Cirrus@Austlit

'From Boudicca to Ukraine, battlefields have always contained a surprising number of female fighters. We have all heard of Joan of Arc, but not the cross-dressing soldiers whose disguises were so effective the men around them never realized who they were fighting with.

Forgotten Warriors shines a light on women in war, from the Mino, the all-female army the protected Dahomey from the West for two hundred years, to the Night Witches, Soviet flying aces that decimated the Nazis. Against a backdrop of sieges and desperate battles, rebellions and civil wars, Sarah Percy brings these extraordinary women to life, and sets the record straight.'  (Publication summary)

'Eva looked out the attic window of their charming guest house and watched the sun rise. She thought she might be sick. Splayed on the lawn below was Frank, apparently out cold. Her husband snored in the bed behind her. She loved Shay, of course she did, but right now the only person she wanted to think about was Conor. She didn't want to think about Bea or Lizzie or what Lizzie might have got up to with Shay.

'Frank's 48th birthday had given the three couples an excuse for a much needed night away from children, nagging bills and ailing parents. The drink flowed, life in Dublin with all its stress felt a long way away. When Frank proposed they swap partners, it felt deliciously, irresistibly reckless. One night. No obligations. No expectations. All the women had to do was text a man of their choice.

'The only rule? No falling in love.

'It was a night that some of them couldn't remember. And others couldn't forget.' (Publication summary)

'Lizzie Spender's bohemian childhood was spent in England, Ireland and California where she was surrounded by horses, but unfortunately never her own. Lizzie's lifelong desire to own a horse is the inspiration behind this book, as nearly half a century later, in the remote north-west of Australia, she fulfils her dream.' Source: Libraries Australia.

'The seventh book in Toy's famous travel series involving her Landrover Pollyanna - or 'the desert gazelle', as it came to be called - narrating how her plan to follow the Incense Route was fraught with a disabling combination of immense danger - crossing war-torn Yemen - and burdensome bureaucracy. Her first attempt to cross the Saudi Arabian border was foiled, but she was able to join a pilgrimage caravan and became a valued member of the group due to her first aid box.

'Toy's fascinating travelogue describes the sights and sounds along the route, includes anecdotes of Bedouin fables, and compares the rapidly developing country with memories of her previous travels in the Middle East. It includes an account of the Hejaz railway, some sections of which Toy followed on her trip, as well as the railroad's history and the various attempts to re-establish it after the destruction caused by T. E. Lawrence and his men.' (Publication summary)

'Our minds are like those maps at the entrance to the Metro stations in Paris. They are full of unilluminated directions. But when we know where we want to go and press the right button, the route is illuminated before us in electric clarity.

Diana von Flugel warned her husband: a piece of toast that hard could break a tooth. When Diana goes to Melbourne to have the tooth fixed, Wolfie is far too concerned with finding inspiration for his musical compositions to realise the chain of events he has just set in motion. On Collins Street, Russell Lockwood catches a glimpse of his childhood friend and knows at once that she is a rare woman…

Now Diana and Wolfie’s marriage is under threat, the Great War is approaching, and no one quite knows where their hearts belong. First published in 1957, the third novel in Martin Boyd’s celebrated Langton Quartet is a beguiling comedy of manners about the outbreak of love in inconvenient places. ' (Publisher's blurb)

'Bates devoted more than 35 years of her life to studying Aboriginal life, history, culture, rites, beliefs and customs. Living in a tent in small settlements from Western Australia to the edges of the Nullarbor Plain. She researched and wrote millions of words on the subject.'

'She also worked tirelessly for Aboriginal welfare, setting up camps to feed, clothe and nurse the transient population, drawing on her own income and inheritance to meet the needs of the aged. In spite of her fascination with their way of life, Bates was convinced that the Australian Aborigines were a dying race and that her mission was to record as much as she could about them before they disappeared...' (Source: GoodReads website)