'Gangsters come and gangsters go but lawyers last forever.' The Sicilian Defence, Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read's eighth book, continues the story of Australia's bestselling former convict. Chopper's intimate knowledge of Australia's most dangerous criminals and their crimes presents readers with a dark, disturbing look at the country's underbelly. The Sicilian Defence takes readers through the nature and history of crime, justice and punishment in Australia, written in Chopper's own unique style. Featuring 'The Apple Cucumber', 'Bye Bye American Lie' and 'The Pain in Spain', The Sicilian Defence is another fantastic series of tales from one of Australia's funniest and toughest writers.
Standover man Mark Brandon Read is released from prison. He outrages Cabinet ministers, civil libertarians and literary critics. He appears drunk on national television, makes the finals of the ARIA music awards, and is charged with firearms offences.
All eleven volumes of Chopper's original memoirs ... unchopped Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read is Australia's most famous standover man and one of its most prolific authors. Now, for the very first time, all eleven volumes of Chopper's memoirs are together in this special collector's edition. From his criminal youth to his time in prison to his life as a reformed man, the entire journey is here. This omnibus edition contains the following complete and unabridged books: From the Inside: Chopper 1 Hits and Memories: Chopper 2 How to Shoot Friends and Influence People: Chopper 3 For the Term of His Unnatural Life: Chopper 4 Pulp Faction: Chopper 5 No Tears for a Tough Guy: Chopper 6 The Singing Defective: Chopper 7 The Sicilian Defence: Chopper 8 The Final Cut: Chopper 9 The Popcorn Gangster: Chopper 10.5 Last Man Standing: Chopper 11 Chopper is an icon in popular Australian culture and in the criminal underworld. Find out why in Chopper's own words.
Never get too close to anyone, because you might have to kill them. Meet Mark "Chopper" Read. You think you know him. His books have sold hundreds of thousands of copies in Australia. He's been the subject of an internationally successful film. His one-man shows have toured Australia to sell-out crowds. He's the most recognisable criminal brand name in Australia. But the truth is, you don't know him at all. Toe-cutter. Blowtorch aficionado. Killer. Husband. Father. Children's author. Stand-up comedian. The real Chopper has been an enigma – until now, that is. This is the definitive Chopper story. From his strange, tortured childhood, to the formative years as a young gang member and developing criminal, to his decades in and out of prison in Victoria and Tasmania, to his friends and enemies, and his crimes and punishments, this book gives us the true stories that lie behind the Chopper myths, as well as the stories he's never revealed before.
Nine? Eleven? Bah! Bosh! Give us tens, and in plenty! At last, a book that has never before existed, by the only author to have written it. Gideon Haigh's The Tencyclopedia-a tribute to the thrall of the decimal. Here, grouped as never before, Ten Affairs, Aunts, Masses, Mice, Methods, Plans, Principles and Penises. Here, as you have never seen them, Ten Indian Traffic Signs and Ten Flags That Feature Weapons. Here, as you have never read them, a History of Airline Food in Ten Paragraphs and a History of Chopper Read in 10 Chapters. Ten Tens in the Tencyclopedia 1. Ten Anagrams of American Presidents 2. Ten Avatars of Vishnu 3. Ten National Flags That Feature Weapons 4. Ten Slurs of the Dutch 5. Ten Indian Traffic Signs 6. Ten Fictional Mice 7. Ten Works Not Written by Coleridge 8. Ten Bildungsromans 9. Ten Philanthropic Enterprises of Andrew Carnegie 10. Ten Pirates
"Gangsters come and gangsters go but lawyers last forever." The Sicilian Defence, Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read's eighth book, continues the story of Australia's bestselling former convict. Chopper's intimate knowledge of Australia's most dangerous criminals and their crimes presents readers with a dark, disturbing look at the country's underbelly. The Sicilian Defence takes readers through the nature and history of crime, justice and punishment in Australia, written in Chopper's own unique style. Featuring "The Apple Cucumber", "Bye Bye American Lie" and "The Pain in Spain", The Sicilian Defence is another fantastic series of tales from one of Australia's funniest and toughest writers.
Based on his extensive experience in the underworld, these hilarious tales of violence allow Chopper to draw from some of the anecdotes he's never before shared in a series of stories that will make you laugh and wince in equal measure.
Cactus plants are precious natural resources that provide nutritious food for people and livestock, especially in dryland areas. Originally published in 1995, this extensively revised edition provides fresh insights into the cactus plant’s genetic resources, physiological traits, soil preferences and vulnerability to pests. It provides invaluable guidance on managing the resource to support food security and offers tips on how to exploit the plant’s culinary qualities.
By the New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas | Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize Selected by Time as One of the Ten Best Books of the Year | A New York Times Notable Book | Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post Book World, The Christian Science Monitor, Rocky Mountain News, and Kirkus Reviews | A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist | Winner of the ALA Alex Award | Finalist for the Costa Novel Award From award-winning writer David Mitchell comes a sinewy, meditative novel of boyhood on the cusp of adulthood and the old on the cusp of the new. Black Swan Green tracks a single year in what is, for thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor, the sleepiest village in muddiest Worcestershire in a dying Cold War England, 1982. But the thirteen chapters, each a short story in its own right, create an exquisitely observed world that is anything but sleepy. A world of Kissingeresque realpolitik enacted in boys’ games on a frozen lake; of “nightcreeping” through the summer backyards of strangers; of the tabloid-fueled thrills of the Falklands War and its human toll; of the cruel, luscious Dawn Madden and her power-hungry boyfriend, Ross Wilcox; of a certain Madame Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck, an elderly bohemian emigré who is both more and less than she appears; of Jason’s search to replace his dead grandfather’s irreplaceable smashed watch before the crime is discovered; of first cigarettes, first kisses, first Duran Duran LPs, and first deaths; of Margaret Thatcher’s recession; of Gypsies camping in the woods and the hysteria they inspire; and, even closer to home, of a slow-motion divorce in four seasons. Pointed, funny, profound, left-field, elegiac, and painted with the stuff of life, Black Swan Green is David Mitchell’s subtlest and most effective achievement to date. Praise for Black Swan Green “[David Mitchell has created] one of the most endearing, smart, and funny young narrators ever to rise up from the pages of a novel. . . . The always fresh and brilliant writing will carry readers back to their own childhoods. . . . This enchanting novel makes us remember exactly what it was like.”—The Boston Globe “[David Mitchell is a] prodigiously daring and imaginative young writer. . . . As in the works of Thomas Pynchon and Herman Melville, one feels the roof of the narrative lifted off and oneself in thrall.”—Time
