Penguin Books Australia

In 1998, Raimond Gaita's Romulus, My Father was first published—the story of his father who came to Australia from Europe with his young wife Christine and their four-year-old son after the end of the Second World War. In the isolated landscape of country Victoria, Christine succumbed to mental illness, and a series of tragedies befell the family.
Described as 'a profound meditation on love and...

Award-winning novelist Kim Scott and his elder, Hazel Brown, have created a monumental family history of the Wilomin Noongar people.  Kayang & Me is a powerful story of community and belonging, revealing the deep and enduring connections between family, country, culture and history that lie at the heart of Indigenous identity.

These extraordinary stories of the pioneering struggles and deep religious conflicts in four generations of Walker's family show...

'There has been a lot of fighting hereabouts. The trenches have made themselves rather than been made, and run inconsequently in and out of the big thirty-foot high stacks of bricks; it is most confusing. The parapet of a trench which we don't occupy is built up with ammunition boxes and corpses . . .'

'I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills . . . Up in this high air you breathed easily . . . you woke up in the morning and thought: Here I am, where I ought to be.'

From the moment Karen Blixen arrived in Kenya in 1914 to manage a coffee plantation, her heart belonged to Africa. Drawn to the intense colours and ravishing landscapes, Blixen spent her happiest years on the farm, and her...

'What we all need,' said Larry, 'is sunshine . . . a country where we can grow.'
'Yes, dear, that would be nice,' agreed Mother, not really listening.
'I had a letter from George this morning – he says Corfu's wonderful. Why don't we pack up and go to Greece?'
'Very well, dear, if you like,' said Mother unguardedly.

In the world of New Zealand children's books, the name Joy Cowley engenders enormous respect and affection.

 She has published dozens and dozens of children's trade books of all kinds, such as the Mrs Wishy Washy series, the award-winning Shadrach trilogy and Hunter . And she has written literally hundreds of readers for the international educational book market. She is constantly in demand as...

A must-have for all lovers of Mark Twain, this selection of his autobiographical writings opens a rare window onto the writer's life, particularly his early years. Born on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri, Samuel Langhorne Clemens first used the pseudonym Mark Twain while a journalist in Nevada in 1863. When his first major book, The Innocents Abroad , appeared six years later, he began what...

With an Introduction by Charlotte Mosley

'Their correspondence can make you rock with helpless laughter'
Independent on Sunday

'Generous and humane . . . Mortimer's fond tribute to his father could hardly be a finer tribute to himself'
Guardian

Edited with an Introduction by Peter Davison

'Arguably the most influential writer thrown up by the West in the twentieth century … the real Orwell — whoever he is — continues to take shape'
The Times

'I think our life here has meaning only when we live in accordance with the commandment to love one another'

In 1929 Robert Graves went to live abroad permanently, vowing 'never to make England my home again'. This is his superb account of his life from his childhood and desperately unhappy school days, to his time serving as a young officer in the First World War.

Containing memorable encounters with fellow writers and poets, Goodbye to All That , is a classic war document, and also has immense value as...

'Only when one has lost all curiosity about the future has one reached the age to write an autobiography.' Waugh begins his story with heredity, writing of the energetic, literary and sometimes eccentric men and women who, unknown to themselves, contributed to his genius. Save for a few pale shadows, his childhood was warm, bright and serene. The Hampstead and Lancing schooldays which followed were...

A LITTLE KNOWN HISTORIAL FACT:

THE LIFE OF A MASTER, TOLD IN LETTERS

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, three National Book awards, and the Nobel Prize in Literature, Saul Bellow wrote marvellously acute, unsparing, tender, ferocious, hilarious, and wise letter throughout his long life (1915-2005).

With a new introduction by Valerie Grove

'A true masterpiece of the genre'
The Times

With a Preface by
Esther Calvino

'These pages are distinguished by a sly philosophic humour . . .  a sensuous immediacy of detail and a droll wit'
Guardian