Forever Young Autobiographies

The Iron Broom: A multigenerational memoir on surviving Stalin oppression by David Sawatzki

The Iron Broom: Turning Oppression into Opportunity, A True Story by David Sawatzki, AuthorHouse. Cover of The Iron Broom, a portrait of Sawatzki, and younger Sawatzki as a soldier. Photos: AuthorHouse and David Sawatzki — *The Iron Broom: Turning Oppression into Opportunity, A True Story* (left) by David Sawatzki (right) and as a young soldier in Siberia (inset). Photos: AuthorHouse and David Sawatzki

Case study: How a Siberian conscript came to preserve family stories

The Iron Broom: Turning Oppression into Opportunity, A True Story by David Sawatzki draws on family accounts and his own experiences.

The newly released AuthorHouse publication follows Sawatzki’s family through prison camps and relocation before turning to his service as a young Soviet conscript in a remote Siberian labor camp.

Here Sawatzki is forced to consider how far obedience should extend when conscience is at stake.

So keep reading to hear directly from men’s coach Sawatzki, how he wrote the book plus his suggestions for your own creating…

We Are the Stars: Alone Australia winner Gina Chick’s wild memoir on love, connection and the power of letting go

Book review: Award-winning Summit publication helps us understand life’s biggest lessons

We Are the Stars: A misfit’s story of love, connection and the glorious power of letting go by Gina Chick is an exceptionally moving memoir.

From her wildly unconventional Australian childhood, Chick blazed her own trail through nightclubs, debt, wilderness, cancer, birth, death and more.

This Summit (Simon and Schuster) memoir took out the Australian Book Industry Awards Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year and follows on from her win of inaugural reality television series Alone Australia.

So keep reading to find out more about Chick, her book and how she can inspire life-story creating.

Shooting Up: A childhood memoir of love, loss and addiction by Jonathan Tepper

Case study: How an American missionary kid’s family helps found Betel drug rehab in Spain during the AIDS crisis

Shooting Up: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Addiction by Jonathan Tepper is the searing memoir of a missionary childhood spent in San Blas, Madrid, where syringes littered playgrounds and his closest friends were recovering junkies twice his age.

What begins in the 1980s as eight men in an apartment becomes Betel, now one of the world’s largest drug rehabilitation networks.

In this Infinite Books life story, Tepper, now an investment manager, shows us how to see beauty in ruins, find family among outcasts and learn that the answer to suffering is always more love.

So keep reading to discover more about Tepper, what inspired his writing and his top tips for your own creating…

The Voice Inside: Bestselling biography of much-loved Australian music legend John Farnham

Book review: Multi-ABIA winner written with filmmaker Poppy Stockell

The Voice Inside by musician John Farnham AO with Poppy Stockell is a remarkable Australian story about finding fame and the resilience to stay true to yourself.

It is Farnham and filmmaker Stockell’s first ever book and took both creatives into uncharted territory.

However, the Hachette Australia publication has been a huge bestseller and won three Australian Book Industry Awards, including Biography Book of the Year.

So keep reading to find out more about the singer of the global hit You’re The Voice and suggestions for your own life-story creating…

Generation Jumping: A legacy memoir of hope by Steve Beal Snr

Case study: Capturing a family’s generation of stories

Generation Jumping: Losing Those Who Are Not Lost by Steve Beal Senior urges us all to tell our family stories today.

In this WestBow Press memoir, the American honours ordinary heroes such as his grandmother, uncle and father.

And by sharing their stories plus some of his own, he uncovers timeless lessons about love, hope, grief and faith.

So keep reading to find out more about Beal, what prompted his writing and his top tips for your own creating…

King: Powerful biography of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr (MLK)

Book review: Pulitzer Prize winner by bestselling author Jonathan Eig

King: A Life by Jonathan Eig is a vivid account of American civil rights icon Martin Luther King Junior (MLK).

It is the first major King biography in decades and draws on recently declassified Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files.

The bestselling Macmillan Publishers biography has won countless awards including being named the Pulitzer Prize Winner in Biography.

So keep scrolling to find out more about this non-violence activist and suggestions for your own life-s tory creating…

Once A King, Now A Prince: Wild rock and roll music memoir by New York agent Ira Blacker

Case study: Music agency founder on surviving the mob to representing Rod Stewart, ZZ Top and The Eagles

Once A King, Now A Prince: The true tale of family dysfunction, the mob, sex, drugs & Rock N Roll by Ira Blacker is a unique, startling and sometimes heartbreaking story.

This newly released memoir tells how Blacker grew up in New York and went on to start his own music agency that represented Rod Stewart, ZZ Top, The Eagles and many more.

Although Blacker is referenced in books by or about Kiss, Rush, Kraftwerk and others, he hadn’t intended to write his own.

So keep reading to find out more about how he began his life-story project and tips for your own creating…

Politics On the Edge: Sharp, witty bestseller by ex-UK minister Rory Stewart

Book review: British Book Awards winner’s inside take on Brexit, democracy and the Conservative Party

Politics On the Edge: A Memoir from Within by Rory Stewart is an entertaining account of his turbulent decade in the United Kingdom Conservative Party.

The former serviceman, diplomat and now Yale University professor takes us along for the ride as he climbs the political ranks.

The bestselling Penguin Random House publication has won numerous awards including British Book Awards Book of the Year Non-Fiction Narrative.

So keep reading to find out more about this well-written memoir plus tips for your own life-story creating…

Atomic Pilgrim: A nuclear peace memoir by James Patrick Thomas

Case study: Cold War pilgrimage leads to Washington’s toxic Hanford site

Atomic Pilgrim: How Walking Thousands of Miles for Peace Led to Uncovering Some of America’s Darkest Nuclear Secrets by James Patrick Thomas is a story of holding powers to account.

This Latah Books memoir recounts Thomas’s two-year pilgrimage during the Cold War and then his two-decade focus on the Hanford plutonium factory.

But it wasn’t until planning retirement that he considered writing down his experiences.

So keep reading to find out more about Thomas, how he began his life-story project and tips for your own creating…

Nuked: The true story of a sunken submarine deal

Book review: Walkley Awards winner by Aussie investigative journalist Andrew Fowler

Nuked: The Submarine Fiasco that Sank Australia’s Sovereignty by Andrew Fowler is a detailed true story about how deals worth billions can go wrong.

Renowned journalist and United Nations Peace Prize winner Fowler expertly uncovers how Australia reneged on a French submarine deal.

Importantly this Melbourne University Publishing work also won the Walkley Awards Book Award.

So keep reading to find out more about this global defence story plus tips for your own life-story creating…