Tales from the Children's Court as told by a former magistrate

 

Excellent condition. PB. 256pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

A compelling, inspiring and moving collection of Barbara Holborow's stories of hope, loss and apathy from behind the Bench as Children's Magistrate.

In this inspiring, moving and often funny collection of stories, bestselling author Barbara Holborow tells of The Good, the Bad and The Inevitable outcomes for so many of the kids she saw standing in front of her as Children's Magistrate.

There are stories of the kids who, like broken glass jars, can never be mended due to the awful beginnings they have suffered. There are stories of the kids and their parents who are willing to make changes and turn their lives around with lots of hard work. There are stories of kids and parents who just don't care and who don't change. And there are also stories of the wonderful, inspiring kids and their carers (from parents, grannies and grandpas, foster parents and adoptive parents) who will do anything within their power to keep families together, to keep families loving and safe and who instill that important sense of hope for the future.

Barbara's motto is that everyone in a community has responsibility for every child. To illustrate this, throughout the book, interspersed between the stories, are snippets of Barbara's wisdom and tips for everyone on raising kids looking out for them, and keeping them happy and safe. After all - together we are one big family of humanity, and should look out for each other.

The price of blowing the whistle

 

Mint condition. PB. 251pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

SOLD The Care Factor by Ailsa Wild

 

SOLD

Mint condition. PB. 230pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

The Care Factor tells the story of one incredible nurse – one among many – who chose to meet an unprecedented global health crisis on the frontline.

Simone Sheridan has one of the most sought-after skills today. As a nurse, her skill is to care.

When Covid-19 began to spread across the world in 2020, Sim volunteered to retrain to work in Melbourne’s intensive care units.

And as she prepared to go back to ICU and case numbers began climbing, Sim started talking to her friend Ailsa.

Through the exhaustion, the confusion, the many tears and the surprising moments of hilarity, Sim kept talking.

And Ailsa started writing.

In The Care Factor, Ailsa walks behind Sim as she faces the realities of the coronavirus. The result is a deeply human account of what the pandemic has really meant, not just for Sim and her fellow health professionals, but also for their patients, their families and friends, and the many who faced life in lockdown.

This is a celebration of nursing, of friendship, and of the layers of connection and care that allow us to keep going when it feels impossible.

SOLD The Mother of Mohammed by Sally Neighbour

 

SOLD

A book from the days when the word “jihad” was almost as scary as “COVID”.

Mint condition. PB. 358pp. $30

Known in CIA circles as "the Elizabeth Taylor of the jihad" and among her cohorts as the "mother of Mohammed," Australia native Robyn (or Rabiah) Hutchinson lived for twenty years at the frontlines of the jihadist movement, after marrying first an Indonesian leader of Jemaah Islamiyah (the group responsible for the Bali bombings) and then a member of Osama bin Laden's inner circle.

Al Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al Zawahiri, personally deputized her to run a women's hospital in Kandahar when al Qaeda was still ascendant in Afghanistan.

Hutchinson now lives virtually imprisoned in one of Sydney, Australia's western suburbs, having surrendered to the Australian embassy in Iran after fleeing the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan following 9/11.

Her story is unique—born into a down-and-out lower-class Australian family of the outback, in and out of Christian schools and the 1960s counter-culture, she migrated to Bali and Indonesia and converted to Islam and jihad along her extraordinary personal journey.

With a reputation for tough investigative journalism, Sally Neighbour gained the confidence of Hutchinson through extensive interviews and with an absolute assurance that she would tell this woman's story honestly, fact-checking it to the fullest extent possible.

She reveals how Hutchinson became a trusted insider to the Jemaah Islamiyah, Taliban, and al Qaeda leaderships and Osama bin Laden's inner sanctum.

In the process, Neighbour discovers a world of converts and true believers and offers a unique account of the magnetism of the Islamist cause for women—who have received little attention in the ongoing attempt to understand this potent movement—as well as for men.

Hutchinson's story is also an exemplification of the conditions under which terror networks get started, in amorphous social scenes where people freely drift in and out, making acquaintances, solidifying them around social ties joined to a cause, and going underground from there.

Sally Neighbour is a reporter with the Australian Broadcasting Company's investigative journalism program Four Corners, was a writer for The Australian newspaper and winner of three Walkley Awards, Australia's most coveted prize for excellence in journalism. Her previous book was In the Shadow of Swords: On the Trail of Terrorism from Afghanistan to Australia.