Cirrus@Austlit

'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.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

"Commissioned by the Royal Navy to collect breadfruit plants from Tahiti and take them to the West Indies, the Bounty’s crew found themselves in a tropical paradise. Five months later, they did not want to leave. Under the leadership of Fletcher Christian most of the crew mutinied soon after sailing from Tahiti, setting Captain William Bligh and 18 loyal crewmen adrift in a small open boat. In one of history’s great feats of seamanship, Bligh navigated this tiny vessel for 3618 nautical miles to Timor.

"The mutineers sailed back to Tahiti, where most remained and were later tried for mutiny. But Christian, along with eight fellow mutineers, sailed off into the unknown, eventually discovering the isolated Pitcairn Island and settling there."

Source: Publisher's blurb. 

"The Battle of Le Hamel on 4 July 1918 was an Allied triumph. A largely Australian force, commanded by Sir John Monash, fought what has been described as the first modern battle.

"Monash planned every detail meticulously, with nothing left to chance. Integrated use of tanks, planes, infantry, wireless (and even carrier pigeons!) was the basis: everyone used the same maps, with updated versions delivered by motorbike despatch riders to senior commanders. Each infantry battalion was allocated to a tank group, and they advanced together. Supplies and ammunition were dropped as needed from planes. The losses were relatively few.

"Monash planned for the battle to last for 90 minutes – in the end it went for 93. What happened in those minutes changed the way the British fought battles, and the tactics and strategies used by the Allies."

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In the modern world the old traditions are declining - and so is attendance at Rabbi Teichmann's Friday-night sermon. But the rabbi has a plan to win back his congregation, and prove that real faith can embrace both the old and the new. Instigating a tradition that will grow beyond his expectations, the rabbi weaves a simple, entertaining tale around his listeners that resonates with meaning. Soon the rabbi finds that his congregants are not just talented listeners, and stories of universal experience and the meaning of life begin to take hold of both audience and reader alike.' (Publication summary)