Grantlee Kieza has 3 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 2 narrators. The most-rated is Banks.
Macquarie
Summary
Lachlan Macquarie is credited with shaping Australia's destiny, transforming a harsh, foreboding penal colony into an agricultural powerhouse and ultimately a prosperous society. He also helped shape Australia's national character. An egalitarian at heart, Macquarie saw boundless potential in Britain's refuse, and under his rule many former convicts went on to become successful administrators, land owners and businesspeople. However, the governor's ambitions for the colony brought him into conflict with the continent's original landowners, and he was responsible for the deaths of Aboriginal men, women and children brutally killed in a military operation intended to create terror among local Indigenous people. So was Macquarie the man who sowed the seeds of a new nation or a tyrant who destroyed Aboriginal resistance? In this, the most comprehensive biography yet of this fascinating colonial governor, acclaimed biographer Grantlee Kieza draws on Macquarie's rich and detailed journals. Ultimately, Macquarie laid the foundations for a new nation, but, in the process, he played a part in the dispossession of the continent's first nations. Lover, fighter, egalitarian, autocrat, Lachlan Macquarie is a complex and engaging character who first envisaged the nation we call Australia.
©2019 Grantlee Kieza (P)2019 Bolinda Publishing
Banjo
Summary
Balladeer, bushman, soldier, foreign correspondent - the remarkable life of Australia's greatest storyteller. A. B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson is rightly recognised as Australia’s greatest storyteller and most celebrated poet, the boy from the bush who became the voice of a generation. He gave us our unofficial national anthem, ‘Waltzing Matilda’, and treasured ballads such as ‘The Man from Snowy River’ and ‘Clancy of the Overflow’, vivid creations that helped to define our national identity. But there is more, much more, to Banjo’s story, and in this landmark biography, award-winning writer Grantlee Kieza chronicles a rich and varied life, one that straddled two centuries and saw Australia transform from a far-flung colony to a fully fledged nation. Born in the bush, as a child Banjo rode his pony to a one-room school along a trail frequented by outlaw Ben Hall. As a young man he befriended Breaker Morant and covered the second Boer War as a reporter. He fudged his age to enlist during World War I, ultimately driving an ambulance before commanding a horse training unit during that conflict. Newspaper editor, columnist, foreign correspondent and ABC broadcaster, he knew countless luminaries of his time, including Rudyard Kipling, Winston Churchill, Field Marshal Haig and Henry Lawson. The tennis ace, notorious ladies’ man, brilliant jockey and celebrated polo player was an eyewitness to countless key moments in Australian history and saw Carbine and Phar Lap race. Extensively researched and written with Kieza’s trademark verve, Banjo is a lively and captivating portrait of this truly great Australian.
©2018 Grantlee Kieza (P)2018 Bolinda
Banks
Summary
By award-winning best-selling writer Grantlee Kieza, Banks is a rich and rollicking biography of one of Britain's most colourful and successful scientists. Lust, science, adventure - Joseph Banks and his voyages of discovery. Explorer, naturalist and president of Britain's Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks was a larger-than-life character best known for his promotion of science. In 1768 Banks joined Captain James Cook's expedition to the South Pacific. The 30,000 specimens he brought back generated enormous interest, as did the sometimes racy written account of the journey, which chronicled his frequent amorous exploits. Banks' passion for the new and unusual flora of Australia led him to recommend Botany Bay to parliament as an excellent place for a penal settlement, despite the fact the soil was poor and there was no fresh running water, but he later became the foremost expert on everything Australian.
©2020 Grantlee Kieza (P)2020 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd