who could grow up with Barbro. Tim was to prove to be sunshine (and
some trouble!) in their lives. Tragically he was to die young in a motor
bike accident.
Living in the country, Barbro was to grow up in a home for crippled children
in Adelaide, the services to support her medically not being available where
the family lived. Life was not easy for Barbro but she survived and thrived.
Fighting resistance and bureaucracy, one of her greatest achievements has
been to secure a job, achieved on her merits and held because she was competent.
Barbro's story is inspirational. She married, is now divorced, and lives
happily with her son.
Her stories of unthinking prejudice, blatant prejudice and just plain stupidity
that have made her life unnecessarily difficult give cause for pause. Barbro
however has always been a fighter. She has seen the obstacles in her path
as challenges.
Rather than growing embittered by the insensitivity she has often faced
and seeing herself as a victim, Barbro has recognised that "normal"
people often need the contribution of an informed educator, someone who
can assist in changing perceptions by helping people to "see clearly
now".
In her introduction, Barbro says that through this book she hopes to be
able to reach the parents of children with disabilities, and maybe also
those with disabilities. This book offers more.
Nina
Author: Edith Hallas
ISBN: 0 646 25541 X
Address: PO Box 136, Artarmon, NSW, 2064
Edith Hallas was the youngest of four and by the time she was born,
her grandmother, Nina, was sixty seven. Moving in with the family when Edith
was fifteen, Nina was by that time a tiny white haired woman who lived completely
in her own glorious successful past.
For a teenager, the constant intrusion that continual reminiscing meant
seemed more an irritation than an inspiration. However, as the years passed,
Edith Hallas came to appreciate what an astonishing person her grandmother
was.
Nina, a strong-minded girl who became a hairdresser to the aristocracy of
the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was a successful businesswoman, mother and
wife, as independent as any woman today.
Her story is one of achievement, survival and success set against the backdrop
of the wealth and priviledge of nineteenth century European aristocracy.
We Threw Away the Nickel Then
Author: Caryll von Sturmer
ISBN: 0 646 23362 9
Address: 27 Delmar Parade, Dee Why, NSW, 2099
A New Zealand veteran of World War I, Ernest von Sturmer was determined
to do something positive to survive the Great Depression. As part of a team
searching for tin, he set off for the largely unexplored Kimberleys in the
rugged terrain of Australia's north-west.
Working for a New Zealand syndicate who staked the finance for mineral exploration
in the north west of Australia, von Sturmer finds a land that is tough,
uncompromising and splendid. The conditions are rough and not for the faint-hearted.
But the land is beautiful and many of its challenges provide for the enjoyment
in which von Sturmer revels.
The towns are little more than outposts. The major centres that were to
follow the mining industry are, in the early thirties, little more than
supply centres for the huge pastoral properties.
"We Threw Away the Nickel" presents a different story of white/Aboriginal
relations than those more familiar to Australians of abuse, exploitation
and massacre arising from the encounters and experiences of those operating
the major pastoral concerns. Von Sturmer comes quickly to a keen appreciation
of the Aborigines of the various areas through which he and his team pass.
In this work comes a story of those who appreciate that the Aborigines are
the landowners and those upon whom existence may well and sometimes does
depend. Beneath the quaintness of the writing which relies on descriptions
that today would be considered racist, lies an appreciation of the intelligence
of the Aborigines and a regard for the values and attitudes to life they
displayed. Von Sturmer has brought with him the thinking of prevailing white
colonialists and constantly expresses his own reactions to his encounters
as being in opposition to what he had anticipated.
After months of fruitless work, von Sturmer discovers that the basis of
the expedition is unsound and predicated on false information. The chief
geologist used samples found in South America to successfully convince intelligent
investors and experienced geologists to stake the funds for what was bound
to be a waste of time and money. It is a devastating time for von Sturmer
as he is confronted with the dilemma of split loyalties - to the Syndicate
that has employed him and to the team's leader, the geologist, a man he
liked and although clearly dishonest was not capable of fraud for economic
gain.
But if tin was not to be found, then the mission was to be a financial disaster.
After all, the iron they knew was there was considered to be an uneconomic
proposition and who was to know then that the abundant nickel would one
day be considered valuable.
This slender volume, drawing from von Sturmer's diaries and illustrated
with his photographs, is an illuminating insight into the early days of
the mining industry in North Western Australia. Behind its narrative centre,
the biographical fragment of the life of von Sturmer, the author has economically
sketched a larger canvass - that of white/Aboriginal relations, the social
mores of the white colonialist country that was Australia in the thirties,
the effects of the Depression on two young emerging British nations, Australia
and New Zealand - that effectively provides the context for this tribute
to his father.
The Unwanted
Author: Esther Lyons
ISBN: 0 646 23013 1
Address: PO Box H82, Hurlstone Park, NSW, 2193
The autobiography of a woman born of an American Jesuit Priest and an
Indian Catholic num, "The Unwanted" tells the story of a woman
born in India in 1941 to the time she leaves to start a new life in Australia
with her mother and her two children in 1981.
An Anglo Indian, Lyons suffered considerably the results of being an innocent
victim of Church laws broken. Born out of wedlock to parents committed to
a life of celibacy is an inheritance still impossibly difficult to bear
in the last decade of this century. In the 1940s in India it was the more
so. Her parents although determined to live as a family and raise their
two children find the obstacles in their path insuperable. Her father leaves
and unable to find any work at all in India eventually departs for America.
Brought up believing him to be dead, Lyons mourns him continually. From
a deeply religious background, she places her faith in Jesus as her substitute
father, but on learning that her father is indeed alive and living in America,
her view of the Church alters dramatically.
