THE LAST QUARTER - Martin Flanagan

Martin Flanagan has been writing Australian football for 25 years. "The Last Quarter" brings together three of his books that sum up that period. In "1970", he re-created the grand final of that year, said to be the best of the 20th century, by talking to the players, coaches and umpire.

"Southern Sky, Western Oval", written in 1993, portrays the events of a season set against the backdrop of a club, Footscray (now the Western Bulldogs), fighting to survive. "The Game In Time of War", which starts with the first game after 9/11 and ends with the first game after the invasion of Iraq, describes an unnerving period in Australian history through the eyes of a man who distracts himself by watching football. The collection ends with an essay about the controversy that marked the AFL's 150th year and Flanagan's part in it, titled: "Tom Wills: Confessions of a Ghost Writer".

"Martin Flanagan must never be allowed to stop wr iting football. I say this because he is the only football writer I have read who is so good I think he could nearly describe a heartbeat - and that, if you want to touch the essence of football, is what you have to do." - Don Watson

"If I'm ever prompted, I have no hesitation in nominating Martin Flanagan as my favourite writer..I only hope I can see the game off the field as well as he does" - Nathan Buckley

"I like Martin's writing, and I know most players do too, because he comes from a different perspective". - James Hird.

"The best of Flanagan has a finesse and feeling that no current Australian sports - writer approaches, let alone equals". - Gideon Haigh

"I love his brain" - Kevin Sheedy.

THIRSTY FOR THE JOY
Australian and American voices

Brian Doyle is the editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland, in Oregon. He is the author of nine books of essays, nonfiction, and "proems," and his work has appeared in The Best American Essays collections of 1998, 1999, 2003, and 2005. In Australia his work appears in Eureka Street and The Age. Oddly enough he barracks for Geelong, does he not have enough tension in his life or what?

"Strangers pour their stories into Brian Doyles's attentive ear; with a self-effacing craft, and a reverence for what's holy in the every day, he shapes them into poems of bounding energy and surprising moral depth."

- Helen Garner.

ISBN 9780975770863
Published February 2008

Dennis Jones & Associates Distributors

Telephone: 61 3 9762 9100

Fax: 61 3 9762 9200

Email: theoffice@dennisjones.com.au

Mailing Address:
Unit 1/10 Melrich Road
Bayswater Victoria
3153
Australia

Arch Flanagan, 91, is a retired school teacher. In 1943, as a sergeant in the Australian Army, he was forced to labor on the infamous Burma Railway upon which it is said, that one man died for every sleeper laid.

In the 50 years since, Arch has written four separate pieces reflecting on the experience - two short stories, a memoir and an obituary for his commanding officer, Sir Edward "Weary" Dunlop.

Martin Flanagan is a poet, writer and journalist and is the fourth of Arch's six children.

‘The Line' is a dual drama - one is an elderly man's reflection on the peak experience of his life. The other story is the son's relationship with that experience, the way it has shaped him and the line he takes in his writing life.

Click here for Martin's Age Newspaper blog talking about "The Line"
Click here for Age Newspaper media release "The Line"
Click here ABC Television interview (The 7.30 Report) "The Line"
Click here ABC Radio media release "The Line"

ISBN 0-9757708-1-0

Dennis Jones & Associates Distributors

Telephone: 61 3 9762 9100

Fax: 61 3 9762 9200

Email: theoffice@dennisjones.com.au

Mailing Address:
Unit 1/10 Melrich Road
Bayswater
Victoria 3153
Australia

FACES IN THE CROWD
An Argument for Optimism
Martin Flanagan
One Day Hill Pty Ltd 2004
RRP $19.95

Martin Flanagan, like John Marsden, is one of those rare adults who truly understands what it feels like to be a young person coming of age in today's world. At barely 100 pages, Faces in the Crowd is not so much a novel as a series of vignettes collected by Flanagan over several decades as a journalist and observer.
Although written for teenagers, not all of the stories are about young people, nor should they be. Flanagan's purpose is to give some small insight into the human condition, and to highlight the small acts of kindness and courage that occur every day but are often overlooked. These are the stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things; they will make you smile with their warmth and cry with their compassion. In a world where it is all too easy to despair, Faces in the Crowd is a beacon of hope, a genuine argument for optimism.
Martin Flanagan is a writer for The Age.

THE UNLUCKY AUSTRALIANS

The day Gough Whitlam poured the red soil of Gurindji country into Vincent Lingiari's hand in 1975 was a momentous day in the history of Land Rights in this country. It was also one of the proudest moments in our father's life. To help this remarkable group of people win back their own land was one of his greatest achievements.

The Gurindji took on the might of Lord Vestey and the Australian government. They were dogged in their determination to live on the land of their dreaming; their traditional land.

Their story is an important part of Australia's history. It is a story that was played out years before Eddie Mabo began his fight for recognition of the traditional owners of his country.

Almost 10 years after the Gurindji walked away from Wave Hill their battle was won. The town of Dagaragu was built on the banks of Wattie Creek. The Gurindji finally had a home.

Our father spent many months with the Gurindji over the years. His love for these people and his resolve to see an end to the injustice took him away from his family in Sydney. It was something he did willingly and something we tried hard to understand at the time.

The Gurindji believe that our father's spirit is with them in their dreaming place.
He would be happy there; with the people he loved and helped achieve something so important - their freedom.

We thank One Day Hill for agreeing to publish the book in this the year that marks the 40th anniversary of the walk off from Wave Hill.
Alan Hardy

Shirley Hardy-Rix

THE FIGHT

This book is an answer to the despair of Mark Latham's Diaries. Tom Uren is a child of the Great Depression whose politics were forged by his experience of the Burma Railway where he served under Weary Dunlop and saw how engendering a collective spirit saved lives.

From 1976-77, Tom Uren was deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party. He was Labor's first environment spokesman, is a long-time activist for world peace and in 1998 was voted a National Living Treasure. "The Fight" is an intimate but unsparing portrait of Uren by author and journalist Martin Flanagan. It is also Uren's view of the spirit that needs to be re-awakened for Australia to move forward in a balanced and positive way.

"Tom Uren, who I think is one of the most magnificent living beings on the face of the planet, of not just Australian but global citizens, and one who has certainly inspired me right back to the days of Lake Pedder. He is quite remarkable in that he has gone through a long life of service to Australia, to the people, including a long life of politics, at the end of that, such a remarkably wonderful human being. It is as if he was not tainted in the way that so many of us who end up in politics can be."
Senator Bob Brown

Click here for "The Fight" media release
Click here for "The Fight" Review by Michael Whelan
Click here for "The Fight" Review by The Sunday Tasmanian 5/11/06