Non-fiction

Alexander Pearce of Macquarie Harbour

by Dan Sprod
Ligature untapped
genre Biography · History · Non-fiction

Alexander Pearce was an Irishman who arrived in Van Diemen’s Land—which was to become Tasmania—in 1819. Transported for the relatively minor crime of theft, he became determined to escape the colony’s harsh conditions. He fled, was caught, and sentenced to the notoriously brutal penal colony on Sarah Island. He escaped again and, unlike those who escaped with him, survived. Drawing on contemporary records, including Pearce’s confessions, Dan Sprod carefully pieces together the truth about the infamous ‘cannibal convict’. First published in 1977.

Dan Sprod (1924–2018) was a Tasmanian author. In addition to Alexander Pearce of Macquarie Harbour, his books include Proud Intrepid Heart (1989), The Usurper (2001), Leichhardt’s Expeditioners (2006), The Odd Mr Sprod (2009) and Van Diemen’s Land Revealed (2009).

Expéditions dans les mers du Sud

by Danielle Clode
Ligature finest
genre Non-fiction

« C’est là une approche originale et plaisante de l’histoire des sciences, et indiscutablement une belle réussite. »
—Prof Eric Buffetaut, Pour la Science

Reading Magic

by Mem Fox
Ligature finest
genre Non-fiction

‘Reading aloud to our babies and young children will make the entire country better off.’

Writing Fiction

by Garry Disher
Ligature finest
genre Non-fiction

Garry Disher is one of Australia’s best-known authors and has written more than fifty literary novels, crime thrillers, short story collections and children’s and young adult books. In Writing Fiction he shares some of the techniques of plot, character and style that he has perfected over three decades of writing.

Young Einstein: and the Story of E=mc²

by Robyn Arianrhod
Ligature finest
genre Non-fiction · Science

Everyone recognises the famous physicist with the wild, white hair. But what sort of person was the young Albert Einstein, before he became universally acclaimed as the archetypal genius? And how did his genius unfold?

In this compact, brilliant work—originally a Kindle Single—scientist Robyn Arianrhod blends biography with popular science to tell the story of how young Albert developed a theory that—unknown to him at first—contained the seeds of his extraordinary equation E=mc².

Voyages to the South Seas

by Danielle Clode
Ligature finest
genre Non-fiction · Science

Winner of the Victorian Premier’s Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction, Voyages to the South Seas is an exhilarating expedition through a key period in the European exploration of the Pacific and in the history of science.

A Future in Flames

by Danielle Clode
Ligature finest
genre Non-fiction

Fire has shaped the Australian landscape and the lives of Australians for thousands of years—and will continue to do so as the climate changes. For all our advances in prevention and prediction, planning and communication, bushfires keep claiming our lives and our homes. How can we avoid another Ash Wednesday or Black Saturday?

The Knowledge Wars

by Peter Doherty
Ligature finest
genre Non-fiction · Science

Science and scientists have found themselves in conflict with powerful interests since Galileo, but perhaps never before have they been under attack on so many fronts. When it comes to climate change, vaccinations and the causes of disease, genetically modified organisms and even evolution, it’s hard to tell where science ends and vested interests, politics and wishful thinking begin. Or is it?

Einstein’s Heroes