Books published by Valentine Press

Wakuwal (Dream) is an intercultural history of Australia and the effects of the European invasion, on the invaders and the invaded. The story is a wild imagining of how things were, and how they got to be, now. It is a story of how optimism endures and today's descendants of both the newcomers and the first peoples are beginning a conversation

Sydney Australia, sometime in the 1960s. Watched by family and friends, thirteen determined young Rugby League players commence a seminal year which finishes in triumph for some, tragedy for others. Welcome to the dangerous alleys of Sydney's inner west, in a time before credit cards, when working-class families bought household goods on hire purchase; when off-course gambling was a way of life and ';cockatoos' kept watch for local SP bookies operating in every corner pub. Best and Fairest assembles a fractured mosaic of almost forgotten everyday lives, and creates a powerful impression of a culture and era now rapidly fading from memory

The Author Lyn Gain is, as she notes, "out of the same stable" as Germaine Greer - the Sydney Push in the early sixties. She spent her first sixteen years waiting to find bohemia; the next sixteen years in the bosom of the Push; the next sixteen years in the social welfare advocacy movement; and the last sixteen years as a digital era sea-changer on the Mid North Coast of NSW, with a marginal attachment to academe. She is currently considering her options for the next sixteen years. The Book Witch Girl and the Push is a unique insider story of the Sydney Push, told by someone who was actually there. It explodes numerous myths and misconceptions which have been perpetuated by outside commentators. The book spans over 50 years of social, political and sexual change in Australia, from the late fifties American rock and roll perceived as contributing to a 'moral crisis' amongst 'the youth', to the modern day 'slut walks'. It is a fascinating and irreverent memoir from the present day perspective of Witch Girl, a nickname bestowed on the author as a bewitching 17 year old in the Royal George hotel in the early sixties. Witch Girl is both the heroine and narrator of the book which provides numerous frank, funny and fearless observations and sketches about people as diverse as: Cec Abbott (once head of the NSW Drug Squad); Premiers Nick Greiner and John Fahey; Supreme Court Chief Justice Murray Gleeson; feminist Eva Cox; radical trad, the Rev. Harry Herbert; and a vast array of eccentric Push characters and ex-lovers, as well as state government ministers, left wing unionists, prominent welfare advocates and some alternative life-stylers. This is a many layered book. The author cunningly disguises what is essentially a philosophical treatise as a story of sex, drugs, rock 'n roll and more sex, told in a charmingly frank, no-holds barred style. You will not get any looking down the nose in this tale. What you do get are the big questions, seriously considered, with answers so well pulled together it will leave an indelible impression as well as a way of finding your way through the most complex questions of right and wrong. There is plenty of reference to sex in the book, but there are no sex scenes.

Photography, experimental film and video making, cinematography and film directing, scriptwriting, painting, drawing, graphic arts, print making - exhibitions at leading art galleries, international film and video festivals. Any one of these would be a dream come true for a creative Australian, but Sydney-based David Perry has done them all. He is a "fair dinkum" polymath, multimedia artist and teacher - and, although a very modest man, he can now add the description "author" to his impressive list of achievements. In "Memoirs of a Dedicated Amateur", David Perry provides real inspiration through his honest account of the past 50 or more years, taking us on his career and personal journey, from being a printing apprentice to drawing, painting, photography and the forefront of independent and experimental film making. Along the way, he inspired now acclaimed Australian film directors, such as Phillip Noyce, and has achieved international recognition by a new generation of experimental film makers for his significant video works. "Memoirs of a Dedicated Amateur" also gives readers valuable knowledge and insights into the importance of personal relationships for artists, and how they can be affected by the passion, love, pain and sometimes guilt that evolves through the ending of relationships. This book is a "must read", not only for aspiring and practising film makers, photographers and all people with creative instincts or skills, but for anyone who follows the creative arts and who wants to know more about what motivates Australian artists and how they see things, and why they are an essential part of Australia's cultural heritage.

A blockbuster of a story, The Bird of Time is a thrilling adventure set in India andAustralia. A devastating natural disaster causes the earth to tilt on its axis putting Southand East Asia into the Arctic Zone. Australian ex-pat, Griffith Bolton and his partnerRohini Sane, an Indian vet, are living on a farm on the Deccan Plateau when the disasterhappens. Instead of joining the fleeing masses, Bolton decides they should stay putuntil international rescue efforts have been launched. However, when aid fails to arrive,Bolton finds himself leading a group in a thrilling bid to escape before the big thaw... So begins a tale of desperation and death, siege and survival, jealousy and justice, thatculminates in peace at last in Pinjarra.