DADDY COOL | Published by Allen & Unwin
A captivating, generous and exquisitely written memoir of family and a daughter discovering her father's multi-layered life
Who can ever truly know their parents?
He was a glamorous heart-throb, a famous American singer performing in front of Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Clark Gable and other stars at the Academy Awards. In the 1930s, his recording of 'Hawaiian Paradise' outsold those of Bing Crosby and Guy Lombardo.
So how did he become an Australian infantryman, fighting alongside and performing for his fellow Diggers in Palestine, Beirut, Egypt and New Guinea? Why did he leave Hollywood and the ritziest hotels in America for a modest Californian bungalow in suburban Sydney? And what caused him to cease his endless drifting from one woman to another, one marriage to another, and settle with the love of his life?
Geraldine Brooks
Every family has secrets. Ours also has an award-winning biographer. My sister's discoveries astonished me...
Tom Keneally
This memoir does maximum honour to the idea that each family is its own unique story...it reads like silk...
Trent Dalton
This is something beautiful. Bungey's writing is as spellbinding and wondrous as the subject
David Marr
A family story, beautifully told...unexpected, sweet and raw..
JOHN OLSEN: An Artist's Life | Published by Harper Collins
Joint winner of the 2015 Prime Minister's Literary Awards for Non-Fiction
Graphically depicts the forces that drove John Olsen to become one of the country's greatest artists. An exhilarating book, both trenchant and tender, it strips away the veneer of showmanship and fame to show the substance of a painter driven by a need to depict his country's landscape as Australians had never seen it before.
Given access to his uncensored diaries and drawing on years of extensive interviews with both Olsen and those who have known him best, she explores his passionate life and follows his navigation though the friendships, rivalries and politics of the Australian art world. How did a shy, stuttering boy from Newcastle, neglected by his alcoholic father, come to paint the great mural Salute to Five Bells at the Sydney Opera House?
Barry Pearce
“[Bungey} has produced an impressive body of text to match her prize-winning study of Arthur Boyd”
Nib Awards
“… a book like Olsen himself, energetic, gregarious and generous …”
Prime Minister’s
Literary Awards
“… explore[s] Olsen’s pictures and story with insight and eloquence … “
ARTHUR BOYD: A Life | Published by Allen & Unwin
Meticulously researched and beautifully written, this is the first full biography of the complex genius, Arthur Boyd.
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Arthur Boyd's legacy is a collection of masterpieces that define the history of Australian art in the last century. But the man himself - enigmatic, inarticulate, modest - has remained in the shadows until now.
Based on over six years of meticulous research and hundreds of interviews, Darleen Bungey sweeps us into the intimate circle of one of Australia's most fascinating families. Arthur Boyd emerges as a passionate, dramatic figure whose self-effacing demeanour cloaked a strong personality that refused to allow his turbulent and sometimes tragic personal life to interfere with his creative genius.
Barry Humphries
“…a fascinating chronicle, well researched and well told, with a refreshing absence of the usual cant”
Sebastian Smee
"… engaging at every turn”
Patrick McCaughey
“a biography of skill and stamina … an immense achievement”
Simon Plant
“[Bungey] can craft images every bit as vivid as Boyd’s own imperishable art”