Latest news with #HarperCollins
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Morris Motors boss may have inspired Tolkien villain
The fascist-sympathising founder of Morris Motors was demonised as a soulless industrialist in an unknown story by JRR Tolkien that is to be published for the first time. William Morris, Viscount Nuffield, is thought to have inspired the Lord of the Rings author to create a villain for a satirical fantasy in which he vented his loathing for the motor car and its devastating impact on his beloved Oxford. Morris made his fortune by mass-producing small cars at affordable prices and, although he donated millions to worthy causes, he also supported Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists. Morris Motors became the major employer in the region during Tolkien's lifetime, providing a pull for workers and businesses supporting the car industry. A dramatic rise in Oxford's population between the wars was driven partly by the growth of the industry, which in turn had a dramatic impact on traffic. The businessman is thought to be the inspiration for a character known as the Daemon of Vaccipratum in the never before published story, called The Bovadium Fragments. It is thought Tolkien also took inspiration from a planning controversy that erupted in the 1940s, when he was the University of Oxford's Professor of English Language and Literature at Merton College. A bid to alleviate clogged-up traffic by building a dual carriageway across Christ Church Meadow, an ancient open space in the heart of Oxford, sparked a protracted public debate well into the 1960s, when the plan was eventually aborted. The Bovadium Fragments reflects his mastery of Latin. Bovadium was the Latinised name for the village of Oxford, and the Daemon of Vaccipratum translates as 'the demon of the cow pasture', or Cowley, which was where Morris had established his motor manufacturing plant. In one passage of the unearthed story, Tolkien writes: 'But it came to pass that a Daemon (as popular opinion supposed) in his secret workshops devised certain abominable machines, to which he gave the name Motores.' The Bovadium Fragments was among Tolkien manuscripts that were either donated or deposited posthumously by his estate to Oxford's Bodleian Library. It will be published in October by Harper Collins. Chris Smith, the Harper Collins publishing director, described it as 'a sharply satirical account of the perils of allowing car production and machine-worship to take over your town, where things ultimately all go to hell, in a very literal sense'. Tolkien's son and literary executor, Christopher, had edited the text before his death in 2020. The book will include an essay by Richard Ovenden, Bodley's librarian, who has conducted extensive research into the planning controversy, having established its inspiration for Tolkien's story. He said that it is about a scholar in the future looking at evidence of a society that is now lost, having 'worshipped the motor car', adding: 'Tolkien was deeply affected by the way that the motor industry was changing his city, and that shines through.' Asked why The Bovadium Fragments had not been published before, Mr Ovenden said: 'Christopher's priority in publishing his father's unpublished works was on the Middle Earth-related material. This material didn't really fit with that or with his father's more scholarly pieces, and so it got left. 'I would visit Christopher and his wife Baillie in France every year. On one of those visits, he drew this to my attention and said, 'What's all this about, what do you think the background of this was?'' Mr Ovenden described it as 'a contribution to environmental literature and the conservation of historic cities'. 'It was written in the late 1950s and 1960s, but it has this extraordinary contemporary resonance,' he said. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Full of drama and compassion: The best Children's books out now - Frank The Pizza by Eoin Mclaughlin, The Dawn Of Adonis by Phil Earle, The Other Girl by Emily Barr
Frank The Pizza by Eoin Mclaughlin, illustrated by Mike Byrne (HarperCollins £7.99, 32pp) Frank is a little slice of pizza, desperate to make friends but when you're delicious it's hard – some people want to meet you, others want to eat you. So when he's invited to Billy's birthday party, his parents try to protect him by topping him with anchovies and olives. No one likes him, until he meets Frances the cupcake whose parents have topped her with equally uninviting beetroot icing and they make such good friends they become overconfident and take risks that almost result in disaster. This scrumptious story has a gentle message but is also full of fun and plenty of opportunity for arguing about best pizza toppings. Who doesn't like olives? Age 3+. The Dawn Of Adonis by Phil Earle (Andersen Press £7.99, 240pp) Earle's multi-award winning When The Sky Falls introduced us to Adonis, a silverback gorilla kept in a London zoo during the Second World War. But how did he get there? This stand-alone prequel follows young Toff Squabble, assistant to the evil criminal Goliath Deeds who smells money in the illegal trade of exotic animals. When a baby gorilla is born in the backstreets of the docks, Toff seeks help from a vet and his brave daughter Nettie, who fights to rescue the vulnerable infant from Deeds' wicked plans. Set in 1911, this