In a dramatic, moving work of historical reporting and personal discovery, Mark Whitaker, award-winning journalist, sets out to trace the story of what happened to his parents, a fascinating but star-crossed interracial couple, and arrives at a new understanding of the family dramas that shaped their lives—and his own. His father, “Syl” Whitaker, was the charismatic grandson of slaves who grew up the child of black undertakers from Pittsburgh and went on to become a groundbreaking scholar of Africa. His mother, Jeanne Theis, was a shy World War II refugee from France whose father, a Huguenot pastor, helped hide thousands of Jews from the Nazis and Vichy police. They met in the mid-1950s, when he was a college student and she was his professor, and they carried on a secret romance for more than a year before marrying and having two boys. Eventually they split in a bitter divorce that was followed by decades of unhappiness as his mother coped with self-recrimination and depression while trying to raise her sons by herself, and his father spiraled into an alcoholic descent that destroyed his once meteoric career. Based on extensive interviews and documentary research as well as his own personal recollections and insights, My Long Trip Home is a reporter’s search for the factual and emotional truth about a complicated and compelling family, a successful adult’s exploration of how he rose from a turbulent childhood to a groundbreaking career, and, ultimately, a son’s haunting meditation on the nature of love, loss, identity, and forgiveness.
Tony "Bomber" Bower-Miles was a young sapper in the Australian Army when he first went to Vietnam in 1969. Landmines were one of the biggest threats faced by troops on both sides, and Bomber's work involved the dangerous task of clearing them. He saw mates killed and horribly injured, leaving him with a deep-rooted hatred of these deadly weapons. He returned to Australia scarred and unable to relate to a peacetime world. Alcohol became his way of escaping, and his life spiralled down into addiction and violence.But Bomber wasn't ready to let the war beat him. In 2001, he returned to South East Asia, putting his old skills to work in clearing the millions of forgotten land mines that litter Cambodia. Starting from scratch, Bomber established the Vietnam Veterans Mine Clearing Team, an NGO with a difference - as those who fought now help others still suffering the consequences of the conflict.Bomber is his story. Tough and uncompromising, it reveals the brutal face of war but also tells of redemption and humanity in the most challenging of circumstances.
Tony "Bomber" Bower-Miles was a young sapper in the Australian Army when he first went to Vietnam in the late 1960s. Land mines were one of the biggest threats faced by troops on both sides, and much of Bomber's work involved laying or clearing these terrible devices. He saw mates and colleagues killed and horribly injured around him, in a war that was confusing, terrifying and devastating to everyone that it touched. He returned to Australia scarred, battered and unable to relate to a peacetime world. Alcohol became his way of escaping, and his life spiralled down into addiction and violence. He could easily have been lost - another vet unable to cope, another grim statistic put down to the tragedy of Vietnam. But Bomber wasn't ready to let the war beat him after all these years. In 2001, he returned to South East Asia, putting his old skills to work in the dangerous job of clearing the millions of forgotten land mines that litter Cambodia. Starting from scratch, with makeshift equipment, Bomber established the Vietnam Veterans' Mine Clearing Team, an NGO with a difference - as those who fought now help others still suffering the consequences of the conflict. Bomber is his story. Tough and uncompromising, it reveals the true face of war in all its brutality. But it also tells of redemption and humanity: a tale of real Australian heroism.
Like the Beaumont children and the Azaria Chamberlain cases before it, the backpacker murder case in Belanglo State Forest has entered Australian criminal folklore. Seven young people, most of them foreigners backpacking around Australia, brutally murdered, their remains uncovered in 1992 and 1993. It would take scores of police over three years, countless hours of forensic investigation, thousands of false leads and a few precious clues to charge and convict Ivan Milat for their horrific deaths. Sins of the Brother is the definitive work on Ivan Milat, his family and the murders. Almost four years in the making, informed by exclusive interviews with members of the Milat family, key police investigators and Crown lawyers, this book reveals a family culture so bizarre it would lead inexorably to murder. It also scrutinises the police investigation-its remarkable success and failures, the dramatic turning point and the backbiting and bitterness that followed Milat's arrest. Thought-provoking, totally unsalacious, an exploration of the darker side of Australian life as a whole, Sins of the Brother is a detailed and gripping read-a psychological thriller come to life.
