Rod Nicholson has compiled an array of funny stories from many of the mates of Aussie cricketer Merv Hughes.

The Angler's Companion is a treasury of the finest fishing writing of all time. It contains a rich and entertaining variety of angling stories, anecdotes, poems and articles by an impressive array of the world's great writers, including Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling and John Keats.

New Year's Eve and the final murder scene of Virginia's bloodiest year since the Civil War takes Dr Kay Scarpetta thirty feet below the Elizabeth River's icy surface. A scuba diver, Ted Eddings, is dead, an investigative reporter who was a favourite at the medical examiner's office. Was Edding's probing the frigid depths of the Inactive Shipyard for a story, or simply diving for sunken trinkets? And why did Scarpetta receive a phone call from someone reporting the death before the police were notified?

Michael Crawford, one of Britain's best-loved and most internationally successful stars, tells his life story in his own inimitable style. By turns hilarious, revelatory and desperately sad, her is the autobiography of the man whose successes, such as 'Hello Dolly!', 'Some Mothers do 'Ave 'Em' and 'The Phantom of the Opera' have made him a national institution.

Wentworth, Ohio: just a small friendly town where the Carver children bicker over sweets and writer Johnny Marinville is about the only resident who minds his own business. And on Poplar Street it's just a normal summer's day with lawnmowers humming, Little League bats 'tinking', frisbees flying and barbecues being readied. But for young Cary Ripton on his paper round it won't be a normal day at all... He notices something weird about the way Audrey Wyler is standing inside the glass door - and he always thought there was something creepy about that nephew of hers, Poplar Street's best kept secret. But Cary doesn't notice the chrome red van idling up the hill. Soon it will begin to roll, the killing will begin, and the regulators wil arrive in force. And by the time night falls on the block, the surviving residents will find themselves in a wasteland of devastation and desperation.

Fourteen year-old Lucy lives in Glasgow with her mother, half-brother Reuben and Reuben's father, David, but she has never forgotten the memory of her poet father, her died saving her as a baby from a terrible fire. Not only does his spirit influence Lucy's literary achievements in being chosen to represent her school in a poetry competition, but history repeats itself when Lucy rescues a crotchety neighbour who has accidentally electrocuted himself.

Stories from the life of Australian footballer and commentator Lou Richards

A challenging and refreshing insight into how sixteen famous Australians have succeeded. In their own words, these people reveal their attitudes, and the rewards and costs of their various paths to success: Paul Hogan, Lang Hancock, Rosemary Moore, Keith Williams, Bob Ansett, Fred Schepisi, John Leard, Stefan Ackerie, Millie Phillips, Richard Holden, Ralph Sarich, Vera Randall, Steven Rich, John Laws, Prue Acton, John Newcombe

A rich, complex tale of Texas Jack Carmine, a man who inspires others to take risks and reach beyond the borders of their lives....while his own heart is chained to the past by a tragedy he cannot overcome. It is also the tale of Linda, a woman trying desperately to support her three year old daughter - by any means possible.

More sporting anecdotes from Australian cricketer and footballer, Max Walker