Australian history

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Children's writer Elaine Forrestal shares her top five favourite nuggety facts about what it was like to live through the Coolgardie Gold Rush

June 1, 2020

Goldfields Girl by Elaine Forrestal is a historical novel for middle readers featuring real-life nineteenth-century teenager Clara Saunders. In this blog post, Elaine takes us into the exciting, dusty, fly-ridden world of a gold rush.

Seasoned crime novelists David Whish-Wilson and Pol Koutsakis discuss their current and upcoming books, cross-cultural humour and sense of place in their stories for this week's Love to Read Local Radio with Fremantle Press

May 19, 2020

What do you get when you put two criminal masterminds together? David Whish-Wilson and Pol Koutsakis talking books! In this fascinating episode, the pair discuss the hero – or antihero – in Pol’s two books, Athenian Blues and Baby Blue. Stratos Gazis, an ‘ethical hitman’, has a moral code that controls his choices and leads to intrigue. David’s PI Frank Swann is in a similar boat, falling into the thick of criminal dealings when all he wants is a simple, happy life as a family man.

Author Elaine Forrestal shares her top tips for how to make the most of 'disappearing down the rabbit hole of research' when writing historical fiction

May 2, 2020

I’m Elaine Forrestal and Goldfields Girl is my latest historical fiction for students, teachers and history buffs of any age. My fiction, in various genres, has been published since 1983. This is my third historical fiction novel. In this blog post I will share my top tips for using your local, state or national library to do research.

From Morse code to periscopes, Fremantle Press's free WWI kit has plenty of activities to do at home with your kids this Anzac Day

April 16, 2020

Anzac Day marks the anniversary of Australia’s first major military action, and is also a national day of remembrance that commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations.

Memoir, story and pictures: Anzac books to help us remember

April 15, 2020

Anzac Day marks the anniversary of Australia’s first major military action and is also a national day of remembrance that commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations. Though we may only be able to celebrate the Dawn Service with a candle in our front yards, we can still remember. From women war artists to home-front heroes, memoir to picture books, we’ve put together a list of 10 books that recognise the contribution and suffering of all those who served or who lived through those turbulent times. You'll find their stories inspiring and heartening.

To celebrate Women's History Month, we asked Elaine Forrestal to tell us about Clara Saunders, a pioneer woman of the Western Australian Goldfields

March 27, 2020

It’s Women’s History Month and we’re really excited to announce the publication of Goldfields Girl, a historical fiction novel about an extraordinary woman named Clara Saunders. Here, author Elaine Forrestal shares with us some of what she learned about this amazing pioneer of the Western Australian Goldfields.

Fremantle Press writer Norman Jorgensen smuggled into the Hall of Fame for fortieth anniversary year

March 16, 2020

Norman Jorgensen and Andy Griffiths have taken their places alongside Roald Dahl, Brian Jacques, Victor Kelleher, Paul Jennings, Duncan Ball and John Marsden in the West Australian Young Readers Book Awards (WAYRBA) Hall of Fame. Now in its fortieth year, the WAYRBA Hall of Fame is reserved for those authors who have won the award four times or more.

Read this and be smarter: a new crime novel plumbs the history of one of Perth's political low points to show our nationalist past was not so long ago

November 12, 2019

True West is a new crime novel by David Whish-Wilson set in late 1980s Perth against the backdrop of hate crimes associated with Jack van Tongeren’s Australian Nationalist Movement that included the firebombing of Asian businesses, as well as the dog-whistle comments made by then federal Liberal opposition leader John Howard associated with ‘slowing down’ Asian immigration. In the novel Lee Southern has fled to Perth after he betrayed the Knights bikie gang in Geraldton. Lee works as a rogue truck driver but before too long he finds himself captured by neo-nazis and must do their bidding if he is to protect those last few things he holds dear.

Get some tips from Bunbury Catholic College on how to make the most of your last chance to wow us in our Creative Classrooms competition this term

November 1, 2019

In the last edition of Classroom Express we shared some inspiration form the library team at Bunbury Catholic College on how to create a book display project worthy of entry into our Creative Classrooms competition.

Three free extracts from Fremantle Press titles to use in your classroom this NAIDOC Week

May 22, 2019

NAIDOC Week takes place in the first week of July each year, which this year is Sunday 7 to Sunday 14 July 2019, and recognises the culture, history and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It’s a great opportunity to show support for your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.