Collection: Biography

Many cultural and religious traditions expect those who are grieving to step away from the world. In contemporary life, we are more often met with red tape and to-do lists. This is exactly what happened to Geraldine Brooks when her partner of more than three decades, Tony Horwitz - just sixty yea...

Miles Franklin dazzled Australia with her rebellious novel My Brilliant Career, inspiring generations of young women chafing under conventional expectations. Only 21, Miles Franklin was lauded as the Bronte of the bush, and feted by the rich and influential. But fame can be deceptive. In reality,...

Amanda Goff was a successful journalist in London and Sydney before ditching her nine-to-five job at the age of 38 to become Samantha X, Australia's most famous escort. A bipolar diagnosis changed everything: she retired from sex work, walked away from Samantha X, and went in search of Amanda.

Wing Commander Vic Hodgkinson DFC served as a pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force throughout WWII. Starting in 1939, he was a founding member of 10 Squadron RAAF, operating Short Sunderland flying boats. Loaned to the RAF in early 1940, the squadron played a crucial role in the Battle of the ...

Two-time Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner was the second most googled person in 2023 and not for his impressive filmography. His searing portrayals on film ranged from an Iraq-based army bomb technician in The Hurt Locker and a Boston bank robber in The Town to a crooked Camden mayor in American Hustl...

The incredible story of a woman who took the path less travelled to work for the Royal Flying Doctor Service in outback Australia, and what the experience taught her about life, death and human connection.It was 1988. I had no time for makeup and wore a crushed heart on my sleeve. My life was up ...

Hannah Rigby, a poor Liverpool seamstress, prisoner, and serial thief, was exiled from her homeland and oppressed by poverty and rigid social mores. Used and discarded by a series of men, she became an "exemplary" servant with a love for life and a single mother determined to keep her family toge...

Arnold Dix became an unlikely hero when he promised to save forty-one men trapped after a tunnel collapse in the Himalayas. This is his unforgettable story. In rural Victoria, Arnold Dix is known to locals as a farmer and a part-time truck driver. But his name reached global recognition when he p...

As a criminal defence lawyer, Jahan Kalantar has helped people in their most desperate hour, from hardened jailbirds to accidental offenders, disadvantaged delinquents to undeserving scapegoats. Along the way, Jahan has learned that it's not always the smartest person in the room who wins the day...

In 2021, Kellie Finlayson, with a three-month-old daughter, found herself staring down the barrel of a terminal diagnosis: Stage 4 bowel cancer. She was 25. Incredibly, Kellie is still fighting several years on, and not only for her life. She was horrified to discover that this disease is Austral...