richly atmospheric adventure, full of drama, compassion and a brutal portrait of the city's dark underbelly, confirms Earle as a master of his craft. Age 9+ The Other Girl by Emily Barr (Penguin £9.99, 368pp) This twisty young adult thriller will keep you guessing until the surprising end. Rich, disturbed teenage Tabbi is headed for a rehab clinic in Switzerland after doing something terrible when drunk. When she meets runaway broke backpacker Ruby on a train, she persuades her to swap identities for six weeks, promising her that she's headed for a luxury hotel in the mountains, all expenses paid. But as Tabbi tries to survive without her credit card, she starts to wonder if Ruby is as innocent as she seemed. Who is conning who? There's a few improbable moments but the double-crossing, dual narrative and unfolding secrets propel you forward at high speed. Age 13+
The Wire
a day ago
- General
- The Wire
The High Environmental Costs of Unilever's Shampoo Sachets and Other Plastic Packaging in India
Menu हिंदी తెలుగు اردو Home Politics Economy World Security Law Science Society Culture Editor's Pick Opinion Support independent journalism. Donate Now Top Stories The High Environmental Costs of Unilever's Shampoo Sachets and Other Plastic Packaging in India Saabira Chaudhuri 36 minutes ago Sachets – as with so many other convenience-led products – had spiralled well beyond what its corporate parents had originally imagined. Illustration via Canva. Real journalism holds power accountable Since 2015, The Wire has done just that. But we can continue only with your support. Contribute now The following is an excerpt from Saabira Chaudhuri's Consumed: How Big Brands Got Us Hooked on Plastic published by Harper Collins. In 2001, the Lucknow Times published an explosive article quoting a cow shelter owner who said 100 cows a day were dying from eating plastic bags in Lucknow alone. 'The affected animal will have a skeletal body but abnormally bloated stomach. It will very eagerly wobble to the trough but would only sniff at the fodder, unable to eat anything,' wrote the reporter. 'They gradually become weak due to starvation and then finally become immobile.' Saabira Chaudhuri's Consumed: How Big Brands Got Us Hooked on Plastic Harper Collins (2025) By now the sight of cows munching on dumped plastic was far from unusual. The early 1990s post-liberalisation boom in consumer goods had translated into a sea of plastic waste. Over a few years, India was deluged by bags, bottles, cutlery, cups, diapers, sanitary pads and, of course, sachets. India, like other parts of Asia, was also taking huge volumes of allegedly recyclable waste from the US and other developed countries. The plastic bottles that could be extracted for recycling were removed. Much of what remained was dumped or burned. Between 1990 and 1993, India imported 19 million kilograms of plastic waste, all of which the exporting countries smugly logged as having been 'recycled'. By now the vast majority of Unilever's shampoo sales in India were made in sachets. The tiny plastic packages were widely littered. 'This stuff, it began to show up in landfills and nature with our brands on it and that was ghastly,' says Nihal Kaviratne, Unilever's Indonesia chairman in the late 1990s and early 2000s. 'We were embarrassed because it could be traced right back to us.' The cows' plight got people talking. For the first time, consumer goods executives began to worry about a broad crackdown on plastic waste that could include sachets. 'Knowing the importance of the cow in Indian culture, we knew this could at some stage become a hot potato for us to handle,' says M.K. Sharma, who worked as vice chairman and general counsel of Hindustan Lever at the time. Sharma and Shiv Shivakumar, Hindustan Lever's shampoo marketing head, flew to Singapore to meet regional Unilever executives to discuss ways to cut down on sachet waste. They considered incentivising consumers to bring empty sachets back to stores but quickly abandoned the idea given the mess and hassle shopkeepers would incur in keeping millions of old sticky sachets in their small stores. 'The cost was not commensurate with the benefits we would derive,' remembers Sharma. Plus, it was unlikely many consumers, even if incentivised, would bring sachets back. 'People washed their hair in ponds, wells or running streams and for someone to bring back a 2-inch by 1-inch sachet was seen as a virtually impossible task,' he says. Years earlier, Unilever had tried to sell products unpackaged, asking shopkeepers to dole out small quantities of margarine and laundry detergent from larger barrels into shoppers' reusable containers. The effort was short-lived. Kaviratne, who worked as Hindustan Lever's marketing manager for personal care in the early 1970s, says eliminating the packaging commodified Unilever's products and erased its most valuable assets: its brands. Also read: 'If Only the Government Worked as Hard as Waste Pickers' Despite India's poor waste collection infrastructure, recycling rates for items like plastic bottles and newspapers were high. Thanks to the country's army of waste pickers, items that had any resale value were quickly snapped up. The shampoo sachets had none. They were too small and complex to recycle, so waste pickers ignored them. Sharma suggested that Unilever, over time, move to paper sachets which, even if littered, would