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This is your one chance. You have your secret dreams. Follow them! Make them come true ... In a poor village in northern China, a small boy is about to be taken away from everything he's ever known. He is so afraid, but his mother urges him to follow his dreams. For soon he will ...become a dancer, one of the finest dancers in the world...
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Andre Rieu is a violinist, conductor and international star. Born in the Netherlands in 1949, Andre grew up surrounded exclusively by classical music. He started taking violin lessons at the age of five, the beginning of a love affair that would never end. As a student he was ask...ed to take part in a salon ensemble and as he played his first waltz a whole new world opened up for him. From that time on Andre was hooked on the waltz's rhythm and dreamed of creating a large orchestra that would enchant its audience. He has toured throughout the world and won audience's hearts everywhere. My Music My Life explores the story of Andre's youth, growing up in the Netherlands; the musical family he grew up in; his music studies; and his extraordinary success story.
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This is my story. Here is my recollection of those years growing up in Mao's China. It is my family's history. It is my journey, from my earliest memories, through discovering dance, to my life in the West. History may record things differently, others may too, but the stories he...re remain as true to me now as they ever were. It is a remembrance that contains the treasures from my heart.
So wrote Li Cunxin in the first edition of his now phenomenally bestselling memoir. Just as his journey from bitter poverty to international stardom is a dream come true, so too has the telling of his life story taken him to places he never could have imagined. Since its release in 2003, Mao's Last Dancer has sold over 400 000 copies and regularly featured on bestseller lists. Now, some six years after its original publication, Li's inspiring story of courage and determination has been made into a major feature film. For this edition, Li gives us three powerful new chapters as he shares his experiences in making the movie, hi
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A fast-paced, witty and gripping historical crime series from Tom Keneally and his eldest daughter Meg. In the Port Macquarie penal settlement for second offenders, at the edge of the known world, gentleman convict Hugh Monsarrat hungers for freedom. Originally transported for fo...rging documents passing himself off as a lawyer, he is now the trusted clerk of the settlement's commandant. His position has certain advantages, such as being able to spend time in the Government House kitchen, being supplied with outstanding cups of tea by housekeeper Hannah Mulrooney, who, despite being illiterate, is his most intelligent companion. Not long after the commandant heads off in search of a rumoured river, his beautiful wife, Honora, falls ill with a sickness the doctor is unable to identify. When Honora dies, it becomes clear she has been slowly poisoned. Monsarrat and Mrs Mulrooney suspect the commandant's second-in-command, Captain Diamond, a cruel man who shares history with Honora. Then Diamond has Mrs Mulrooney arrested for the murder. Knowing his friend will hang if she is tried, Monsarrat knows he must find the real killer. And so begins The Monsarrat Series, a fast-paced, witty and gripping series from Tom Keneally and his eldest daughter, Meg.
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Robert Church, Superintendent of the Parramatta Female Factory, takes full advantage of his position. First, there are the opportunities to siphon off supplies and sell them. And the Factory also provides an excellent front for Robert's sly grog business. But to Robert's mind, th...e most enjoyable part of the job is access to the young convict women under his care. There are irritants and Grace O'Leary is chief among them. She has made it her mission to protect the younger women from Robert's nocturnal visits. She even went as far as to organise a riot sparked by his treatment of the women. Robert will deal with Grace in due course. But for now, fresh from visiting one of the Factory's new arrivals, he feels rather pleased with himself. Until he hears footsteps following him across the courtyard. Turning, he just has time to recognise his assailant before the tip of an awl is rammed upwards into his brain via his right eyeball ...Recently arrived from Port Macquarie, ticket-of-leave gentleman convict Hugh Llewelyn Monsarrat now lives in a small but comfortable house in Parramatta and is now attached to the Attorney General's office, officially as a clerk, but also as an unofficial advisor on criminal and legal matters. He is visited by the Attorney General's Secretary, Rupert Symes, who tells him the superintendent of the Female Factory has been murdered. A convict woman, Grace O'Leary had a particular grudge against him and is being held. Monsarrat is asked to take a statement from her, but Grace doesn't strike Monsarrat as a murderer ...
