AustLit

' The lives of twelve extraordinary Australians provide a fascinating glimpse of a "vanished and vanishing land" - revealing a mosaic of Australia over the past century. To hear the story of a person who has lived long and well is a privilege beyond price. It is a strange and wonderful process to delve into another person's life; strange because we usually focus on our own lives, not others, wonderful because to discover another is to uncover a treasure.

In The Man Who Loved Crocodiles and Stories of Other Adventurous Australians, fifteen fiercely independent men and women who have lived life exuberantly cast a revealing light on a fast vanishing Australia. These subjects share their unique experiences with a cocky modern world often focused more on youth. What's it like to hunt wild buffalo on horseback, or to hover calmly underwater to avoid the bends while being circled by bronze whaler sharks? What's it like to escape twice from Nazi SS camps, or to capture rogue saltwater crocodiles, or to walk in the footsteps of Burke and Wills, totally alone apart from four camels? What's it like to raise fourteen children in a one-room house, to really make a difference in the fraught world of aboriginal education, or to inspire as an innovator or artist?

While there are adventures aplenty, a deep wisdom lies at the core of this book. A wisdom born from action not theory, a wisdom that can come from following the road less travelled, a wisdom that will resonate with the reader.' Source: www.allenandunwin.com/ (Sighted 10/11/2011).