break down. But tests Unilever did on paper revealed major flaws. For one thing, paper didn't hold up against India's high temperatures and humidity. For another, the colourful, high-lustre sachets strung up at storefronts acted as advertisements for Unilever's brands. By contrast, paper sachets were dull, hard to print on and 25 per cent more expensive. By 2004, sachets accounted for 90 per cent of shampoo sales in rural India and 70 per cent of sales in cities. The tiny plastic packets had also metastasised well beyond shampoo, sparking what the industry's executives proudly called a 'sachet revolution'. Sachets were being used to sell deodorant, toothpaste, face cream, jam, pickle, perfume, ketchup, hair oil, hair dye, pain-relieving balm, hair removal cream, powdered drinks, butter, mosquito repellent, shaving lotion and digestive pills, among other products. Sachets – as with so many other convenience-led products – had spiralled well beyond what its corporate parents had originally imagined. Just as plastic trash bags were once intended to be used mainly by Canadian hospitals, and disposable diapers were dreamed up for weekends away at grandma's, the sachets were conceived of as a way to introduce low-income people to shampoo brands. The idea was that, as incomes climbed, consumers would naturally shift to using bottles. But similar to how trash bags were adopted by everyone and disposable diapers became everyday fixtures for children, the sachets were embraced by Indians of all income levels in both rural and urban areas. Many Unilever executives I interviewed acknowledge the environmental costs of sachets but justify these by weighing them against the perceived social benefit – that sachets make brands affordable to poor people. The flip side, of course, is that poor people are the ones most impacted by the negative externalities of plastic. Studies show that plastic production and disposal facilities – including dumpsites – are invariably located near low-income communities. At the time, few were talking about microplastics, but we know now that littered sachets break down into tiny plastic particles that spread widely through ecosystems and end up in both animal and human bodies. It's also worth remembering that the demand Unilever and other consumer goods companies fulfil with their brands didn't develop organically. It was meticulously created through millions of dollars ploughed into advertisements designed to convince Indians to abandon their age-old reliance on homemade concoctions using reetha (soap berries) and amla (gooseberries) and opt for packaged shampoo instead. In the years that followed, Unilever made other attempts to find solutions to sachet waste across the globe. It encouraged consumers to bring their own containers to refill machines that dispensed detergent, and invested in a door-to-door electric tricycle in Chile that brought the machines to people's homes. The refill projects never scaled. The company ran a trial in Indonesia to recycle sachets through a solvent-based process that separates out polyethylene, the main plastic used to make the sachets. The trial showed that recycling the multilayer sachets was technically possible. But the costs of collecting the used sachets were far higher than any revenue derived from selling the recycled plastic, which made the operation economically unfeasible. 'We knew that sachets are the cheapest way to take products to the consumer, but also the most polluting way,' reflects Shivakumar. 'We started looking at solutions in 2001 and until now there is no answer.' Ultimately, after years of failing to find a solution, Unilever pivoted to publicising its efforts to collect bottles, milk pouches and other 'more viable' plastic waste. On a 2019 reporting trip in which I spent time with waste pickers and walked the streets of Bangalore with Unilever's India executives, I learned that the multilayer plastic Unilever was paying to have collected in order to meet regulatory requirements consisted mainly of larger packets for potato chips and biscuits rather than sachets. Much of what was collected was trucked long distances to be burned at cement kilns, a practice activists decry as dangerous and environmentally unsound. Unilever has since told me that it is no longer 'directly' sending plastic waste to cement kilns. It says it complies with India's regulations and that collected waste is managed in accordance with local guidelines. It didn't address my questions about how sachets specifically are collected or what happens to these. In 2021, nearly 41 billion shampoo packages were sold in India. Of these, 99 per cent were sachets. Make a contribution to Independent Journalism Related News Whose PET Is It Anyway? Another Round, No Results: India–US Carrier Talks Remain Stuck in Symbolism Organisation of Indian Origin People in the US Objects to Proposed Tax on Immigrants' Remittance Trump's Drive for Ocean Bed Mining Threatens Law of the Sea A Star Has Faded: Remembering the Astrophysicist Jayant Vishnu Narlikar US Targets Indian Travel Agents with Visa Bans as Part of Immigration Policy All Retired HC Judges Entitled to Equal Pension, Says Supreme Court Five Questions That Indian MPs May Have to Face Abroad Jaanne Bhi Do Yaaro | India's Data Blackout – From Census to Covid Deaths View in Desktop Mode About Us Contact Us Support Us © Copyright. All Rights Reserved.
