The Ballad of Les Darcy, a biography of the legendary Australian boxer, is the latest book from Australia's bestselling author Peter FitzSimons and is exclusive to Books Alive. It's FREE in participating bookshops when a customer buys any book from The 2007 Books Alive Great Read Guide.

The Ballad of Les Darcy, a biography of the legendary Australian boxer, is the latest book from Australia's bestselling author Peter FitzSimons and is exclusive to Books Alive. It's FREE in participating bookshops when a customer buys any book from The 2007 Books Alive Great Read Guide.

It still amazes me what they allowed us to do without their supervision or help. Climb trees, from the age of four or five? No problems. Drive the tractor from the age of six or seven onwards? Good luck to you. Peter Fitzsimons account of growing up on the rural outskirts of Sydney in the 1960s.

A memoir of love, laughter, loss and billycarts Peter FitzSimons's account of growing up on the rural outskirts of Sydney in the 1960s is first and foremost a tribute to family. But it is also a salute to times and generations past, when praise was understated but love unstinting; work was hard and values clear; when people stood by each other in adversity. Above all, in the FitzSimons home, days were for doing. In this rollicking and often hilarious memoir, Peter describes a childhood of mischief, camaraderie, eccentric characters, drama - and constant love and generosity. The childhood of a simpler time. This edition now includes supplementary reading group notes.

In the early 1930s, Nancy Wake was enjoying a bohemian life in Paris. by the end of the Second World War she was the Gestapo's most wanted person. After witnessing horrific Nazi violence in Vienna, Nancy declared she would do everything in her power to rid Europe of the Nazi presence. What began as a courier job developed into a highly successful escape network for Allied soldiers, so successful that Nancy had to flee France to escape the Gestapo who had dubbed her 'the white mouse' for her knack of slipping through their traps. But Nancy was a passionate enemy of the Nazis and after training with the British Special Operations Executive she parachuted back into France where she helped to lead the powerful underground fighting force, the Maquis. Training civilian fighters, organising Allied parachute drops, cycling four hundred kilometres across a mountain range to find a new transmitting radio - nothing seem too difficult in her fight against the Nazis. Peter Fitzsimons reveals Nancy Wake's compelling story, a tale of an ordinary woman doing extraordinary things.