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Robert Church, Superintendent of the Parramatta Female Factory, takes full advantage of his position. First, there are the opportunities to siphon off supplies and sell them. And the Factory also provides an excellent front for Robert's sly grog business. But to Robert's mind, th...e most enjoyable part of the job is access to the young convict women under his care. There are irritants and Grace O'Leary is chief among them. She has made it her mission to protect the younger women from Robert's nocturnal visits. She even went as far as to organise a riot sparked by his treatment of the women. Robert will deal with Grace in due course. But for now, fresh from visiting one of the Factory's new arrivals, he feels rather pleased with himself. Until he hears footsteps following him across the courtyard. Turning, he just has time to recognise his assailant before the tip of an awl is rammed upwards into his brain via his right eyeball ...Recently arrived from Port Macquarie, ticket-of-leave gentleman convict Hugh Llewelyn Monsarrat now lives in a small but comfortable house in Parramatta and is now attached to the Attorney General's office, officially as a clerk, but also as an unofficial advisor on criminal and legal matters. He is visited by the Attorney General's Secretary, Rupert Symes, who tells him the superintendent of the Female Factory has been murdered. A convict woman, Grace O'Leary had a particular grudge against him and is being held. Monsarrat is asked to take a statement from her, but Grace doesn't strike Monsarrat as a murderer ...
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As destiny weaves its rich tapestry, a compelling drama plays out against a background of wild forests, elegant castles, hidden temples, and savage battlefields. This is the medieval Japan of Lian Hearn's imagination, where animal spirits clash with warriors and children navigate... a landscape as serene as it is deadly.
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An astonishing examination of male friendship, set in Australia's wheatbelt. Western Australia, the wheatbelt. Lew McLeod has been travelling and working with Painter Hayes since he was a boy. Shearing, charcoal burning - whatever comes. Painter made him his first pair of shoes. ...It's a hard and uncertain life but it's the only one he knows. But Lew's a grown man now. And with this latest job, shearing for John Drysdale and his daughter Clara, everything will change. Stephen Daisley writes in lucid, rippling prose of how things work, and why; of the profound satisfaction in hard work done with care, of love and friendship and the damage that both contain.
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Simon Nye's TV series, The Durrells, is based loosely on Gerald Durrell's Corfu Trilogy and in particular his much-loved bestseller, My Family and Other Animals. These books in turn are based somewhat loosely on actual events. The real-life Durrells went to Corfu at the urging of... Lawrence Durrell, who was already living on the island with his wife, Nancy Myers. Their intent was to keep the family together as his mother, Louisa, was drinking heavily and recovering from a breakdown; 'We can be proud of the way we brought her up', Larry said, only half-jokingly, of the family's subsequent Corfu sojourn. Michael Haag's book covers the background to the Durrell family's years in Corfu, including their time in India, where all the children were born, and where their father, a brilliant civil engineer, had died. It recalls the real-life characters the Durrells encountered on Corfu, notably the biologist and poet Theodore Stephanides, and the taxi driver, Spiros Halikiopoulos. And Haag tells the story of how the Durrells left Corfu, including Margo's return intent on joining the Greek resistance, and Leslie's romance in England with the family's Corfite maid and friend, Maria Kondos. Further chapters cover what happened to the family in later life; here, Lawrence and Gerald Durrell's biographies are well known, but little has previously been written of Margo, Leslie and Louisa. Haag has fascinating stories to tell of them all.
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Monsarrat and Mrs Mulrooney are sent to Maria Island in January of 1826, the very early days of the penal settlement there, to solve the murder of Harefield who sailed the government cutter between mainland Tasmania and Maria Island bringing all supplies and correspondence and di...rectives - all of which he makes sure he reads. Knowledge is currency. One of Harefield's other responsibilities is to light the primitive lighthouse to keep the whaling boats out to sea safe. During a storm Harefield is shaken from a ladder whilst igniting the light and falls. He is then attacked with an axe and falls over the cliff edge to his death. All blame is laid at the feet of Thomas Power, the charismatic Irish revolutionary held in detention - with a lot of privileges - on Maria Island. But did he do it? The outsiders, Monsarrat and Mrs Mulrooney are brought in to de-escalate gossip and surmise. Power has continued to smuggle his writings out to the British press throughout his internment and the government does not want him gaining further attention. But did the no-doubt trouble-making, charismatic, educated and charming Power sink to the low of murder to prevent the unscrupulous Harefield from blackmailing him? Or were there others who had reason to want Harefield shut up?
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