Wendy Lewis
Wendy Lewis has written for stage, screen, television and radio. Her books range from humour to history. Recent publications include: Events that Shaped Australia (2006) (co-author), an intelligent analysis of seminal events in Australia's black and white history from Gondwanaland and Aboriginal settlement through to the Tampa Crisis and the 2002 Bali bombings; See Australia and Die (2007), a meticulously researched account of misadventure in Australia including crocodile attacks, irukandji and death by hypothermia; and Caught Out!: Scandals, Lies, Cover-ups
(2008), a collection of the juiciest Australian scandals from the last two decades including David Hicks, Mohamed Haneef, Children Overboard, Cheryl Kernot's big secret, The Mufti and the Uncovered Meat and more. Her writing has attracted a lot of media interest and has been featured on Channel 7's "Morning Show", Sky News' Book Report; Southern Cross/Prime TV's "Insight", Radio National's "Perspective" and ABC Radio "Bush Telegraph".
Wendy's latest book Gone: 25 Intriguing Kidnappings from Around the World was published by The Five Mile Press in April 2010.
- Gone: 25 Intriguing Kidnappings from Around the World
Gone chronicles famous, notorious and fascinating kidnappings from all around the globe - from Australia to Brazil, from Japan to South Africa. Gone will engross anyone fascinated by human nature and the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit.
Who can forget the video stills of a badly beaten Douglas Wood pleading for his life in Iraq? Or good-girl-turned-bad Patty Hearst posing with an AK-47? What led to uncovering the sordid secret lives of Phillip Garrido and Josef Fritzl? And did the FBI really foil a plot to kidnap Russell Crowe?
Gone includes shocking recent cases like Jaycee Duggard, whose kidnapper Phillip Garrido still awaits sentencing; Shannon Matthews, whose mother was charged with her kidnapping in 2009; and deranged NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak, driven to distraction by her romantic rival.
Kidnapping is a crime with no rules, menacing and uncontrollable, and this premise lies at the heart of Gone. This gripping paperback features a range of cases from child abductions and kidnappings of the rich and famous to bizarre strange-but-true crimes, hostage situations and political intrigue.