Her life, and that of her mother and younger sister are not easy. Although
not desperately poor, they are poor and certainly disadvantaged by comparison
with others of similar background and education. Life is a constant struggle,
particularly for Lyons' mother, who has the burden of two children and no
possible lines of support other than by working herself.
"The Unwanted" is an illuminating insight into forty years of
India's history and an eyeopener into the social and religious structures
that control this nation. The pervasiveness of and acceptance of the established
social order that is dictated by the Hindu religion is fascinating. Reading
Lyons' story it is difficult not to be profoundly moved by the struggle
that her mother faced in bringing up her children. But what is equally extraordinary
is the scant attention that Lyons spares for the millions of Indians who
were and remain profoundly less well off than herself. The extent to which
the caste system is embedded in the culture as evidenced in this autobiography
is illuminating.
When Lyons discovers that her father is alive, her life takes on a new direction
as she is seized with an all consuming passion to find that man in whom
she has invested hero like status. One hopes that by now she has come to
terms with the fact that he was indeed only human.
Her fixation with her father takes on dangerously consuming levels and affects
her entire life - both her waking and sleeping hours and leaves her seriously
mentally ill. She has a nervous breakdown and attempts suicide. Her self-obsession
and the degree to which self- pity comes to dominate her life is extraordinarily
disturbing.
An opportunity to travel to the USA allows Lyons the possibility of being
reunited with her long lost father. But whilst he wants her to stay in the
States he feels he can only do so be describing her as the daughter of a
friend. The effect this has on Lyons is not surprisingly devastating. Years
of faith invested in this man to find he cannot publicly accept her as his
daughter. Torn between her feelings for both parents, Lyons returns to India
and to her mother.
An unhappy marriage results in a child born with an incurable disease. Aman
dies at six. Her second child is also born handicapped and her third and
youngest child born healthy. With her two surviving children she migrates
to Australia with her aging mother.
A very moving account of an extraordinary life, this autobiography is in
some ways flawed by one of its strengths. In trying to recapture her upbringing
as she experienced it, at times the reader is frustrated by a child that
is so self obsessed and yearns for her to stop whinging and be at least
a little more grateful to a mother that clearly sacrificed everything for
her and her younger sister. Lyons younger sister, Rita, emerges as probably
the more selfish of the two sisters, but more selfish in a normal way -
selfish but not self pitying. It is a shame that Lyons did not avail herself
of a ruthless editor - at times the book is irritatingly repetitive and
a rigorous edit would have done no damage but would have enhanced the power
of her story.
Nonetheless it is an astonishing story and one that leaves the reader in
awe of the human spirit and the ability of people to survive. In its minute
retelling of forty years of life lived as a partial outcaste in India it
is a fascinating insight into a culture and a significant period of contemporary
history.
A Buck, A Beer and A Belief: A Larrikin's Tale
Author: Steven Hood
ISBN: 0 646 25406 5
Publisher: Steven Hood
Address: 11 Anzac Avenue, Engadine, NSW, 2233
Describing himself as an ordinary bloke with a story or two, Steven
Hood was motivated to write this book by a desire to set down something
of who he is so that those that follow him will have something more to relate
to than a headstone on a grave and may be able to judge for themselves the
value of his life together with a desire to share some of the lessons he
has learnt from his 42 years and to reflect upon what has been and consider
what might come.
From his experiences largely as a football coach and as national sales manager
with a food services company, he shares the wisdom and advice of others
and his own offerings on survival, understanding, mental toughness, making
and keeping friends, communicating with and understanding and respecting
others together with a fairly open appraisal of his own shortcomings and
failures.
An eclectic collection, part autobiography, part musings, it also includes
an array of yarns, probably best heard in a crowded bar over a beer or three,
some of which may amuse, but others are just as likely to antagonise or
offend with their reliance on toilet, gutter and bedroom humour. I doubt
that Vietnamese, Greek or Italian readers will find much to smile about
in a few of the "stories". Some are surprising to the extent that
they fly in the face of what otherwise appears to be the writer's genuine
committment to and recognition of the equality of all people and the right
of all people to a chance to succeed on whatever their chosen road in life
might be.
From Sulky to Seven Forty Seven
Author: Len Wallis
ISBN: 0 646 25323 9
Publisher: Len Wallis
Address: 33 Roseberry Avenue, South Perth, WA, 6151
This autobiography documents a life that traverses major changes in
Australia - from travelling to school by sulky to extensive international
travel flying first class in 747s.
The author spent his early years on his parents' farm near Ballidu in Western
Australia, an area pioneered by his grandparents.
Forced from the land during the Great Depression, Len's father Jim resumed
his original trade as a carpenter in Perth - a decision that was to have
a significant influence on Len's own life.
Joining the Militia on his 18th birthday, Len transferred to the AIF when
Japan entered the war and volunteered for a draft of specialist searchlight
operators and gunners going to the islands. His nineteenth birthday passed
in New Guinea and by the age of twenty he was a returned soldier.
Taking up the opportunity of a rehabilitation course in carpentry and sitting
for his Builders Registration exam enabled him to make the most of the boom
that was to come. With innovative construction and management ideas, he
built thriving building companies specialising in prebuilt houses for remote
areas. Thus his business was able to capitalise on the mining boom of the
seventies. It also enabled him to participate in Rotarian backed building
projects in Indonesia in later life.
A solid Rotarian, keen sailor and inveterate traveller, he covered the length
and breadth of Western Australia, by land, road, off-road and by air. His
years of involvement with Rotary stood him in good stead for travel both
at home and abroad.
Youthful determination and optimism assisted Len in surviving the depression
and the war. A zest for living and enjoying life to the full has sustained
him ever since. All in all a lucky life which the author has enjoyed enormously.
- If you'd like to purchase a copy of one of the books listed above please
contact the publisher directly. Their address is just under the title's
listing.
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