Leigh Sales

As a journalist, Leigh Sales often encounters people experiencing the worst moments of their lives in the full glare of the media. But one particular string of bad news stories - and a terrifying brush with her own mortality - sent her looking for answers about how vulnerable each of us is to a life-changing event. What are our chances of actually experiencing one? What do we fear most and why? And when the worst does happen, what comes next? In this wise and layered book, Leigh talks intimately with people who?ve faced the unimaginable, from terrorism to natural disaster to simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Expecting broken lives, she instead finds strength, hope, even humour. Leigh brilliantly condenses the cutting-edge research on the way the human brain processes fear and grief, and poses the questions we too often ignore out of awkwardness. Along the way, she offers an unguarded account of her own challenges and what she?s learned about coping with life?s unexpected blows. Warm, candid and empathetic, this bookis about what happens when ordinary people, on ordinary days, are forced to suddenly find the resilience most of us don?t know we have.

Any Ordinary Day

Annabel Crabb

In 2014, two of Australia's most high-profile journalists sat at a kitchen table, hit record on a phone and started a rambling conversation that's still going on (and on). From books to TV, music to cooking, friendship to films, there's little cultural terrain Annabel Crabb and Leigh Sales haven't traversed in their oddly named but nonetheless wildly popular podcast Chat 10 Looks 3. Now, in their first book together, the pair takes a stroll through some of the issues of our time, offering advice for would-be writers, thoughts on developing a rich reading life, tips for navigating the perilous world of social media, and the secrets of a great friendship, all with the digressions that listeners of their podcast have come to love. Here Crabb and Sales discuss kindness, success and failure, and not taking yourself - or others - too seriously, with a liberal sprinkling of fairy wrens, granny pants, show tunes, creative insults, diabolical mum bags and CLANGs. Whether you're a devoted listener of Chat 10 Looks 3, curious as to what all the fuss is about, or simply looking to cry-laugh on public transport, Well Hello is the book for you.

Well Hello

When society seems to demand confidence and certainty, how much courage does it take to admit doubt, especially self-doubt? In this personal essay, one of Australia's most respected journalists argues in favour of a doubtful mind.

On Doubt

In a remote American military base at Guantanamo Bay, 385 enemy combatants sit waiting for their day in court. Among them is David Hicks, who was detained for five years until the March 2007 hearing where he pleaded guilty to the charge of providing material support for terrorism. Detainee 002 reveals in unprecedented detail how an Australian citizen wound up in the War on Terror. Based on more than five years of reporting and dozens of interviews with insiders, Leigh Sales explains the intricacies of Hicks's case, from his capture in Afghanistan, to life in Guantanamo Bay, to the behind-the-scene establishment and workings of the military commissions. Sales' impeccable research takes us from top-secret negotiations at the White House and Pentagon to the domestic fallout Hicks's incarceration has had on his family, to the campaign that Major Michael Mori, the marine who becomes his greatest advocate, waged on his behalf. David Hicks's case is emblematic of some of the greatest challenges facing the world today: the rise of Islamic extremism, terrorism and the accountability of governments towards their citizens. It is a chilling reminder that, in a war with ever-changing rules and no end in sight, there are no limits.

Leigh Sales

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