An intimate partnership of three brothers - Allen, Richard and John Lane - lay at the heart of Penguin Books, the twentieth century's greatest publishing house. In a spirit of daring and creative opposition, the brothers issued quality books on a massive scale and at minuscule prices - and achieved a revolution in publishing. The Lane boys did their best thinking together in bathroom board meetings, where at least one director would always be 'mother naked'. They innovated in countless ways - in the early years, a church crypt served as their office and warehouse. Penguin was an unconventional upstart, bringing literary giants such as Agatha Christie, George Bernard Shaw, Virginia Woolf and Graham Greene to vast new audiences, and it seemed unstoppable. Yet the 1942 death of John Lane brought the troika to a halt. Allen, the enthusiastic frontman who relied on his younger brothers to drive Penguin's success, became more erratic and suspicious over time. Ultimately, he would force Richard out of the company he had cofounded and built. A portrait of a remarkable family and a publishing powerhouse, Penguin and the Lane Brothers also explores the little known story of Richard Lane - the heart and backbone of Penguin, and its strongest influence. Richard's experiences as a youth in Australia shaped his character and outlook; his dedication to the business was matched only by his devotion to his brothers. Relying on unprecedented access to Lane family sources, including Richard's diaries, Penguin and the Lane Brothers sheds new light on the relationship of Allen, Richard and John, so crucial as a driver of Penguin's spirit and success. By turns hilarious and tragic, moving and insightful, this is a groundbreaking counter-history of an unlikely publishing triumph.

The remote Kimberley region of Western Australia has a rich history and unique geography. In the 1960s De Beers, the world's largest diamond company, sent gem-hunters to the area but they came away empty-handed. It was a vast region to survey, and they'd overlooked something vital. A few years later, a team of Australian geologists with a tiny budget searched for even tinier mineral clues. Those clues led them to the earth's largest diamond deposit and the world's richest source of rare pink diamonds. Based on in-depth research and interviews-including with Alan King Jones, Bill Leslie and 'the father of Australian diamonds', Ewen Tyler-Argyle: The Impossible Story of Australian Diamonds details the almost overwhelming challenges with realising a diamond mining venture in Australia, shows how these obstacles were overcome, and explores the mine's impact and legacy.

Australia's oldest university press is also one of our best known and most trusted publishers. Founded in 1921 as a bookshop for students at the University of Melbourne, Melbourne University Press was soon publishing important works that contained the best of national scholarship.Landmark MUP books and series include The Australian Dictionary of Biography, Manning Clark's History of Australia, The Encyclopaedia of New Guinea and the journal Meanjin. These and other MUP publications helped shape how Australians perceived themselves, and how they talked about literature, politics, race, the Pacific, the world wars and public policy.From its inception, MUP grappled with hard questions. How should a university press be governed? To what extent should such a press be concerned with political, polemical and radical works? And can a university press be financially self-sustaining if it focuses on books that commercial publishers overlook? The respective leaders of MUP answered these questions in ways that regularly led the press into controversy.Using a century of MUP publications and archives, Stuart Kells has written a rich and fascinating history of an invaluable Australian institution—one that is widely seen as public property, and whose ups and downs have always been news.

What was behind the wall and the wire? The local people knew. Fine courtyards. An old swimming pool. Dilapidated tennis courts and a remnant garden, now wild and sprawling. The Abbotsford Convent was a haunted place, left to languish for years after the last of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd had gone. In its prime, it had been a school, a refuge, a retreat, a workhouse and a prison — the single largest charitable institution in the southern hemisphere. In the late 1990s, a proposed high-density development threatened the idyllic riverside location, sparking outrage in the local community and further afield. Years of protesting, negotiating and fundraising followed and the convent, now on Australia's National Heritage List, has started a new life as a vibrant centre for art and culture. The Convent: A City Finds its Heart tells the story of the site's rich history and the efforts to preserve it. It is an uplifting tale of community activism, a tangible reminder that the magic of the past can endure and what people can achieve.