This is the story behind the brutal gay murders at Tamarama in the 1980s - the extraordinary story of the crimes, the victims, the gangs and the policeman who refused to close the case.

Bondi Beach is a history of an iconic place. It is a big history of geological origins, management by Aboriginal people, environmental despoliation by white Australians, and the formation of beach cultures. It is also a local history of the name Bondi, the origins of the Big Rock at Ben Buckler, the motives of early land holders, the tragedy known as Black Sunday, the hostilities between lifesavers and surfers, and the hullabaloos around the Pavilion. Pointing to a myriad of representations, author Douglas Booth shows that there is little agreement about the meaning of Bondi. Booth resolves these representations with a fresh narrative that presents the beach’s perspective of a place under siege. Booth’s creative narrative conveys important lessons about our engagement with the physical world.

Melding exclusive interviews with scrupulous research, this account covers the compelling psychological riddles, inspired investigations, and sensational plot twists of 13 intriguing contemporary homicides in Australia. From an elderly father and son’s demise by being chopped to pieces by a tomahawk in Tasmania to the deaths of two Thai prostitutes bound and thrown into a Northern Territory river teeming with crocodiles, this riveting record chronicles baffling, bizarre, and brutal murders. Bumbling junkies, rich white rappers, illustrious art critics, deranged killers, and tenacious cops all play key roles in the events that made Australian headlines.

From the fictional world of vampires, zombies, and invaders from other worlds, to the very real world of revolutionary France and in between, the nature of the monster encompasses the very quality that makes them so believable - that which we perceive as 'other'. While there is a commonality in this otherness, the monster lurking in the shadows, concealed in darkness or conjured with a few lines from a horror novel suggests the monster as one onto which we are free to project the most distorted and un-human features. In each chapter of this volume, you will discover that the way in which we project what is monstrous is not a singular other but is in fact a part of our own self-identity. The greatest horror of the monster is not that it stands apart, but that once we pull it from the shadow of our own projected imagination we discover that that the monster we fear is also bound to our own mirror image. To look at the monster, to name that which must never be named, is to look upon a reflection and embrace a part of our nature we do not wish to see.

The Badlands of Modernity offers a wide ranging and original interpretation of modernity as it emerged during the eighteenth century through an analysis of some of the most important social spaces. Drawing on Foucault's analysis of heterotopia, or spaces of alternate ordering, the book argues that modernity originates through an interplay between ideas of utopia and heterotopia and heterotopic spatial practice. The Palais Royal during the French Revolution, the masonic lodge and in its relationship to civil society and the public sphere and the early factories of the Industrial Revolution are all seen as heterotopia in which modern social ordering is developed. Rather than seeing modernity as being defined by a social order, the book argues that we need to take account of the processes and the ambiguous spaces in which they emerge, if we are to understand the character of modern societies. The book uses these historical examples to analyse contemporary questions about modernity and postmodernity, the character of social order and the significance of marginal space in relation to issues of order, transgression and resistance. It will be important reading for sociologists, geographers and social historians as well as anyone who has an interest in modern societies.

‘So, was it hard to pretend I was “dead”? Well, my motivation was abundant; it was splendiferous, endless, you might say.’ An American actress, renowned for being late, is living with her two cats in a modernist clifftop apartment in Sydney in the late 1980s. The recounting of her story is prompted by the arrival of an old typewriter and a book addressed to Zelda Zonk. And by the arrival of a young man called Daniel, who is locked out while house-sitting her neighbour’s apartment. Together Zelda and Daniel form an unlikely but close bond as they go walking, prepare dinner for Shabbat, traverse Sydney Harbour on a ferry and talk about their lives. Part of their bond is the discovery that they are both orphans. Daniel is also a habitué of the nearby sandstone cliffs where men have mysteriously gone missing. In Late, Michael Fitzgerald superbly captures the literary spirit and sensibility of an ageing woman and icon who has escaped celebrity. It is a haunting and lyrical novel about art, friendship, and confronting our fears. ‘A big swing that works beautifully. Fitzgerald’s affection and respect for his subject, whom we all know and don’t know at all, results in a voice that rings true: warm, tender, passionate, smart, self-aware and very, very witty.’ — C. J. Johnson, President of the Film Critics Circle of Australia ‘Deeply referential, dramatic and allusive, Late balances on a tightrope between present and past lives, public and private roles. A riveting mystery unfolds. In the process the author delivers a meditation on celebrity and a love song to Sydney.’ — Catherine Phil MacCarthy, author of Daughters of the House and One Room an Everywhere