The Advertiser
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
Matildas star opens up about her eating disorder and IVF treatments
What's new: Logie-winning ex-AFL player Tony Armstrong has released his second book for children, Maggie the Dragon, and Matildas player Katrina Gorry's new memoir shares her story of football, motherhood and breaking down barriers. Katrina Gorry with Robert Wainwright. Allen & Unwin. $34.99. Billed as "a Matilda's story of football, motherhood and breaking down barriers", Katrina Gorry's memoir kicks off with some very classy front-cover endorsements. Former PM Julia Gillard describes the book as "full to the brim with love of family, of friends, of football" and Olympian Cathy Freeman calls it "a powerful testament to grit, endurance and agility". These talented and tenacious women would know a thing or two about the kind of courage, focus and resilience that has sustained Gorry through an eating disorder, IVF treatments, the birth of daughter Harper, meeting partner Clara Markstedt, the arrival of second child Koby and her on-again, off-again passion for soccer. Christie Brinkley with Sarah Toland. HarperCollins. $36.99. Christie Brinkley says it was the drinking that blew up her famous marriage to Billy Joel. "Booze was the other woman," she writes in her new memoir. But she thanks the piano man for being "an integral part of my life for decades" and giving her "one of my greatest gifts, my daughter Alexa Ray - and the title for this book". Over five decades in modelling, Brinkley has graced more than 500 magazine covers. She appeared in the 1983 music video for Joel's hit Uptown Girl after meeting him - in true celebrity style - on St Barts in the Caribbean, where fellow supermodel Elle Macpherson was also vying for his attention. Jacqueline Kent. NewSouth Books. $34.99. Jacqueline Kent profiles some of Australia's best-known writers of the 20th century. Her focus is the women who were the daughters of the suffragists of the early 1900s and the mothers of the feminists of the 1960s and 1970s. This generation, Kent writes, were "the bright and articulate women who went through two world wars, endured a massive economic depression and saw the rise of fascism and communism". The stories of writers such as Miles Franklin, Mary Gilmore, Katharine Susannah Prichard, Dymphna Cusack and Ruth Park are presented against the backdrop of the social and political events of the time. Grantlee Kieza. ABC Books. $35.99. Annette Kellerman was an early 20th century long-distance swimmer, fearless high-diver and vaudeville entertainer who became the first Australian woman to star in a Hollywood silent movie. Kellerman, who died in 1975, was also a pioneer of the one-piece swimsuit for women, refusing to wear the pantaloons of the time and helping to change fashion forever. After appearances as a mermaid in aquatic adventure movies, Kellerman shocked conservative audiences by appearing nude in A Daughter of the Gods in 1916. Her life of adventure included jumping into a pool of live crocodiles for a film and starting her own clothing line. Joseph Earp. Pantera Press. $34.99. Writer, painter and poet Joseph Earp explores the pain and pleasure of art and love through the comedic misadventures of painter Ellie Robertson, who wins a prestigious art prize at the age of 30 only to be immediately gripped by panic about what she's supposed to do next. Her solution: to paint portraits of all of her exes. She hopes the bizarre project will help her rediscover her passion and come to grips with her past relationships. But not everyone she has dated is happy to hear from her, which leads to some bittersweet truths about the emotional corner she has painted herself into. Tony Armstrong and illustrated by Emma Sjaan Beukers. Lothian Books. $24.99. When AFL-player-turned-TV-star Tony Armstrong visited his old primary school in Albury late last year to launch the promotional tour for his first book, George The Wizard, he told The Border Mail he preferred to entertain and inspire kids rather than write about his footy or Logies exploits: "When I'm older and on my last gravy train, I'll write a memoir!" His follow-up picture book with illustrator Emma Sjaan Beukers is set in the same vibrantly coloured fantasy world. A story about being loved for who you are, it follows dragon Maggie as she befriends wizard George and conquers the fiery hiccups triggered by her anxiety. Dervla McTiernan. HarperCollins. $34.99. Detective Cormac Reilly returns in the latest thriller from Dervla McTiernan, the former Irish lawyer now Perth-based crime novelist. Her murder mystery this time takes an archaeological twist as Reilly investigates a corpse discovered in a bog in Galway. For decades, the ancient boglands of Northern Europe have given up uncannily preserved bodies that are thousands of years old, some bearing strange injuries suggesting ritual torture or human sacrifice. But it turns out the Galway find is not historical but the body of Thaddeus Grey, a local high school principal who disappeared two years ago. So, why does his body show ritualistic mutilations? Letters to Our Robot Son Cadance Bell. Ultimo Press. $34.99. Mudgee-raised, Bathurst-based author and documentary film-maker Cadance Bell shared the story of her life growing up transgender in a small country town in her 2022 memoir The All of It: A Bogan Rhapsody. Her first novel, a science-fiction fable, follows a sweet little robot named Arto as he explores a desolate, post-human future Australia. In his quest to understand his existence, Arto is guided by a mysterious letter from the past and joined by a cheeky kitten companion. When he meets another robot named Indi, she claims to be his sister. But Arto begins to suspect she might be the reason the humans are all gone. Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page. Bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease. What's new: Logie-winning ex-AFL player Tony Armstrong has released his second book for children, Maggie the Dragon, and Matildas player Katrina Gorry's new memoir shares her story of football, motherhood and breaking down barriers. Katrina Gorry with Robert Wainwright. Allen & Unwin. $34.99. Billed as "a Matilda's story of football, motherhood and breaking down barriers", Katrina Gorry's memoir kicks off with some very classy front-cover endorsements. Former PM Julia Gillard describes the book as "full to the brim with love of family, of friends, of football" and Olympian Cathy Freeman calls it "a powerful testament to grit, endurance and agility". These talented and tenacious women would know a thing or two about the kind of courage, focus and resilience that has sustained Gorry through an eating disorder, IVF treatments, the birth of daughter Harper, meeting partner Clara Markstedt, the arrival of second child Koby and her on-again, off-again passion for soccer. Christie Brinkley with Sarah Toland. HarperCollins. $36.99. Christie Brinkley says it was the drinking that blew up her famous marriage to Billy Joel. "Booze was the other woman," she writes in her new memoir. But she thanks the piano man for being "an integral part of my life for decades" and giving her "one of my greatest gifts, my daughter Alexa Ray - and the title for this book". Over five decades in modelling, Brinkley has graced more than 500 magazine covers. She appeared in the 1983 music video for Joel's hit Uptown Girl after meeting him - in true celebrity style - on St Barts in the Caribbean, where fellow supermodel Elle Macpherson was also vying for his attention. Jacqueline Kent. NewSouth Books. $34.99. Jacqueline Kent profiles some of Australia's best-known writers of the 20th century. Her focus is the women who were the daughters of the suffragists of the early 1900s and the mothers of the feminists of the 1960s and 1970s. This generation, Kent writes, were "the bright and articulate women who went through two world wars, endured a massive economic depression and saw the rise of fascism and communism". The stories of writers such as Miles Franklin, Mary Gilmore, Katharine Susannah Prichard, Dymphna Cusack and Ruth Park are presented against the backdrop of the social and political events of the time. Grantlee Kieza. ABC Books. $35.99. Annette Kellerman was an early 20th century long-distance swimmer, fearless high-diver and vaudeville entertainer who became the first Australian woman to star in a Hollywood silent movie. Kellerman, who died in 1975, was also a pioneer of the one-piece swimsuit for women, refusing to wear the pantaloons of the time and helping to change fashion forever. After appearances as a mermaid in aquatic adventure movies, Kellerman shocked conservative audiences by appearing nude in A Daughter of the Gods in 1916. Her life of adventure included jumping into a pool of live crocodiles for a film and starting her own clothing line. Joseph Earp. Pantera Press. $34.99. Writer, painter and poet Joseph Earp explores the pain and pleasure of art and love through the comedic misadventures of painter Ellie Robertson, who wins a prestigious art prize at the age of 30 only to be immediately gripped by panic about what she's supposed to do next. Her solution: to paint portraits of all of her exes. She hopes the bizarre project will help her rediscover her passion and come to grips with her past relationships. But not everyone she has dated is happy to hear from her, which leads to some bittersweet truths about the emotional corner she has painted herself into. Tony Armstrong and illustrated by Emma Sjaan Beukers. Lothian Books. $24.99. When AFL-player-turned-TV-star Tony Armstrong visited his old primary school in Albury late last year to launch the promotional tour for his first book, George The Wizard, he told The Border Mail he preferred to entertain and inspire kids rather than write about his footy or Logies exploits: "When I'm older and on my last gravy train, I'll write a memoir!" His follow-up picture book with illustrator Emma Sjaan Beukers is set in the same vibrantly coloured fantasy world. A story about being loved for who you are, it follows dragon Maggie as she befriends wizard George and conquers the fiery hiccups triggered by her anxiety. Dervla McTiernan. HarperCollins. $34.99. Detective Cormac Reilly returns in the latest thriller from Dervla McTiernan, the former Irish lawyer now Perth-based crime novelist. Her murder mystery this time takes an archaeological twist as Reilly investigates a corpse discovered in a bog in Galway. For decades, the ancient boglands of Northern Europe have given up uncannily preserved bodies that are thousands of years old, some bearing strange injuries suggesting ritual torture or human sacrifice. But it turns out the Galway find is not historical but the body of Thaddeus Grey, a local high school principal who disappeared two years ago. So, why does his body show ritualistic mutilations? Letters to Our Robot Son Cadance Bell. Ultimo Press. $34.99. Mudgee-raised, Bathurst-based author and documentary film-maker Cadance Bell shared the story of her life growing up transgender in a small country town in her 2022 memoir The All of It: A Bogan Rhapsody. Her first novel, a science-fiction fable, follows a sweet little robot named Arto as he explores a desolate, post-human future Australia. In his quest to understand his existence, Arto is guided by a mysterious letter from the past and joined by a cheeky kitten companion. When he meets another robot named Indi, she claims to be his sister. But Arto begins to suspect she might be the reason the humans are all gone. Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page. Bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease. What's new: Logie-winning ex-AFL player Tony Armstrong has released his second book for children, Maggie the Dragon, and Matildas player Katrina Gorry's new memoir shares her story of football, motherhood and breaking down barriers. Katrina Gorry with Robert Wainwright. Allen & Unwin. $34.99. Billed as "a Matilda's story of football, motherhood and breaking down barriers", Katrina Gorry's memoir kicks off with some very classy front-cover endorsements. Former PM Julia Gillard describes the book as "full to the brim with love of family, of friends, of football" and Olympian Cathy Freeman calls it "a powerful testament to grit, endurance and agility". These talented and tenacious women would know a thing or two about the kind of courage, focus and resilience that has sustained Gorry through an eating disorder, IVF treatments, the birth of daughter Harper, meeting partner Clara Markstedt, the arrival of second child Koby and her on-again, off-again passion for soccer. Christie Brinkley with Sarah Toland. HarperCollins. $36.99. Christie Brinkley says it was the drinking that blew up her famous marriage to Billy Joel. "Booze was the other woman," she writes in her new memoir. But she thanks the piano man for being "an integral part of my life for decades" and giving her "one of my greatest gifts, my daughter Alexa Ray - and the title for this book". Over five decades in modelling, Brinkley has graced more than 500 magazine covers. She appeared in the 1983 music video for Joel's hit Uptown Girl after meeting him - in true celebrity style - on St Barts in the Caribbean, where fellow supermodel Elle Macpherson was also vying for his attention. Jacqueline Kent. NewSouth Books. $34.99. Jacqueline Kent profiles some of Australia's best-known writers of the 20th century. Her focus is the women who were the daughters of the suffragists of the early 1900s and the mothers of the feminists of the 1960s and 1970s. This generation, Kent writes, were "the bright and articulate women who went through two world wars, endured a massive economic depression and saw the rise of fascism and communism". The stories of writers such as Miles Franklin, Mary Gilmore, Katharine Susannah Prichard, Dymphna Cusack and Ruth Park are presented against the backdrop of the social and political events of the time. Grantlee Kieza. ABC Books. $35.99. Annette Kellerman was an early 20th century long-distance swimmer, fearless high-diver and vaudeville entertainer who became the first Australian woman to star in a Hollywood silent movie. Kellerman, who died in 1975, was also a pioneer of the one-piece swimsuit for women, refusing to wear the pantaloons of the time and helping to change fashion forever. After appearances as a mermaid in aquatic adventure movies, Kellerman shocked conservative audiences by appearing nude in A Daughter of the Gods in 1916. Her life of adventure included jumping into a pool of live crocodiles for a film and starting her own clothing line. Joseph Earp. Pantera Press. $34.99. Writer, painter and poet Joseph Earp explores the pain and pleasure of art and love through the comedic misadventures of painter Ellie Robertson, who wins a prestigious art prize at the age of 30 only to be immediately gripped by panic about what she's supposed to do next. Her solution: to paint portraits of all of her exes. She hopes the bizarre project will help her rediscover her passion and come to grips with her past relationships. But not everyone she has dated is happy to hear from her, which leads to some bittersweet truths about the emotional corner she has painted herself into. Tony Armstrong and illustrated by Emma Sjaan Beukers. Lothian Books. $24.99. When AFL-player-turned-TV-star Tony Armstrong visited his old primary school in Albury late last year to launch the promotional tour for his first book, George The Wizard, he told The Border Mail he preferred to entertain and inspire kids rather than write about his footy or Logies exploits: "When I'm older and on my last gravy train, I'll write a memoir!" His follow-up picture book with illustrator Emma Sjaan Beukers is set in the same vibrantly coloured fantasy world. A story about being loved for who you are, it follows dragon Maggie as she befriends wizard George and conquers the fiery hiccups triggered by her anxiety. Dervla McTiernan. HarperCollins. $34.99. Detective Cormac Reilly returns in the latest thriller from Dervla McTiernan, the former Irish lawyer now Perth-based crime novelist. Her murder mystery this time takes an archaeological twist as Reilly investigates a corpse discovered in a bog in Galway. For decades, the ancient boglands of Northern Europe have given up uncannily preserved bodies that are thousands of years old, some bearing strange injuries suggesting ritual torture or human sacrifice. But it turns out the Galway find is not historical but the body of Thaddeus Grey, a local high school principal who disappeared two years ago. So, why does his body show ritualistic mutilations? Letters to Our Robot Son Cadance Bell. Ultimo Press. $34.99. Mudgee-raised, Bathurst-based author and documentary film-maker Cadance Bell shared the story of her life growing up transgender in a small country town in her 2022 memoir The All of It: A Bogan Rhapsody. Her first novel, a science-fiction fable, follows a sweet little robot named Arto as he explores a desolate, post-human future Australia. In his quest to understand his existence, Arto is guided by a mysterious letter from the past and joined by a cheeky kitten companion. When he meets another robot named Indi, she claims to be his sister. But Arto begins to suspect she might be the reason the humans are all gone. Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page. Bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease. What's new: Logie-winning ex-AFL player Tony Armstrong has released his second book for children, Maggie the Dragon, and Matildas player Katrina Gorry's new memoir shares her story of football, motherhood and breaking down barriers. Katrina Gorry with Robert Wainwright. Allen & Unwin. $34.99. Billed as "a Matilda's story of football, motherhood and breaking down barriers", Katrina Gorry's memoir kicks off with some very classy front-cover endorsements. Former PM Julia Gillard describes the book as "full to the brim with love of family, of friends, of football" and Olympian Cathy Freeman calls it "a powerful testament to grit, endurance and agility". These talented and tenacious women would know a thing or two about the kind of courage, focus and resilience that has sustained Gorry through an eating disorder, IVF treatments, the birth of daughter Harper, meeting partner Clara Markstedt, the arrival of second child Koby and her on-again, off-again passion for soccer. Christie Brinkley with Sarah Toland. HarperCollins. $36.99. Christie Brinkley says it was the drinking that blew up her famous marriage to Billy Joel. "Booze was the other woman," she writes in her new memoir. But she thanks the piano man for being "an integral part of my life for decades" and giving her "one of my greatest gifts, my daughter Alexa Ray - and the title for this book". Over five decades in modelling, Brinkley has graced more than 500 magazine covers. She appeared in the 1983 music video for Joel's hit Uptown Girl after meeting him - in true celebrity style - on St Barts in the Caribbean, where fellow supermodel Elle Macpherson was also vying for his attention. Jacqueline Kent. NewSouth Books. $34.99. Jacqueline Kent profiles some of Australia's best-known writers of the 20th century. Her focus is the women who were the daughters of the suffragists of the early 1900s and the mothers of the feminists of the 1960s and 1970s. This generation, Kent writes, were "the bright and articulate women who went through two world wars, endured a massive economic depression and saw the rise of fascism and communism". The stories of writers such as Miles Franklin, Mary Gilmore, Katharine Susannah Prichard, Dymphna Cusack and Ruth Park are presented against the backdrop of the social and political events of the time. Grantlee Kieza. ABC Books. $35.99. Annette Kellerman was an early 20th century long-distance swimmer, fearless high-diver and vaudeville entertainer who became the first Australian woman to star in a Hollywood silent movie. Kellerman, who died in 1975, was also a pioneer of the one-piece swimsuit for women, refusing to wear the pantaloons of the time and helping to change fashion forever. After appearances as a mermaid in aquatic adventure movies, Kellerman shocked conservative audiences by appearing nude in A Daughter of the Gods in 1916. Her life of adventure included jumping into a pool of live crocodiles for a film and starting her own clothing line. Joseph Earp. Pantera Press. $34.99. Writer, painter and poet Joseph Earp explores the pain and pleasure of art and love through the comedic misadventures of painter Ellie Robertson, who wins a prestigious art prize at the age of 30 only to be immediately gripped by panic about what she's supposed to do next. Her solution: to paint portraits of all of her exes. She hopes the bizarre project will help her rediscover her passion and come to grips with her past relationships. But not everyone she has dated is happy to hear from her, which leads to some bittersweet truths about the emotional corner she has painted herself into. Tony Armstrong and illustrated by Emma Sjaan Beukers. Lothian Books. $24.99. When AFL-player-turned-TV-star Tony Armstrong visited his old primary school in Albury late last year to launch the promotional tour for his first book, George The Wizard, he told The Border Mail he preferred to entertain and inspire kids rather than write about his footy or Logies exploits: "When I'm older and on my last gravy train, I'll write a memoir!" His follow-up picture book with illustrator Emma Sjaan Beukers is set in the same vibrantly coloured fantasy world. A story about being loved for who you are, it follows dragon Maggie as she befriends wizard George and conquers the fiery hiccups triggered by her anxiety. Dervla McTiernan. HarperCollins. $34.99. Detective Cormac Reilly returns in the latest thriller from Dervla McTiernan, the former Irish lawyer now Perth-based crime novelist. Her murder mystery this time takes an archaeological twist as Reilly investigates a corpse discovered in a bog in Galway. For decades, the ancient boglands of Northern Europe have given up uncannily preserved bodies that are thousands of years old, some bearing strange injuries suggesting ritual torture or human sacrifice. But it turns out the Galway find is not historical but the body of Thaddeus Grey, a local high school principal who disappeared two years ago. So, why does his body show ritualistic mutilations? Letters to Our Robot Son Cadance Bell. Ultimo Press. $34.99. Mudgee-raised, Bathurst-based author and documentary film-maker Cadance Bell shared the story of her life growing up transgender in a small country town in her 2022 memoir The All of It: A Bogan Rhapsody. Her first novel, a science-fiction fable, follows a sweet little robot named Arto as he explores a desolate, post-human future Australia. In his quest to understand his existence, Arto is guided by a mysterious letter from the past and joined by a cheeky kitten companion. When he meets another robot named Indi, she claims to be his sister. But Arto begins to suspect she might be the reason the humans are all gone. Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page. Bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease.
