Showing results by narrator "Des Fitzgerald" in All Categories

Mary Brown is the star of the Adorable Fat Girl series: she's gorgeous, curvaceous, and wants to find a boyfriend. But where's she going to meet someone new? She doesn't want to hang around pubs all evening (actually that bit's not true), and she doesn't want to have to get out of her pyjamas unless really necessary (that bit's true). There's only one thing for it - she will launch herself majestically onto the dating scene.

Jas saw the light when her ex dumped her treasured vintage fabric all over the street. She's back in her home town with a plan to launch her hat-making business at the Christmas market in the beautiful Georgian square. But the Ballyclane she returns to is not the one she left nine years ago. Her mother has a new man and Jas's old room is a walk-in wardrobe now. Her beloved gran has died and the house Jas hoped to work from is a bonanza for property developers instead.

What would the city of the future look like if we tried to build a better life from the ground up? And would anyone want to live there? Here, Des Fitzgerald takes us on an urgent, unforgettable journey into the future of urban life, from shimmering edifices in the Arizona desert to forest-bathing in Japan, and from rats in mazes to neuroscientific studies of the effects of our surroundings. Along the way, he reveals the deep-lying and often problematic roots of today's green city movement, and offers an argument for celebrating our cities as they are.

Mary Brown is back to her mad and crazy best as she heads to Portugal for a weight loss camp and discovers it’s nothing like she expected. Mary wants to hide from the instructors and cheat the system. The trouble is, her mum is with her, and won’t leave her alone for a second...Then there's the angry instructor with the deep, dark secret about why he left the army. And what about Yvonne - the slim, attractive lady who sneaks off every night after dinner. Where's she going?

Follow Paul Cutler on his next adventure as he fights the cocaine gold rush. Assuming his new identity as Paul O’Keefe, Paul is tasked with finding the supplier of a surge of Mexican cartel meth flooding Australian streets. Assigned to infiltrate a newly appointed security company at Fremantle Port, he discovers a clandestine world of off-the-books operations, and a business front that goes far beyond mere security. There’s a dangerous game afoot for who gets control of the port’s smuggling operations, and O’Keefe is caught in the crossfire. 

In 1944, in the outer-Melbourne suburb of Nunawading, the brutal deaths of a family herald the return of a long-forgotten cult. A man named Anthony Prescott has declared himself the Messiah, and has promised his followers immortality. There are those who believe him—and who are ready to kill in his name. Inspector Titus Lambert of the Melbourne Homicide unit, whose detectives are over-stretched, requests the discreet assistance of Helen Lord and Joe Sable, once members of his unit, now private inquiry agents.

Acclaimed explorer Rob Nash has lost his way. Grieving the death of his wife, and blaming himself, he sees no reason to carry on. But when 'Uncle' Frank Douglas offers him the chance to lead a cave-diving expedition in the jungles of Papua, Nash can see some light at the end of the tunnel. But the expedition might not be what it seems. With a decades-old Japanese submarine buried deep in a cavern, and a team hellbent on unleashing the treasures it hides, Nash finds himself on a ship heading for danger.

Frank Moorhouse was legendary in Australian literary and cultural life, the author of a huge and diverse body of work - essays, short stories, journalism, scripts, the iconic Edith Trilogy - an unapologetic activist, intellectual, libertarian and champion of freedom of speech and sexual self determination. Though he lived his life publicly, his private stories have not been shared, the many paths he forged left unexamined, until now. This landmark study is the fascinating story of how one of Australia's most original writers and pioneer of the discontinuous narrative came to be.

