Chopper Unchopped

All eleven volumes of Chopper's original memoirs ... unchopped Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read is Australia's most famous standover man and one of its most prolific authors. Now, for the very first time, all eleven volumes of Chopper's memoirs are together in this special collector's edition. From his criminal youth to his time in prison to his life as a reformed man, the entire journey is here. This omnibus edition contains the following complete and unabridged books: From the Inside: Chopper 1 Hits and Memories: Chopper 2 How to Shoot Friends and Influence People: Chopper 3 For the Term of His Unnatural Life: Chopper 4 Pulp Faction: Chopper 5 No Tears for a Tough Guy: Chopper 6 The Singing Defective: Chopper 7 The Sicilian Defence: Chopper 8 The Final Cut: Chopper 9 The Popcorn Gangster: Chopper 10.5 Last Man Standing: Chopper 11 Chopper is an icon in popular Australian culture and in the criminal underworld. Find out why in Chopper's own words.

'The governor called me into his office one fine day and in his best serious voice with his best serious look told me I could no longer write letters to my publishers because it appeared to him that I was trying to write another book. The man should have been a rocket scientist ...' Including stories about drinking with Bob Hawke, Chopper's reflections on the closing of the infamous H-Division section of Pentridge Jail, his unique take on race relations, sex and relationships, For the Term of His Unnatural Life gives more fascinating insight into the mind and life of one of Australia's most notorious criminals, and what daily life behind bars in maximum security prison is actually like. Bleakly funny, brutal and disturbingly true, Chopper's memoirs have become international bestsellers and made him one of Australia's most famous – or infamous – names.

'My publishers contacted me roughly five minutes before publication and requested one more short story, so I sat down and pondered writing a short murder mystery called "Death of a Publisher – by Slow Strangulation".' Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read is Australia's bestselling ex-convict. The standover man and self-confessed killer is Australia's only celebrity gangster and has spent most of his adult life in jail. Shot, stabbed, betrayed and minus a pair of ears; Chopper's tale of the Australian criminal underworld continues in Pulp Faction. The fifth volume of Chopper's memoirs contains a series of short stories. These shorts are raw, tough and funny, with a breathtaking ring of authenticity that could only have been written by a man who has lived these experiences. Featuring the classic stories 'Revenge of the Rabbit Kisser', 'The Shoe Shop Men' and 'Message in a Bottle', Pulp Faction will have you wondering what's true and what's not.

'I've dug a few graves in my time. But I have never made a man dig his own grave. There's no need to go that far – it would be plain bad manners.' Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read grew up hungry for revenge. He ended up cleaning the streets as an underworld standover man and executioner. He was released from Pentridge Prison in 1991 and became a bestselling author with his autobiography Chopper: From the Inside. Chopper's adventures, however, were far from over. The smart money said that Chopper would be the first to go in any underworld war but the smart money was wrong. He vowed to outlive his enemies and write their epitaphs and he did so, predicting who would be killed long before the assassins' gunswere loaded. Only Chopper would live to tell the tale, with Last Man Standing the final instalment of his series of morbidly funny and often brutal memoirs.

A Melbourne sound that is at once both rakish and debonair. So what specifically is it about Melbourne that, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, it’s able to support around 465 live music venues as compared to 453 in New York, 385 in Tokyo and 245 in London despite its population being a fraction of those major world cities? Despite the flaky weather, the footy and Netflix, Melbournians are committed to going out at night and in great numbers in heat or hail to listen to live music and to find those bands and singers they’ve heard on Spotify or discovered on Soundcloud.

'Crims and screws agree on one thing: that the people who run prisons wouldn't know if a tram was up them unless you rang the bell.' How to Shoot Friends and Influence People, Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read's third book, was written behind bars as Chopper faced life in prison for a shooting he claimed he didn't commit. For this book, Chopper obtained confidential and extensive prison files relating to him under the Freedom of Information Act. These included psychological assessments, plus prison classification and discipline records. They provide a fascinating insight into how this maverick criminal dealt with the prison system over two decades. Featuring the infamous story of Tanya and Eddy, Chopper's coming-of-age yarn from his 18th birthday, plus reflections on the end of his long-term relationship and what it's like to be the most famous author-in-residence at Risdon Prison, this third volume of his memoirs contains more tales of the criminal underworld told in Chopper's unique style.

'Gangsters come and gangsters go but lawyers last forever.' The Sicilian Defence, Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read's eighth book, continues the story of Australia's bestselling former convict. Chopper's intimate knowledge of Australia's most dangerous criminals and their crimes presents readers with a dark, disturbing look at the country's underbelly. The Sicilian Defence takes readers through the nature and history of crime, justice and punishment in Australia, written in Chopper's own unique style. Featuring 'The Apple Cucumber', 'Bye Bye American Lie' and 'The Pain in Spain', The Sicilian Defence is another fantastic series of tales from one of Australia's funniest and toughest writers.

The Fierce Country holds no malice, but neither pity. It just sits, and bakes, and waits. We do the rest. We provoke it when we mine above its aquifers. Weaken it, and ourselves, when we leave mountains of asbestos to blow away in the wind. Misunderstand it when we see it as nothing more than a resource. Resent it when it takes our children. The open spaces and isolated places outside Australia's cities have unsettled us from first European settlement to today - often with very good reason. In this nail-biting book combining the notorious and little-known, acclaimed author Stephen Orr has collected true stories that have shaped and continue to haunt the Australian psyche: mysteries, disappearances, mistreatment and murder. Fatal conflicts between an Aboriginal tracker and the police employers hunting his community. An itinerant conman picking up tips for the perfect murder from a famous novelist around a campfire on the Rabbit-Proof Fence. And that fateful day when Peter Falconio pulled over beside a desert highway. Together these tales chart an undercurrent of shifting cultural tensions as Australians find, lose and question who we are.