New Indian Express
3 days ago
- New Indian Express
The Pirates are coming
On what was supposed to be a relaxed Sunday, April 11, 2010, Pralav Dhyani, a deck cadet on the cargo ship RAK Afrikana, was engaged in routine deck work after breakfast. His peaceful morning was disrupted by an unfamiliar sound, initially dismissed as a car backfiring. However, when the sound repeated, Dhyani recognised it as something out of the ordinary. Moments later, the unsettling truth dawned on him: the cargo ship was under attack by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. This is how the author and 36-year-old founder of ARC Continental FZE, a ship brokerage and consulting firm in Dubai describes the attack on his cargo ship by Somali pirates in his book, Hijacked: A True Story of Surviving 331 Days with Somali Pirates (HarperCollins). At present, a businessman in Dubai, 15 years after the incident, Dhyani, in an interview with The Morning Standard, recalls those turbulent 331 days when he was at the mercy of the pirates. 'The idea of writing the book came to me during COVID-19. The world came to a standstill during the pandemic. People were forced to stay inside their homes. They were desperate to move out and move around freely. At that time, I remembered the days when I was grounded and a hostage of the Somali pirates. I thought of writing and sharing my story to tell readers how I overcame my confinement under gunpoint for 331 days,' he says. Hijacked… perfectly captures the author's state of mind—his helplessness, survival skills, and his refusal to give up hope in the midst of crisis. 'There were of course moments of highs and lows. I did not know when I would be able to go back home and see my parents. I recalled the best moments of life which I spent with my parents and my friends while being a hostage so that I would not lose hope. Not for a second, did I allow myself to think that I would not be able to return,' Dhyani says. The book also focuses on the pirates and their motivations for choosing that life. Why piracy? What were the things he first noticed about them? 'To me, they all looked strikingly similar, except for their different heights. They were extremely skinny, had similar hairdos, yellow-tinted and jaundiced-looking eyes, yellow teeth, and dirty nails. Their lungis and feet were wet because their skiff was tiny…' Dhyani writes in the third chapter of the book. It also talks of the economic crisis of Somalia and that many of its people have taken up arms and gone rogue as a result of economic deprivation. 'It is not right to compare pirates with terrorists, as the pirates were never after our lives,' he says. 'They joined the world of piracy as they were suffering from extreme poverty. The pirates with whom we interacted, were just footsoldiers, and they did this in search of easy money and food. Once they got their ransom, they let us go.' As the days went by, Dhyani remembers noting other details. 'We spoke with a few of them. There was one pirate who exhibited his pride at being Somalian saying, 'Somalia is a country that accepts all sorts of currencies available in the world'. There was another person who was aware of the complete coastline of West Africa. However, there were others who did not know a single thing beyond their country. I found it all surprising—to see two people sitting together, holding the same guns, chatting, with one aware of many things, and the other, not at all,' notes Dhyani. Back home with a lesson After being released, his first thoughts were about his parents and the kind of curiosity that awaited him from people outside his family. Hence, he decided to go to Pilani in Rajasthan to spend time with his close family to avoid unwanted interactions. 'While growing up, I spent a lot of time on the BITS Pilani campus. The place offers a lot of calm and composure. Besides, my extended family (my uncle was a professor at BITS Pilani at that time) was still there. So, I decided to go there as I wanted to stay away from the hustle of metropolitan cities. I was trying to catch up on things. I met my friends and tried to get hold of the changes that occurred in their lives. Later, I went on a vacation with my friends, and after coming back, I hit the restart button. That's when life kicked in,' notes Dhyani. Although Dhyani does not sail anymore, the incident has taught him the biggest lessons of his life. 'It was a test of my endurance and survival skills. It provided me with a mammoth mental challenge that I overcame. It made me stronger. Every time I get into any difficulty, I remember how I handled those moments with patience and care,' he says.
