Non fiction

On Valentine’s Day 1900, three schoolgirls and a teacher disappear while on a school outing at Hanging Rock in Victoria. What became of the missing girls and their teacher?

Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock detailed the tragedy, and the author left strict instructions for the final chapter not to be printed until her death. Many Australians remember the 1967 book and 1975 film; many high school students studied it as part of their school curriculum.

But was the story real? And did the secret chapter released after Joan Lindsay’s death cast a new light on the fate of the missing ladies?

In No Picnic at Hanging Rock, the mystery is explored with Lady Joan Lindsay’s original editor, Sandra Forbes; Joan’s personal friend Phillip Adams; actor Anne-Louise Lambert – who met Joan on the set of the film; and a range of contributors who share their theories.

When everything around you is collapsing, what do you do? One woman did what any self-respecting marketing executive would do, she threw it all in and ran away!

In a battle to reignite her passion for life, regain her self-esteem and find herself again, the author tried her hand at a number of life-changing jobs. At 39, she became a police cadet; at 40 she packed the car, and with her beloved Boxer dog, 'ran away' to become an editor of a newspaper in a seaside community. At 41, she came to her senses, came home, settled down, and began again.

From High Heels to Handcuffs is for anybody who has ever lost their footing in this world and wondered, 'can I start again?'

Grave Tales: Scenic Rim & Surrounds, Qld visits the many public and private cemeteries in Queensland's Scenic Rim and tells of the everyday people who - willingly or unwillingly – were participants in events that made local and national headlines. They may have lived in the same suburbs, streets, and even the same houses as exist now, or finished their days in this beautiful area. These stories hint at our history - tales of unsolved murders, love lost, mystery, tragedy, early settlement, health epidemics, scandal and sacrifice. Grave Tales reveals more than the headstone can ever convey by tracing the tumultuous journeys that lead to these final resting places.

In the ninth volume in the exciting Grave Tales series, journalists Helen Goltz and Chris Adams visit Tasmanian cemeteries to unearth some great tales.

Stories include:

• • Mark Jeffrey: a Port Arthur prisoner who lived with the 1100 or so deceased residents on the Isle of the Dead and should have been buried there…
  • Sylvia McArthur: a girl who died young but made her mark documenting in letters to a newspaper’s children’s page what life was like in the mining towns.
  • Frederick Thompson: was the last man hanged in Tasmania. His crime, the murder of young, Eveline Mary Maughan. He claimed his innocence to the end.
  • Roy Cazaly: footy fans still sing the song about him, Up There Cazaly, but the champion moved to Tasmania where his life took him on a different track.
  • John Joseph Sweeney: a Tasmanian soldier who joined the NZ forces as a tunneller, planting explosives under German trenches, but met a terrible fate.
  • The Neva: the female convict ship that carried over 200 passengers and crew, but when it hit a reef, it was not women and children first.
  • Thomas Nevin may have created the first mugshots in Tasmania, capturing poignant images of men who ended their days on Tasmania’s gallows.
  • Martin Cash: has been described as a rarity – a bushranger who lived to retire.

… And 10 more stories in this volume.