Long Story Short

You don’t have to be a war hero or a famous movie star to have a great story to tell. In this remarkable collection of true stories, every-day Australians bring to life in their own words those incredible moments of their lives where, seemingly in an instant, everything changes. Meet: the twenty something telemarketer who moments before her impending death when her car is about to be flattened by a 100 tonne crane, takes off her glasses so her face won’t be scratched; a puny agricultural scientist, so shy he shook hands rather than kiss the love of his life, takes on the heavy weight boxing champion of the Northern Territory to defend her honour. the hapless suburban accountant and his country bumpkin clients who somehow managed to outfox a multinational oil corporation; the lovelorn pig shooter who buys a wrecking yard as a way to meet girls; a pretty young dressmaker in a railway carriage catches the eye of a soldier from Perth and before the day is out they are engaged to be married; the irrepressible couple from Poland, who, after surviving the razing of Warsaw, set up a nightclub in the middle of their war ravaged country; the all too plain girl from Flackwell Heath, with long, lanky legs and buck teeth who was inspired by a chance encounter on a beach in India with Mahatma Gandhi to become a writer; the Chinese orphan who went from Mao to God and along the way raised a family of four brilliant daughters in a one room house; a cultured Danish gentleman with impeccable manners places an advertisement in the newspaper announcing his arrival in Australia, his many qualifications, attributes and interests, and his current availability. To his astonishment no offers of employment are forthcoming and he finds himself lugging carcasses in a slaughterhouse for a living; the refugee who was swapped for a chicken on the battlefields of Europe, And many more.