An Australian hero torn between family and country 'Put Les Darcy in a uniform and the men of Australia will march to hell behind him.' that was the message trained on Australia's great 'Blacksmith Boxer', as debate about conscription raged in the middle of World War I. 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. And so unfolds a ballad of love, war, betrayal, mystery, patriotism and heroism; a ballad of a champion whose story still has the power to move the stoniest heart.

Every Assistance and Protection is the first book presenting an in-depth history of the Australian passport. In charting the development of the passport from its early beginnings to its present form, the book traverses changes in government policy and social history from the early 19th century to the modern era. It shows how the Australian passport evolved from a signifier of British nationality into a badge of membership of one of the most multicultural countries in the world. The book explores the landmark events in this history:the great 19th century diasporas, resulting from relaxation of official controls on the movement of people; the early passport regime regulating the movement of "ticket-of-leave" convicts; the establishment of the centralised passport system during World War I; the enactment of the first passport legislation for the Commonwealth, The Passports Act 1920, and the reaction of some Australians who felt the new law infringed the liberties of the British subject; changes to the laws in 1938 such that possession of a passport was no longer mandatory for an Australian to travel, though still a practical necessity; the use of the government's discretionary power to cancel or withhold passports to inhibit the movement of individual communists; the establishment of Australian citizenship in 1948 - the basis for possession of an Australian passport; the removal of the word "British" from the cover in 1967; the effects of globalisation and heightened security in the late 20th and early 21st century. It also touches on the lives of individuals: boxer Les Darcy, journalist Wilfred Burchett, and General Sir Thomas Blamey, are among the many Australians featuring in these pages. The book is based on an exhaustive examination of hitherto unexamined primary sources of many government departments, including the Departments of External Affairs, the Prime Minister's, the Attorney-General's, Defence, Home and Territories, Immigration and Foreign Affairs. Sponsored by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

A lively linguistic analysis of our distinctive forms of speech drawn from a range of everyday experiences, including work, relaxation, gambling, drinking, family life, sport, crime, war, politics and sexual relations.

Putting his unique spin on our sporting life, Peter FitzSimons celebrates the tall tales and true, the outrageous yarns and the knockabout humour from the footy fields, cricket grounds, dressing rooms, bars and commentary boxes of Australia. From the clever sledges behind the bales and the goalposts to the quick wit of lounge room commentators and the ever so slightly exaggerated tales of holes in one and other great sporting feats, comes this collection of wicked tales, killer quotes and puffed up stories of sporting prowess that it will make you chuckle, roll your eyes and say, 'Seriously... you have to laugh'!

A celebration of chest puffing goodness and kindness from around the country written in inimitable Peter FitzSimon's style. You gotta love this country when an AFL legend takes his mum instead of his girlfriend to the Brownlow, when an Australian cricket captain joins a bunch of fourteen year olds for a bit of street cricket, when a bloke wins the Australian Marbles Championship after being reunited with the tom-bowlers his brother threw away forty years ago, and when the dry cleaner down the road is called Drop Your Pants. Peter FitzSimons celebrates the good, the generous, the kind and the downright strange in this hilarious and heart-warming collection of stories from daily life and grassroots sporting fields around the country. It's enough for you to puff out your chest and say, Gotta Love This Country!

From acclaimed journalist Walter Shapiro, the true life story of how his great-uncle—a Jewish vaudeville impresario and exuberant con man—managed to cheat Hitler’s agents in the run-up to WWII. All his life, journalist Walter Shapiro assumed that the outlandish stories about his great-uncle Freeman were exaggerated family lore; some cockamamie Jewish revenge fantasies dreamt up to entertain the kids and venerate their larger-than-life relative. Only when he started researching Freeman Bernstein’s life did he realize that his family was actually holding back—the man had enough stories, vocations, and IOUs to fill a dozen lifetimes. Freeman was many people: a vaudeville manager, boxing promoter, stock swindler, card shark and self-proclaimed “Jade King of China.” But his greatest title, perhaps the only man who can claim such infamy, was as The Man Who Hustled Hitler. A cross between The Night They Raided Minsky’s and Guys and Dolls, Freeman Bernstein’s life was itself an old New York sideshow extravaganza, one that Shapiro expertly stages in Hustling Hitler. From a ragtag childhood in Troy, New York, Shapiro follows his great-uncle’s ever-crooked trajectory through show business, from his early schemes on the burlesque circuit to marrying his star performer, May Ward, and producing silent films—released only in Philadelphia. Of course, all of Freeman’s cons and schemes were simply a prelude to February 18, 1937, the day he was arrested by the LAPD outside of Mae West’s apartment in Hollywood. The charge? Grand larceny—for cheating Adolf Hitler and the Nazi government. In the capstone of his slippery career, Freeman had promised to ship thirty-five tons of embargoed Canadian nickel to the Führer; when the cargo arrived, the Germans found only huge, useless quantities of scrap metal and tin. It was a blow to their economy and war preparations—and Hitler did not take the bait-and-switch lightly. Told with cinematic verve and hilarious perspective, Hustling Hitler is Shapiro’s incredible investigation into the man behind the myth. By reconstructing his great-uncle’s remarkable career, Shapiro has transformed Freeman Bernstein from a barely there footnote in history to the larger-than-life, eternal hustler who forever changed it.

Eureka: the unfinished revolution . . . history comes to life with Peter FitzSimons. In 1854, Victorian miners fought a deadly battle under the flag of the Southern Cross at the Eureka Stockade. Though brief and doomed to fail, the battle is legend in both our history and in the Australian mind. Henry Lawson wrote poems about it, its symbolic flag is still raised, and even the nineteenth-century visitor Mark Twain called it: " a strike for liberty". Was this rebellion a fledgling nation's first attempt to assert its independence under colonial rule? Or was it merely rabble-rousing by unruly miners determined not to pay their taxes. In his inimitable style, Peter FitzSimons gets into the hearts and minds of those on the battlefield, and those behind the scenes, bringing to life Australian legends on b