A bottle of blood is found buried in a wombat hole, but where is the body? Is a suburban couple paying the babysitter with freshly stolen money? Can a lucky leech outsmart a brazen burglar? Match wits with real life investigators to answer these questions, and also discover how nine of Western Australia's most wanted criminals escaped from Perth's Supreme Court in broad daylight; why an Adelaide wife sent her husband's privates to a fiery end; and how a Melbourne woman convinced high-level professionals to raise her stolen family at a cult in Eildonandmdash;undetectedandmdash;for over twenty years. Cunning crims, cruel cults and common crackpots abound in these 12 fascinating true tales from the badlands of contemporary Australia. Journalist Liam Houlihan goes behind the headlines to prove truth is not only stranger than fiction but also more colourful, more baffling and more twisted.

'The antidote to climate anxiety is action. Make your first action reading this book.' OSHER GUNSBERG 'Rebecca Huntley has given us a great gift: an essential guide to understanding ourselves and each other as we face the climate crisis. Let's take down the walls that divide us. Collectively, with compassion and courage, we can make real change happen.' KYLIE KWONG 'Explains whether and how we will choose to solve the climate problem. Immensely important analysis in a great read.' PROFESSOR ROSS GARNAUT Why is it so hard to talk about climate change? While scientists double down on the shocking figures, we still find ourselves unable to discuss climate change meaningfully among friends and neighbours - or even to grapple with it ourselves. The key to progress on climate change is in the psychology of human attitudes and our ability to change. Whether you're already alarmed and engaged with the issue, concerned but disengaged, a passive skeptic or an active denier, understanding our emotional reactions to climate change - why it makes us anxious, fearful, angry or detached - is critical to coping on an individual level and convincing each other to act. This book is about understanding why people who aren't like you feel the way they do and learning to talk to them effectively. What we need are thousands - millions - of everyday conversations about the climate to enlarge the ranks of the concerned, engage the disengaged and persuade the cautious of the need for action.

From 1977 to the end of 1986, Duncan McNab was a member of the NSW Police Force. Most of his service was in criminal investigation. The many unsolved deaths and disappearances of young gay men are the crimes that continue to haunt him. Around 80 men died or disappeared in NSW from the late 70s to early 90s during an epidemic of gay-hate crimes. The line between a vicious assault and murder is a slender one and this was a time of brutal attacks on gay men, featuring gangs of young thugs like the 'Parkside Killers' and 'Bondi Boys', who took to the growing gay rights community with fists and feet. Even more troubling are incidents in which gay men disappeared and have never been found, or where deaths were initially dismissed by the NSW Police as either misadventure or suicide. We now know that a number of these men were hunted down by gangs and thrown over beachside cliffs near the nation's top tourist spots. Investigation of crimes against gay men wasn't always high on the list of priorities for the police and over twenty years later they are still slow to come to grips with their own dismal track record. The families of the victims, and some journalists, have not given up and continue to push the NSW Police Force for more answers. This book is the story of a unique time in our history when social change, politics, devastating disease and police culture collided, and you could get away with murder.

The Badlands of Modernity offers a wide ranging and original interpretation of modernity as it emerged during the eighteenth century through an analysis of some of the most important social spaces. Drawing on Foucault's analysis of heterotopia, or spaces of alternate ordering, the book argues that modernity originates through an interplay between ideas of utopia and heterotopia and heterotopic spatial practice. The Palais Royal during the French Revolution, the masonic lodge and in its relationship to civil society and the public sphere and the early factories of the Industrial Revolution are all seen as heterotopia in which modern social ordering is developed. Rather than seeing modernity as being defined by a social order, the book argues that we need to take account of the processes and the ambiguous spaces in which they emerge, if we are to understand the character of modern societies. The book uses these historical examples to analyse contemporary questions about modernity and postmodernity, the character of social order and the significance of marginal space in relation to issues of order, transgression and resistance. It will be important reading for sociologists, geographers and social historians as well as anyone who has an interest in modern societies.