Open Authors Podcast



The people behind the books

Interviews with non-fiction authors from New Holland Publishers including true crime, music, history, travel, food and self-help.

Welcome to the New Holland Publishers Open Authors podcast series. We hope you enjoy the insights into the authors of the books you enjoy as they talk about how their work, their motivations and the background behind the stories they have written.


Simon Hammond speaks with Warren Moore about his new book, 'Brutal Truths'.

Simon began his working life as a journalist, before becoming a top-level marketer and businessman who has worked with some of the world leading brands, analysing and influencing the relationship those brands and products have with consumers. It’s a life that has seen him become a much sought after international public speaker who for other 30 years has been renowned for his insights into social change and consumer behaviour.

They are views which will divide people, and for that Simon makes no apologies.

With ‘The Brutal Truths’ he raises the question, amongst others, “Are we evolving into a society that is so scared to offend others, that we have lost our identities?”

He wrote this book, because of his concerns that we live in a society in decay... and that we need to be awoken to 'Brutal Truths’.

Bruce Elder discusses his landmark book, 'Blood on the Wattle' which was the first book to comprehensively depict in a single volume most of the information about the massacres of Aboriginal people that has been recorded in books and journals.

The book, now in it's third edition, has been a centrepiece in debate about the massacre of indigenous people and was named in the top ten most influential work of Australian 20th-century non-fiction by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in the readers 'Spectrum Poll of the Century'.

Jackie and Gareth speak with Warren Moore about their book 'Everyday Vegan', and their life living in a Nissan van.

The couple decided to leave behind the mortgage merry-go-round for a humble life travelling in their beloved van in 2016. It is this experience which makes 'Everyday Vegan' unique. Not only does the book obviously feature vegan recipes, but they were created in a confined space and with limited access to specialty ingredients. They also can be prepared in less than 30 minutes.

Many of the recipes also cater for food intolerances; a necessity after Jackie was diagnosed with coeliac disease.

Erna Walraven talks to about her book, 'Wild Leadership'. She analyses the leadership behaviour of various wild animal species and looks at the lessons that can be learnt for human leaders.

''Wild Leadership' puts forward a view of leadership for humans inspired by evolutionary theory and compares various animal societies with leadership styles including laissez-faire, democratic, maternalistic, political and egalitarian.

Erna spent over 30 years as the senior curator at Sydney's Taronga Zoo.

Maggie Kirkpatrick talks about her 50-year career and her autobiography, The Gloves Are Off. Topics include her childhood to early acting days and the role that brought international fame as Joan 'The Freak' Ferguson in television's Prisoner/Cell Block H, through to her seven-year stint on stage in 'Wicked'.

Maggie also discusses her personal life including her battle with alcohol, bankruptcy and her acquittal on sexual assault allegations.

Nick and Caroline Robertson-Brown talk about their book, 'Wild Dives', taking you through more than 20 of their most memorable diving experiences, including seeing amazing sharks in The Bahamas, exploring caves in Mexico, traveling to remote parts of the Pacific Ocean to find Giant Manta Rays, and even looking at some of the weird and wonderful critters that are almost invisible to the naked eye.

Nick and Caroline also speak with Warren Moore about their concerns over the growing impact of human activity on the marine environment.

International journalist and acclaimed writer Richard Shears uncovers new evidence in the case of the mysterious disappearance of Margaret Clement—the ‘Lady of the Swamp.’

Rich, beautiful and well-educated, Margaret Clement was the belle of Melbourne society. With a legacy from her wealthy father, she and her sisters set up a mansion called Tullaree in the verdant pastures near the Tarwin River.

With staff to run the property, they impressed the cream of Edwardian society with Japanese screens, tapestries and furniture from their trips abroad. Hit hard by the Great Depression and World War I, their finances declined and the ditches that kept the Tarwin River back collapsed through neglect. The lush paddocks sank under a vast swamp as the elderly belles clung to their beloved Tullaree. As the swamp rose, so too did the presence of opportunists, scammers, lawyers—and a killer.

On Australia Day 1966, the Beaumont children Jane, Arnna and Grant disappeared from an Adelaide beach. Despite a large-scale police investigation and extensive media coverage, the case remains unsolved, bogged down by false leads and dead ends, and the Beaumont children were never seen again.

Alan Whiticker speaks with Warren Moore about the book, 'The Satin Man', exploring the possibility put forward by one family that their patriarch, a man with a peculiar predilection for satin, might have been involved.

'The Satin Man', is the result of ten years of investigating the news leads that emerged after Alan and researcher Stuart Mullins wrote an earlier book on the disappearance of the Beaumont children.

'The Satin Man' details everything uncovered about the new potential suspect, a man of wealth and position, and sheds incredible new light on this decades-old mystery with vital additional information on the unsolved case.

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Glenn Shorrock speaks with Warren Moore about his autobiography "Now Where Was I?" which covers his 50-year career in the music and entertainment industry and his early life in Adelaide after coming to Australia as a ten-pound-pom in the 1950s.

Glenn discusses his early music success with the Twilights and Axiom as well as international stardom with the Little River Band, being replaced in LRB by John Farnham and his ongoing solo career.

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The abduction, rape and murder of 26-year-old nurse Anita Cobby in the Western Sydney suburb of Blacktown in 1986 shocked hardened detectives, the wider community and ultimately the entire nation.

That five young men from adjoining suburbs were responsible – local thieves and hoods with nothing to fear or lose – horrified the entire nation. Quickly captured, they were found guilty of their crimes and jailed for life, their papers marked ‘never to be released’.

Alan Whiticker discusses with Warren Moore his book and the broader impact of Anita Cobby's murder.

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Robert Ian Bonnick was abandoned by his parents when he was less than two years old. He spent the next 16 years in children’s institutions.

Yet, despite such a tough start to life, which included seeing other children he lived with jailed or even killed, Robert has had a successful life. He has represented England in basketball, been a professional model, worked in hospitality and become a motivational speaker.

Robert Ian Bonnick speaks with Warren Moore about his book, Soul Survivor: How an abandoned child went from nothing to everything.

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