Would you squeeze your way into a shoulder-width, pitch-dark stormwater drain to rescue a kid as it flooded? Would you knowingly cop a 20,000 volt electric shock to save a friend and his child? Would you swim out from the beach to rescue a man bitten by a five-metre white pointer, while the shark is still circling him? Would you run into the carnage of a burning Bali nightclub to save people when anyone who can still walk is running the other way? These are decisions made in a split-second by ordinary people placed in extraordinary circumstances. Yet those decisions can - and usually do - have an impact that lasts a lifetime. So what happens to these ordinary heroes once the newspaper headlines have disappeared and the medal-award ceremony is a distant memory? Mark Whittaker, Walkley-Award winning journalist and author, has written a unique account that follows men and women in amazing acts of bravery - and then the long aftermath as they deal with an array of issues - from guilt to post-traumatic stress - that were the furthest things from their minds when they made that split-second decision to risk their own life for someone else's. Brave is, in every sense of the word, extraordinary - both in its approach, the people it describes and honours, and in the effect it has on the reader. It is compelling, complex, heart-breaking and uplifting.
On June 1, 2001, the heir to the Nepalese throne, Crown Prince Dipendra, donned military fatigues, armed himself with automatic weapons, walked in on a quiet family gathering, and, without a word, mowed his family down before turning a gun on himself. But Dipendra did not die immediately, and while lying in a coma was declared king. He was now a living god. Award-winning journalists Amy Willesee and Mark Whittaker set out to understand what could have led to such a devastating tragedy, one that fascinated and appalled the world. Exploring Kathmandu and other parts of the kingdom, they conducted exhaustive interviews with everyone from Maoist guerillas to members and friends of the royal family, gaining insight into the people involved in and the events behind the massacre. At the heart of the story is the love affair between Dipendra and the beautiful aristocrat Devyani Rana, whom he was forbidden to marry. Culminating their portrait of Nepal is a chilling reconstruction of the events of that fatal day. As conspiracy theories circulate and rebels threaten to topple the monarchy, the future of this small Himalayan kingdom promises to be as tumultuous as its past. Revealing a country where the twenty-first century mingles uneasily with the fourteenth, Love and Death in Kathmandu is both an enlightening portrait of a place that is a world apart and a riveting investigation of an incredible crime.
Travel book investigating particularly miserable place names of Australia. Documents the authors' travels around Australia to find the sad and humorous stories behind place names such as Starvation Lake, Mount Unapproachable, Point Torment, Mount Carnage, Mount Treachery and Mount Destruction. Includes colour photos and bibliography. Whittaker is a former staff writer for the 'Australian Magazine' and he has previously co-authored 'Sins of the Brother - The Definitive Story of Ivan Milat and the Backpacker Murders' and 'Granny Killer - The Story of John Wayne Glover'. Willesee is a former writer for the 'Daily Telegraph' and worked as a researcher on the TV Documentary 'Who Killed Sally-Anne Huckstepp?'.
Gas turbine engines will still represent a key technology in the next 20-year energy scenarios, either in stand-alone applications or in combination with other power generation equipment. This book intends in fact to provide an updated picture as well as a perspective vision of some of the major improvements that characterize the gas turbine technology in different applications, from marine and aircraft propulsion to industrial and stationary power generation. Therefore, the target audience for it involves design, analyst, materials and maintenance engineers. Also manufacturers, researchers and scientists will benefit from the timely and accurate information provided in this volume. The book is organized into five main sections including 21 chapters overall: (I) Aero and Marine Gas Turbines, (II) Gas Turbine Systems, (III) Heat Transfer, (IV) Combustion and (V) Materials and Fabrication.
Two investigative reporters trace the life of a notorious Sydney serial killer from his childhood in Britain, through his seemingly respectable family life in Australia, to his final identification as the killer of six elderly women. Includes exclusive interview with Glover in prison and interviews with relatives and friends.
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