Sport, Travel & Leisure

Anthony 'Harry' Moffitt spent more than 20 years in the SAS. His decades of service and his multiple tours in East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan made him one of the regiment's most experienced and respected figures. Alongside the SAS, Harry's other lifetime love is cricket. An impr...ovised game of backyard cricket was often the circuit-breaker Harry and his team needed after the tension of operations. Recognizing the effect of the game on his fellow soldiers, he began a tradition of organising games and matches wherever he was sent, whether it was in the mountains of East Timor with a fugitive rebel leader, or on the dusty streets of Baghdad, or in exposed Forward Operating Bases in the hills of Afghanistan. Soldiers, locals and even visiting politicians played in these spontaneous yet often bridge-building games. As part of the tradition Harry also started to take a cricket bat with him on operational tours, eleven of them in total across his career. They'd travel with him, often go outside the wire with him, and end up signed by those he met or fought alongside. These eleven bats have formed the basis for Harry's extraordinary memoir. It's a book about combat, and what it takes to serve in one of the world's most elite formations. It's a book about the toll that war takes on soldiers and their loved ones. And it's a book about the healing power of cricket, and how a game can cross boundaries and break down borders even in the most desperate of circumstances.
Read more

In Australia, we are fortunate that so many wild species can be seen without us having to leave our own homes. It might not occur to us just how special it is to look through the window and spot a squadron of jewel-coloured rainbow lorikeets spearing through the air to join their... mates in a nearby tree, or to witness the amusing antics of your neighbourhood flock of shrieking, cheeky sulphur-crested cockatoos. We are in danger of taking the animals that live around us for granted, or worse still, of finding them a nuisance and looking for ways to deter them. At Australian Geographic we have long championed the value of the natural world, no matter how far or near that world may be. In this book we revisit many of the stories of the species that we encounter in our daily city lives. Australia is the most urbanised nation on earth and yet we share our built environment with a cavalcade of amazing, fascinating native creatures. We examine some of the issues around our complex relationship with nature, we discover more about those familiar backyard species, and we offer advice on how to encourage wild things into your garden for their benefit, and yours.
Read more

Croak is a celebration of frogs, one of the most varied and vibrant species on earth. Featuring gorgeous photographs of frogs in their natural habitats paired with quotes from famous frog-lovers such as Cameron Diaz and John Steinbeck, it is amusing, illuminating and informative.... The perfect addition to coffee tables everywhere!
Read more