Cirrus@Austlit

'Anna Meares is one of the Australia's greatest and most popular Olympians. She is the only Australian to have won individual medals at four consecutive Olympics. In 2004, she beat her sister Kerrie for a place in the Olympic team and became the first Australian female track cyclist to win gold. In 2008, she broke her neck in a track accident but still claimed silver eight months later in Beijing. 

'In London in 2012, she dominated her arch-rival Victoria Pendletonin the women's sprint final. Anna carried the Australian flag at the Rio opening ceremony in 2016, and won her sixth Olympic medal. And then what? Suddenly she faced new challenges, as a sportswoman whose career was over, and as an individual facing personal crises, including the death of her coach from motor neurone disease and the breakdown of her marriage.

'There was no playbook, no training regime ... how to cope? This was a bigger mountain than any she had previously faced. Anna Meares now, powering on in a new career, happy in her personal life and expecting her first child, and much wiser for all she has experienced, is an inspiring figure. Her twin stories, a winner on and off the track, make for one of the most important books ever written by an elite Olympic athlete.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'Fifty years after Ralph Doubell produced arguably the finest run in Australian Olympic history, author Michael Sharp tells the compelling story of the last of the three Australian male track athletes - after Edwin Flack and Herb Elliott - to win Olympic gold.

'On the biggest day of his sporting life, he ran the perfect race. 'Beautifully executed right through,' is how the BBC's David Coleman called Doubell's 800 metres live. The Mexico City Olympics in 1968 were highly controversial, but Doubell pushed that turmoil from his mind. His winning time would have won the 800m gold at Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.

'As Doubell reveals his secrets, the book becomes essential reading for any aspiring athlete. He possessed a powerful inner-drive - as a runner, a student at the University of Melbourne and Harvard, and later as an investment banker in New York. He was coached by the legendary Franz Stampfl, mentor to Sir Roger Bannister. He was tactically astute and impervious to injury. He grew up in a famous era for Australian athletics, following John Landy, Herb Elliott and Ron Clarke. His blunt opinions on the decline of Australian middle-distance running will cause controversy.

'Perhaps we took Ralph Doubell and his phenomenal victory for granted. He became more famous in America, where the press erroneously tagged him as something of a playboy. Today, aged 73 and still the Australian 800m record holder, he lives quietly with his wife in Melbourne.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'When John Devitt won Olympic 100-metre freestyle gold in 1960, his inspiration was Healy. He always wanted to write his hero's biography. Now, on the centenary of Healy's death, Devitt has joined with Larry Writer to produce an extraordinary tale of a man who was born to swim, earned sporting immortality but then sacrificed all. The book recalls Australia's first great era of swimming, our early Olympic achievements and the rise of the surf lifesaving movement. Healy helped organise the visit of Duke Kahanamoku to Australia in the summer of 1914-15, an adventure that inspired generations of board riders.

'Three years earlier, at the Stockholm Olympics, he refused to race in the 100 metres final unless the Duke, the race favourite, was also allowed to swim. The great Hawaiian had missed his semi-final, after a misunderstanding over the starting time. Cecil later won gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay, but it was his altruism that earned him a place in sport's highest pantheon. When John Devitt adopted his sporting hero, he could not have chosen a finer man.' (Publication summary)

'In early 2016, Steve Mascord set out on a quest: 52 games and 52 gigs in a year. He'd document the adventure, the characters and controversies, highlights such as Axl Rose fronting AC/DC and Cronulla winning their first premiership, combine it all with his edgy opinions, and turn it into a book. It became a journey of self-discovery. Steve was an adopted child and a boy with no direction until he found journalism. Why then do the things that matter most to him today relate to things that captivated him in his youth? This question becomes a quandary when he is suddenly introduced to his birth family, to his own bloodline. Old venues, heroes and landmarks that mattered to him when he was a kid...these are what Steve calls Touchstones; they fuel his writing and unconventional lifestyle. Alongside a new perspective that comes with meeting a mother and sister he never knew, they have inspired a book like no other, one that will intrigue and excite fans of rock'n'rugby league in equal measure.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Richie: The Man Behind the Legend is not a book of statistics or match reviews. Instead, it gets to the heart of Richie Benaud, the man.

'Each chapter features personal recollections of various lengths from the people who knew Richie best. Among the contributors are members of Richie's family, childhood friends, cricket greats such as Neil Harvey and Alan Davidson, fellow commentators such as Ian Chappell and Mark Taylor, prominent identities from sport, politics, the media and business, from Australia, England, France, South Africa and the Caribbean.

'The book ends with a postscript by John Benaud. The book will feature colour and black-and-white photographs, including some from the private Benaud collection. ' (Publication summary)