Penguin Books Australia

Sean Fitzpatrick played for the best rugby team on the planet, the All Blacks. His aggressive, uncompromising approach made him one of the greatest players ever. Ruthless, devious and compelling to watch, he was a one-man wrecking machine.

He was also an inspirational leader. Between 1986 and 1997, he played 128 matches for the All Blacks, 92 of those test matches, and a record 51 as captain. In his...

On 5 December 2001 New Zealand sporting and adventure hero Sir Peter Blake was killed by bandits at the mouth of the Amazon River. In this intimate account, Sir Peter's wife Pippa offers an intensely personal account of their life together.

Unpublished photographs from her personal albums, behind-the-scenes stories of Sir Peter's sailing adventures, and Pippa's own journal entries and artworks...

For a town with seventy residents (on a good day), Birdsville is remarkably well known – the Birdsville Track, the rodeo, the pub, the infamous races.   With its ruggedness, inaccessibility and larrikin charm, this small town on the edge of the Simpson Desert has become a symbol of the great Australian outback.

What is it about Birdsville that has made it stand so large in our legends?...

In a small, desperately poor village in north-east China, a young peasant boy sits at his rickety old school desk, interested more in the birds outside than in Chairman Mao's Red Book and the grand words it contains. But that day, some strange men come to his school – Madame Mao's cultural delegates. They are looking for young peasants to mould into faithful guards of Chairman Mao's great vision...

Drought, flood, harrowing isolation and horrific accidents. . . the Australian outback is no place for a lady. But the women of the Outback are a different breed: tough, resilient and endlessly resourceful. They're both the backbone and the heart of Australia, keeping their farms going, their families together and their communities alive - and often against overwhelming odds.

'Here we drink three cups of tea to do business: the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third you join our family, and for our family we are prepared to do anything – even die.'
Haji Ali, Korphe Village Chief, Karakoram Mountains, Pakistan

'I've been to hell and I'm back. If you're in that same place, then I understand what you're going through.'

John Kirwan was one of the most devastating wingers New Zealand, and world, rugby had ever seen. A prominent and revered figure at the dawn of the professional age of rugby, he seemed to live a charmed life.

Born in 1894, Facey lived the rough frontier life of a sheep farmer, survived the gore of Gallipoli, raised a family through the Depression and spent sixty years with his beloved wife, Evelyn. Despite enduring hardships we can barely imagine today, Facey always saw his life as a 'fortunate' one.

A true classic of Australian literature, his simply written autobiography is an inspiration. It is the story...

One day, not so very many years ago, a small peasant boy was chosen to study ballet at the Beijing Dance Academy. His mother urged him to take this chance of a lifetime.