Deaf PI Caleb Zelic has always been an outsider, estranged from family and friends. But when he receives a message that his brother, Anton, is in danger, Caleb sees it as a chance at redemption. He tracks Anton down to a small, wind-punished island, where secrets run deep and resentments deeper. When a sniper starts terrorising the isolated community, the brothers must rely on each other like never before. But trust comes at a deadly price …

Seventeen-year-old Elizabeth St. Leger is accustomed to doing as she pleases and apologizing later if necessary. However, simply saying sorry did not work the night she was caught eavesdropping on a mysterious ceremony in her home, Doneraile Court. Bound and blindfolded, she listened as the men debated unusual ways to kill her until one suggested another option that would change the history of the world’s oldest fraternity forever.

It is New Year’s Eve when the storm of the century hits northern California. In a quiet neighborhood in San Francisco, amid the chaos of fallen trees and damaged homes, the lives of three strangers are about to collide. For Quinn Thompson, what happens in the storm’s wake will bring down a...

In early 20th-century Belfast, working class Meg Preston struggles to accept her own sexuality and yearns for forbidden love. Battling the customs and hardships of their time, Meg pursues a relationship with her childhood friend Lillian Watson. But soon, tribulations of war, violence, and emigration threaten to tear everything apart.

Banishing vengeful spirits from the mortal realm is Holly’s day job, but she’s never had to ghost anyone before – until Callum breaks her heart, making her wish she could exorcise her ex from her life. It’s been two years since professional ghost-whisperer Holly Daniels ghosted Callum...

Toward a Cognitive Theory of Narrative Acts brings together in one volume cutting-edge research that turns to recent findings in cognitive and neurobiological sciences, psychology, linguistics, philosophy, and evolutionary biology, among other disciplines, to explore and understand more deeply various cultural phenomena, including art, music, literature, and film. The essays fulfilling this task for the general listener as well as the specialist are written by renowned authors.

The Devereaux siblings are talented entrepreneurs running a successful Insurance company. That success is tested as a series of unimaginable events surround them. London, her sister Remy, and their brother Luke evoke feelings of immense loyalty from those close to them. But some aren't loyalists and everyone isn't quite who they appear to be. Someone despises them enough to commit arson against their company. When that doesn't hurt enough the consequences turn deadly for one of them. The police are struggling to find the perpetrators, forcing the siblings to take matters into their own hands.

In this new collection of 33 stories, one of Korea's foremost Seon (Zen) masters introduces the richness and depth of Korea's Buddhist tradition. With humor and insight, Seon Master Daehaeng shows us our inherent potential and demonstrates how we can face the challenges of life with wisdom and vigor.

Jock Serong reimagines in urgent, compelling prose the ill-fated exploits of George Augustus Robinson at the settlement of Wybalenna. On the windswept point of an island at the edge of van Diemen’s Land, the Commandant huddles with a small force of white men and women. He has gathered together, under varying degrees of coercion and duress, the last of the Tasmanians, or so he believes. His purpose is to save them—from a number of things, but most pressingly from the murderous intent of the pastoral settlers on their country.

From Turner Classic Movies and the creators of @precodedotcom, this is the essential film-by-film guide to must-see cinema from the pre-Code era—a wild and wonderful time in Hollywood history before strict enforcement of a censorship code that ruled moviemaking for decades. With unparalleled...

In Autumn of 1912, mounted trooper Augustus Hawkins arrives at his new post in the fading gold town of Colley, NSW. On his first day, he is ambushed by a hidden gunman, his junior officer is killed before his eyes, and he escapes back to town to find the police station burning to the ground. Someone has it in for the mounted troopers. A traumatised veteran of the Boer War, and a stranger to Colley, Hawkins is deeply shaken and ill-equipped to solve the case. But with only green troopers and a drunken, incompetent detective available to hunt down the murderer, he is forced to take the lead.

From the land of fantastical castles, vast lakes and deep forests, the Brothers Grimm collected a treasury of enchanting folk and fairy stories full of giants and dwarfs, witches and princesses, magical beasts and cunning children. From classics such as 'The Frog-Prince' and 'Hansel and Grettel' to the delights of 'Ashputtel' or 'Old Sultan', all hold a timeless magic which has enthralled children for centuries.