On September 11, 2001, the World changed forever when ruthless Al-Qaeda terrorists launched an aerial attack on the United States of America. Oblivious to the world’s terror, Kay and Kerry Danes sat half a world away, secure in an Embassy after a terrifying 11-month hostage ordeal in communist Laos. As fear gripped the globe, Kerry an Australian Special Forces soldier, comforted his wife Kay, as they struggled to come to terms with their hellish ordeal of torture, mock executions and the helplessness of leaving behind 58 political prisoners of a long forgotten war. The couple’s hopes focused only on seeing their children again. In the years after regaining their freedom and working to re-piece together family life, Kerry returned to active duty with the Special Forces and Kay turned her dark experiences towards creating social justice, over the years becoming a leading international humanitarian. In November 2008, amidst haunting memories of her Laos ordeal, Kay faced her fears and embarked on a humanitarian aid mission to deliver life-changing opportunities and aid to people devastated in war-torn Afghanistan. In an old dusty Toyota mini-van, armed only with hope, Kay and her companions, a florist from Arizona, a nurse from Texas, a public servant from Australia and a US Marine Korean War veteran, drove the ancient Silk Road amidst kidnappings, suicide bombings, carnage and chaos. This powerful story will have you gripping your chair and holding your breath, as you travel with Kay through Taliban strongholds and the remote wastelands of Al Qaeda terrorists. Her story provides a rare glimpse of places we may never visit and the courageous Afghan people determined to persevere against overwhelming odds. Beneath the Pale Blue Burqa is a truly inspiring journey and an important contribution to the selfless efforts of all who have gone before to brave the perils of Afghanistan. Foreword - By Afghan Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

September Fury painted a very real reminder in the minds of her readers. that we don't live in a Fairytale Land. That our freedoms as a country are always in jeopardy. Ms Richardson did an excellent job of encapsulating the whole picture of what led up to these terrible events of September 11th. An excellent book to be in all educational libraries. A Well written a very informative and emotional book on the terrorist’s attack of 9/11/01.

At this moment in time, when the world is only just beginning to recover from the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the research in this book makes for essential reading. It will serve to help re-establish confidence and reduce anxiety in business and leisure travellers who are planning to embark on new travel experiences in a world impacted by longer-lasting armed conflicts, increased global violence, and higher frequencies of natural disasters. This book blends in-depth academic research around global risk mitigation with unique perspectives on business and leisure travel safety, narrated by authors who have extensive knowledge of security and risk mitigation systems. Each page contains easy-to-follow advice for domestic and international travel, but differs from other books, in that it addresses the ‘hard’ issues of travel safety (such as theoretical research around risk mitigation), in lieu of setting the focus solely on the ‘soft’ issues (like itinerary planning) which tend to be the focus of many travel publications today. Moreover, unique to this book is an extreme travel section adapted to business and leisure travellers, which makes for compelling reading and deals with kidnapping, risk mitigation and contingency planning. It incorporates the real-life experiences of one of the authors, who survived torture and abduction, and whose experiences now inform pre-deployment training for Australian Defence Force personnel for operations in armed conflict. This book blends the female and male voice into a narrative that combines the perspectives of professional security experts with common sense travel advice. The research that has gone into this book is essential reading for anyone who intends to embark on business or leisure travel, either in their own country or overseas, or who is interested in studying travel from an academic viewpoint.

Ice Journey is the biography of Vietnam veteran Dave Morgan, whose long career in meteorology culminated with a life-changing expedition to Antarctica. Like many of his fellow soldiers, Dave tried to present a “normal” face to the world while battling Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It was a debilitating struggle that ultimately sparked a personal obsession to escape the bonds of average Australian society. In his early fifties, Dave turned to the seclusion and hardship of Antarctic research where postings to Macquarie Island, Davis Station and a prized position at Casey Station, finally forced him to face his fears, deal with his PTSD and come to terms with his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam. Dave carries his deeply buried demons from the jungles of Vietnam to the icy peaks of Antarctica; his journey to the ice fulfilling a lifelong dream while making him feel safe for the first time in 30 years. His experiences as an expeditioner on the starkly beautiful, harsh and inhospitable ‘ice’ was at once intoxicating and isolating, providing the catalyst for Dave to finally face his fears. It is an emotional journey that transports the reader from the terror of a young soldier fighting far away from home to exhilaration on the ice far from the rest of the world. It is a story filled with vivid landscapes and humour before a shocking final twist that ends his final posting in heart-wrenching fashion. While the ghosts of Vietnam still exist inside Dave, Ice Journey is an invitation to share in his experiences.

This new book investigates the relationship of film to history, power, memory, and cultural citizenship. The book is concerned with two central issues: firstly, the participation of film and filmmakers in articulating and challenging projects of modernity; and, secondly, the role of film in shaping particular understandings of self and other to evoke collective notions of belonging. These issues call for interdisciplinary and multi-layered analyses that are ideally met through dialogue across place, time, identities and genres. The contributors to this volume enable this dialogue by considering the ways in which cultural expression and identity expressed through film serve to create notions of belonging, group identity, and entitlement within modern societies.

During World War II Australia was under threat of invasion. Could Australia be invaded by the Japanese? Even with the heavy censorship by the government many certainly thought so. Stunned families had followed the bombings and atrocities of war that were taking place in Europe, and the nation was gripped by fear that the danger would soon be on their doorstep. The Japanese appeared to be looming closer; there were submarines in Sydney Harbour, Japanese planes flying overhead and harassment on our coastline. Australians were fearful for their safety. Anxious parents made decisions to protect their children, with or without government sanction. Small children, some just out of babyhood, were sent away, often unaccompanied, by concerned parents to friends, relatives, or even strangers living in ‘safer’ parts of the country. Many had little comprehension of what was happening and thought they were going on a holiday to the country. The history of these child evacuees in Australia remains largely hidden and their experiences untold. Author Ann Howard, who was evacuated with her mother from the UK during World War II, is setting the records straight. A combination of extensive research and the first-hand stories of the evacuees captures the mood of the time and the social and political environment that they lived in.

Original publication and copyright date: 2013.

A riveting and powerful story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship and an indestructible love

Latifa was born into an educated middle-class Afghan family in Kabul in 1980. She dreamed of one day of becoming a journalist, she was interested in fashion, movies and friends. Her father was in the import/export business and her mother was a doctor. Then in September 1996, Taliban soldiers seized power in Kabul. From that moment, Latifa, just 16 years old became a prisoner in her own home. Her school was closed. Her mother was banned from working. The simplest and most basic freedoms - walking down the street, looking out a window - were no longer hers. She was now forced to wear a chadri. My Forbidden Face provides a poignant and highly personal account of life under the Taliban regime. With painful honesty and clarity Latifa describes the way she watched her world falling apart, in the name of a fanatical interpretation of a faith that she could not comprehend. Her voice captures a lost innocence, but also echoes her determination to live in freedom and hope. Earlier this year, Latifa and her parents escaped Afghanistan with the help of a French-based Afghan resistance group.