Description
Australia celebrated one hundred years as a nation in 2001. This book - part history, part travelogue, part memoir - tells the inspiring story of how a one-time British colony of convicts turned itself into a prosperous and confident country. Through the eyes of ordinary people, Phillip Knightley describes Australia's journey, from federation and the trauma of the First World War, the desperate poverty of the Depression, with its attendant spectres of secret armies and near-civil war, the threat of invasion in the Second World War and the immigration that followed it, and the slow but steady decline in the relationship with Britain, the 'Mother Country', as Australia forged its own unique identity.
'A grand encapsulation of all Australia, past and present sharp, racy and irreverent' Independent
About the Author
Phillip Knightley is the author of ten non-fiction books. He is best known for The Second Oldest Profession and The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero, Propagandist and Myth Maker. He has met nearly every spy chief on both sides in the spy Cold War and spent one week with the British traitor Kim Philby in Moscow in 1988 debriefing him just before he died. For twenty years he was a special correspondent of The Sunday Times and a member of the Insight Team. He is now representative in Europe for the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and spends most of him time writing books and articles for publications around the world.
Reviews
Catches the feel of Australia brilliantly. His 350 pages tell you more of Australia's public history and secret life than any academic study ever could. Wonderful * The Times *
Knightley deals skilfully and generously with all the great issues his country has faced * Independent *
Gripping and comprehensive * Irish Times *
A fine book...fascinating * Economist *
Book Information
ISBN 9780099772910
Author Phillip Knightley
Format Paperback
Page Count 384
Imprint Vintage
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 266g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 23mm
'A grand encapsulation of all Australia, past and present sharp, racy and irreverent' Independent
About the Author
Phillip Knightley is the author of ten non-fiction books. He is best known for The Second Oldest Profession and The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero, Propagandist and Myth Maker. He has met nearly every spy chief on both sides in the spy Cold War and spent one week with the British traitor Kim Philby in Moscow in 1988 debriefing him just before he died. For twenty years he was a special correspondent of The Sunday Times and a member of the Insight Team. He is now representative in Europe for the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and spends most of him time writing books and articles for publications around the world.
Reviews
Catches the feel of Australia brilliantly. His 350 pages tell you more of Australia's public history and secret life than any academic study ever could. Wonderful * The Times *
Knightley deals skilfully and generously with all the great issues his country has faced * Independent *
Gripping and comprehensive * Irish Times *
A fine book...fascinating * Economist *
Book Information
ISBN 9780099772910
Author Phillip Knightley
Format Paperback
Page Count 384
Imprint Vintage
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 266g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 23mm
