Biographies and Memoirs in the Vision Australia Library

Biographies let us “walk a mile in another person’s shoes”. They provide a glimpse into the life experiences and perspectives of people from completely different backgrounds. In turn, enabling us to empathise with the struggles of those with different life stories. 

Vision Australia Library is thrilled to share ten biographies and memoirs currently featured in our collection.

The Boy from Boomerang Crescent, by Eddie Betts

How does a self-described ‘skinny Aboriginal kid’ overcome a legacy of family tragedy to become an AFL legend? One thing’s for sure: it’s not easy. Betts grew up in Port Lincoln and Kalgoorlie, in environments where the destructive legacies of colonialism – racism, police targeting of Aboriginal people, drug and alcohol misuse, family violence – were sadly normalised. His childhood was defined by family closeness as well as family strife, plus a wonderful freedom that he and his cousins exploited to the full. When he made the decision to take his talents across the Nullarbor to Melbourne to chase his footballing dreams, everything changed. Over the ensuing years, Betts became a true giant of the sport.  Along the way, he battled his demons before his turbulent youth settled into responsible maturity.

My Mother's Eyes, by Shanelle Dawson and Alley Pascoe

When she was four years old, Shanelle Dawson's mother, Lynette, disappeared. The woman who had been a loving, constant presence vanished without a trace. Shanelle's father, Chris Dawson, claimed that his wife just needed to get away. But Lyn never returned home. Her side of the bed was immediately filled by Shanelle's teenage babysitter, a former student of her father's. After thirty-six years of her father's lies, a podcast called The Teacher's Pet investigated her mother's case. Sordid details became public, the police refocused on the cold case, and Chris Dawson faced court. Forty years after she went missing, he was sentenced for the murder of Lynette. Now, in this brave, emotionally powerful memoir, Shanelle reclaims her mother's story and finds her own voice.

Searching for Charlotte: The Fascinating Story of Australia's First Children's Author, by Kate Forsyth and Belinda Murrell

In 1841, Australia's first children's book was published, the anonymous writer known only as 'a lady long resident in New South Wales'. The identity of the author was one of the most puzzling literary mysteries until 1981, when she was finally given a name: Charlotte Waring Atkinson. Today, her great-great-great-great-granddaughters Kate Forsyth and Belinda Murrell are also celebrated authors. They grew up on stories about Charlotte's life of love, grief, and violence - and her struggle to assert an independent spirit.

Still Standing: A Mother's Fight to Bring the Catholic Church to Justice, by Chrissie Foster and Paul Kennedy

Chrissie Foster is the mother who brought the rich and powerful Catholic Church to its knees over its global abuse of children, including two of her daughters, Emma and Katie. She built an undeniable case in her first book Hell on the Way to Heaven, which helped inspire Australian governments to hold world-leading inquiries. From regional Australia all the way to Rome, Chrissie’s tenacity and bravery to see justice delivered is unequalled. In this confronting account she explains the incredible battle she fought together with her husband Anthony, and how she found the strength to continue even after his tragic and untimely death. Her ongoing activism inspires others to challenge once powerful male-dominated institutions.

Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life, by Anna Funder

Looking for wonder and some reprieve from the everyday, Anna Funder slips into the pages of her hero George Orwell. As she watches him create his writing self, she uncovers his forgotten wife. Eileen O’Shaughnessy’s literary brilliance shaped Orwell’s work and her practical nous saved his life. But why was she written out of the story? Using newly discovered letters from Eileen to her best friend, Funder recreates the Orwells’ marriage, through the Spanish Civil War and WWII in London. As she rolls up the screen concealing Orwell’s private life, she is led to question what it takes to be a writer – and what it is to be a wife. Wifedom speaks to the unsung work of women everywhere, while offering an intimate view of one of the most important literary marriages of the 20th century.

Irena's gift: An Epic World War II Memoir of Sisters, Secrets and Survival, by Karen Kirsten

In 1942, a Jewish child was smuggled out of the Warsaw ghetto in a backpack. That child was Karen Kirsten's mother, but she knew nothing about this until a letter arrived from a stranger. After discovering her grandparents, were not her biological grandparents, Karen travelled the globe to answer the questions from her family's past. Why did her grandmother treat Karen's mother so unkindly? Why did she hide the truth that she was her mother's aunt? And why, if she disliked Karen's mother, did she risk her life to save her? Irena's Gift weaves together a mystery, history and memoir to tell the story of a family torn apart by war. It is about the lies we tell to survive and what happens when those lies unravel. It is a tale of incredible resilience of three generations of women, and the sacrifices made for love.

Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, by John Lahr

Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh gives intimate access to the mind of one of the most brilliant dramatists of his century. John Lahr’s biography sheds a light on Tennessee Williams's warring family, his guilt, his creative triumphs and failures, his sexuality and numerous affairs, his misreported death, and the drama surrounding his estate. With a focus on the formative influences in Williams's life - his fierce, belittling father Cornelius; his puritanical, domineering mother Edwina; his demented sister Rose, who was lobotomized at the age of thirty-three; his beloved grandfather, the Reverend Walter Dakin - Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh is an exploration of Williams’s plays and the tortured process of bringing them to stage and screen.

Finding my Bella Vita: A Story of Family, Food, Fame and Working Out Who You Are, by Pia Miranda

For years Pia Miranda has been linked to that character we all loved: Josie from Looking for Alibrandi. After a rollercoaster ride of fame saw her travel the world, real life prevailed - work stress, career questions, money worries, relationships and heartbreak, love and marriage, illness and grief. Having grown up pinballing between her Italian and Australian side while trying to carve out a space all her own, Pia didn't realise how the push and pull of tradition had made her world all the richer, how all the parts of herself made her the true survivor she is. Like her Nonna told her, every day on top of the earth is a good day. Finding My Bella Vita is a charming, honest and uplifting memoir full of heart and humour that reminds us all of the two things that matter most - love and family. 

The Shadow King, by Harry Sidebottom

Alexander: The Shadow King tells this epic story from a new and unique angle through the eyes of another Alexander, a prince of the Macedonian royal house of Lyncestis. The Lyncestian was Alexander the Great's general and friend. But he was torn between that friendship and the duty to avenge his murdered brothers, and between adherence to the ways of his ancestors and the new world of empire. The Lyncestian was never safe. Others - Persians and Greeks, as well as Macedonians - saw him as a rival for the throne. For six years of conspiracy and battle, as the Macedonian army fought its way East, his life hung by a thread. Alexander of Lyncestis was The Shadow King.

Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography, by Laurie Woolever

When Anthony Bourdain died, fans around the globe came together to celebrate the life of an inimitable man who had dedicated his life to traveling nearly everywhere (and eating nearly everything), shedding light on the lives and stories of others. His impact was outsized and his legacy has only grown since his death. Now, for the first time, we have been granted a look into Bourdain's life through the stories and recollections of his closest friends and colleagues. Laurie Woolever, Bourdain's longtime assistant and confidante, interviewed nearly a hundred of the people who shared Tony's orbit - from members of his kitchen crews to his writing, publishing, and television partners, to his daughter and his closest friends - in order to piece together a remarkably full, vivid, and nuanced vision of Tony's life and work