Cirrus@Austlit

'The latest Friends’ publication emanating from the Baudin voyage is French Designs on Colonial New South Wales.

'It contains the first ever English translation of François Péron’s detailed secret report to Napoleon about the potential to invade New South Wales and make the British colony a French possession in the Pacific.

'Professor Jean Fornasiero and Associate Professor John West-Sooby of The University of Adelaide have made a superb translation of Péron’s notes. This is supported by an introduction setting the historical context and detailing the complex bibliographic history of the text.' (Publication summary)

'This volume is a tribute to the life and work of Hazel Rowley, internationally acclaimed biographer who died unexpectedly in March 2011. Her passions were many and varied: biography, politics, questions of race and sexuality, the ways in which couples negotiate the dilemmas posed by the need to retain their individuality while building a life as a couple, the deleterious effects of imposing a corporate mentality on universities – all these, and more, were subjects of intense interest to her. This collection combines essays responding to many of those interests with creative writing to honour the complexity and variety of her own magnificent contribution.' (Publisher's blurb)