Showing results by publisher "Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd" in Sports & Outdoors

As the daughter of an Indian Muslim father and a white Australian mother, growing up in the conservative environment of 1970s Perth, Rabia Siddique was always going to be marked as different. Escaping her traumatic childhood, Rabia moved to London after graduating from law school to pursue her passionate commitment to social justice. She joined the British Army as a military lawyer just days after 9/11, finally finding herself stationed in Southern Iraq.

The problem was that Les Darcy didn't want to march at the fore of such a procession, nor to such a destination. He wanted to continue what he had been doing to extraordinary acclaim before the war began - taking on the best boxers the world could throw at him, and lifting his entire family out of poverty as he did so. Torn between the duty he felt he owed his family, and the duty many felt he owed his country, Les made his choice ... and faced the consequences.

In 2012, combat engineer Curtis McGrath was serving in the Australian army in Afghanistan when, in the line of duty, he stepped on a mine. Seriously injured but still conscious and aware he'd bleed out and die within minutes, McGrath, as the unit's chief first-aid officer, directed his comrades to apply tourniquets and administer an IV and morphine. Then, as he was stretchered to a helicopter, fearing he would never see his family again, he joked that he planned to become a Paralympian.

Sport was never meant to be complicated. No gibberish, no statistics, no talk of green-zones, black-zones, channels and percentage plays, no cheating, no grubbiness and certainly no ball-tampering. Peter FitzSimons celebrates the good, the generous and the kind in Australian sport, the genuine characters, the national treasures and the special moments when the losers were the true champions and the game, whichever game, was done proud.

The astonishing life story from one of Australia's most inspirational athletes. Dylan Alcott has never let his disability get in the way of what he wanted to achieve. His family treated him no differently to any other kid, and it was the best thing they ever did. Growing up, Dylan always had a positive attitude to life. So when he discovered sport, he’d have a go at anything and could always be found at the centre of the action, giving his best and playing to win. Then he tried wheelchair basketball and tennis and was hooked. 

Former professional sportsman Joe Williams shares his struggles with mental illness and reveals what has helped him survive and thrive. Former NRL player, world boxing title holder and proud Wiradjuri First Nations man Joe Williams was always plagued by negative dialogue in his head, and the pressures of elite sport took their toll. Joe eventually turned to drugs and alcohol to silence the dialogue before attempting to take his own life in 2012. In the aftermath, determined to rebuild, Joe took up professional boxing and got clean. Defying the Enemy Within is both Joe's story and the steps he took to get well.

Jeff Horn's journey from a bullied schoolboy to world boxing champion - for anyone who has ever felt downhearted or like an outsider. The story of Jeff Horn is like a fairy tale. Written with award-winning author, journalist and boxing aficionado Grantlee Kieza, The Hornet is the tale of a boy who, slapped around by bullies, saw through tears in his eyes a vision of himself as a hero, a champ, someone other people might one day look up to. Horn took up boxing after being tormented as a teenager.

An entertaining collection of insider yarns by an Aussie Test cricket legend. 'In the Test arena, Dennis Lillee was never beaten. West Indian champion Viv Richards had taken the sword to all the international bowlers of his era. But when he came up against Lillee, it was a heavyweight fight between unrelenting combatants. Their contests were always take-no-prisoners affairs.'

If you're likely to buy only one audiobook this year, make sure it's a ripper. Make it one about a boy from the bush who's hell-bent on becoming an elite sportsman. Be sure it's a true story, with ups and downs and plenty of fun times you can relate to. An inspiring insight into triumph over adversity probably won't go astray either. Born without the lower half of his left leg, young Don Elgin never considered himself disabled until he was in high school - and even then, he had to be convinced.

Heard of the two dimwits who try to blow up a bothersome croc but only succeed in destroying their 4WD? Or the drunken fishermen who fell off his boat and three hours later knocked on the hull of a Russian trawler? Or of marlin with beaks like baseball bats and eyes the size of bread and butter plates? Marvel at fishing cheats who've devised outrageous schemes and ruses to win fishing competitions, and a huge shark that vomited up a human arm.

She has captured the heart of a nation like no sporting figure since Phar Lap and Don Bradman. This is greatness the likes of which is rarely seen. This is the authorised story of the horse that couldn't be beaten. Written by acclaimed journalist and broadcaster Gerard Whateley, with a foreword by trainer Peter Moody, Black Caviar documents the career of the racehorse who transcended the track to become an Australian icon, idolised by a devoted following more akin to a rock band than a racehorse. With her invincible run and marauding dominance, Black Caviar has returned racing to the glory days of more than half a century past.

The stories and verses in this collection are not just anecdotes, racing history pieces, or rehashed feature articles from sports journalists; first and foremost they are good literature. The common thread running through the wonderful Australian short stories featured in this volume is the real Aussie character and passion for life that racing seems to bring out in our culture. There are tales of childhood dreams, great achievements, victory in adversity and also tales of tragedy and heartbreak. There are stories of crazy schemes and hilarious events that could only happen on an Australian racetrack.

When a team of soccer players from the Wild Boars Academy Football Club - a scrappy club of undocumented migrants and outcasts - became stranded behind rising water in a labyrinthine Thai cave system, they set in train a drama that would captivate the world. Nine days later, still trapped in the dark without food, and with only water leaking through the walls to drink, their survival seemed unlikely. Yet against the odds a team of determined divers traversed floodwaters and narrow cave-ways to locate the boys - alive and hopeful.

Sir Edmund Hilary called it the greatest survival story of all time. In 1916, just months into Ernest Shackleton's third expedition to the South Pole, his ship, the Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and sank. Almost a century later, explorer and environmental scientist Tim Jarvis set out with a crew of five to replicate Shackleton's journey, using the same equipment, eating the same unpalatable food and facing the same hostile ocean conditions. 

The powerful and uplifting story of one Ugandan woman who has given hope to hundreds of female victims of war and violence. Alice Achan was just 13 when the Lord's Resistance Army first terrorised her village in Northern Uganda in 1987. She spent five years on the run from the brutal LRA and then cared for her young nieces after their mother died of AIDS, losing them one by one to the disease.

The Sydney to Hobart yacht race is one of the world's major sporting events. In 1998, it became one of the world's major sporting disasters. Six sailors tragically perished, and numerous yachts sank or were badly damaged. The subsequent search and rescue operation was one of the most phenomenally accomplished peacetime efforts the world has ever seen. In this fully updated edition to mark the 10th anniversary of the tumultuous race, Rob Mundle, one of Australia's leading journalists and yachtsmen, tells this story of challenge and survival with compassion, vigour and understanding. 

In 1995, journalist and author Roland Perry wrote to Sir Donald Bradman requesting an interview for a biography he was planning of the great cricketer. Surprisingly, the Don agreed. It was the start of a conversation that continued for years, during which the real Bradman shone, not only as a great sportsman but as a musician, brilliant thinker and humorist with a fondness for tea and a Scotch or two.

A must-have audiobook for walkers, sailors, swimmers, anglers and everyone interested in the natural world, in How to Read Water, Natural Navigator Tristan Gooley shares knowledge, skills, tips and useful observations to help you enjoy the landscape around you. From wild swimming in Sussex to wayfinding off Oman, via the icy mysteries of the Arctic, Tristan Gooley draws on his own pioneering journeys to reveal the secrets of ponds, puddles, rivers, oceans and more to show us all the skills we need to read the water around us.

The culmination of everything Tristan Gooley has written so far: How to take what you learn about the outdoors - and make it second nature. Fans of master outdoorsman Tristan Gooley have learned that the world is filled with clues to look for - we can use the Big Dipper to tell time, for example, and a budding flower to find south. But what about the innate survival instincts that told Gooley to move on one night, just as he was about to make camp? Everything looked perfect, but something felt wrong.

In Rev Head, Shane puts his foot to the floor and takes us on a wild ride down the highways and byways of his motoring obsession. Deadly billycarts, drag racing in a Commodore station wagon packed with dental supplies, driving the world's rarest, strangest and fastest cars, competing at Bathurst, rallying and some spectacular crashes - this fast-paced and often hilarious collection of motoring yarns will keep rev heads everywhere on the edge of their seats.