“Franklin presents two humanities,” wrote Williams. “He introduces us to the survivors via short biographical sketches that underscore their Australian ordinariness, yet who stand out not because of the disaster but for their fortitude despite it … But Franklin conjures another, darker inhumanity: the arsonist who commits the crime as foul as it is impossible to comprehend.”

The scale of this tragedy is still difficult to fully comprehend for most onlookers, and Inferno takes us deeper into those flames than we could have imagined.

As Williams describes: “This is at once a heart-rending account, written with a journalist's ear for the human angle, of a singular, tragic episode and a transcendent wake-up call... The almost poetic incursions only add to the urgency of Franklin's message. Florid descriptions of the inferno as ‘fists of roiling fire’ and as the ‘tyrant's torture and the martyr's lament’ don't seem out of place when reflecting on a national tragedy of this scale.”

The Australian makes strong, positive claims about the quality of Inferno, and Franklin’s story telling; read the entire review here.

Purchase a copy of Inferno here.

Top of the schedule is the Netherlands on Saturday, October 10, followed by an Asian Cup qualifier against Oman four days later.

Both matches will be previewed in the latest issue of The Socceroo. The Slattery Media Group is the publisher of The Socceroo, the match-day magazine for Australia’s home internationals. This issue, Jason Culina explains his decision to move back to his home country and join Gold Coast United, coach Pim Verbeek gives his highlights from almost two years in charge, and there are interviews with Socceroos stars David Carney and Scott McDonald.

The Socceroo will be on sale at Sydney Football Stadium on October 10 for Australia v The Netherlands, and at Etihad Stadium on October 14 for Australia v Oman.

Geelong Cats, True Champions features action and celebration photos of every Geelong player on Grand Final Day, a quarter-by-quarter analysis of the big game, a detailed match review and report; match day statistics, and all the greatest moments from the 2009 season. Plus, a round-by-round season review, and revealing essays, including:

• Winning two premierships in three years: what it took for the Geelong Cats to rebuild from last year’s loss to claim its eighth Premiership.
• Norm Smith medallist Paul Chapman and his influence on the 2009 Grand Final.
• How coach Mark Thompson has crafted two premiership wins from what history will remember as one of the greatest teams of all.

This tribute publication will provide a lasting memory of the Geelong Cats’ victorious win – it is a must-have souvenir for all Geelong fans.

It is also a remarkable publishing feat – to produce a 100-page book, featuring 80 pages of stories and photos from the big game and have it on sale in Geelong by midday the day after the Grand Final. The Slattery Media Group CEO Geoff Slattery said: “I remember producing a similar publication when Collingwood won the 1990 premiership. We had that on sale by the following Sunday – eight days after the Grand Final – and we thought that was a remarkable achievement. There are few publishing companies in the country who would not only attempt such a project, but do it with such detail and excellence. More than 30 people worked on the book. It is a credit to their work ethic and commitment.”

Geelong Cats, True Champions will be available at the Supporters’ Day at Kardinia Park, the Herald Sun Shop and online at slatterymedia.com/books from 12pm on Sunday 27th September. It will be on sale in newsagents, bookstores, The Cats Shop and AFL Stores from Monday September 28th. RRP $15

We've learned a lot during the AFL season, by listening to what users loved about Footy Lite, and what they want from their application, and applied that knowledge to the development of Cricket Lite. One-touch access to all the info, with no glitches, and no hold-ups.

Cricket Lite will be available from the App Store this spring. Visit The Slattery Media Group on iTunes.

But on February 7, 2009, fire became Victoria’s worst enemy. 173 Victorians perished in Australia’s worst bushfire disaster on the day that will forever be known as Black Saturday. Countless homes and buildings were reduced to rubble, 430,000 hectares torched, communities crushed and entire towns wiped off the map in an unstoppable sea of flames.

Veteran journalist Roger Franklin brings the story to life in Inferno, a classic blend of action, heartbreak, survival, love, and community. The narrative recounts individual tales of horror and heroism, the devastation of Kinglake and Marysville – both swallowed in Black Saturday’s flames – the generosity and unyielding spirit of humanity, and no shortage of failings too; communication breakdowns, bush left unburnt for years and lack of leadership were all factors on the state’s darkest day.

Inferno is on sale October 1. Order Inferno online.

"Handmade takes a large sample group of artisans working in any number of fields and lays them out for your own investigation... With a pleasant, easy-to-read layout and a size that is ideal to carry in a handbag, Handmade in Melbourne won't teach you how to knit one, purl two or how to make your own tooled leather belt, but it will show you how to find people who can." – Clem Bastow, M, The Sunday Age

Thursday morning saw The Cup launched at Flemington racecourse by champion jockey, Damien Oliver. The Cup recounts the remarkable story of the 2002 Melbourne Cup and Oliver's emotional win on Media Puzzle. Struggling to hold back tears, Damien recapped the race for launch attendees, and how he came to make one the toughest decisions he has faced - whether or not he would ride following the tragic death of his brother Jason in a track fall just days earlier. It was a morning of passion at the launch, further fuelled by the author, Texan writer and racing man Eric O’Keefe, who spoke eloquently by video about the “best story I’ve ever encountered” – Oliver’s brother’s fall a week before the Cup, his death the next day and then the heart-wrenching decision Damien and his family made to return for one of the great Cup rides, and the emotion it wrung from 100,000-plus at Flemington and millions Australia-wide.

Both books are available for purchase here, and in all good bookstores.

Since March 2007, when I commenced the role of editing MAG (Music Australia Guide), I’ve wanted to take MAG’s content online in a more meaningful fashion that just more pictures and more text. Not that there’s anything at all wrong with pictures and text per se, but in an ocean of web content that talks about music, we wanted to hear it, see it, and discuss it, while branding MAG and previewing upcoming content. So, I took myself off into a room one day and recorded a demo version, simply using the camera on my laptop to capture video content. One of the more freakishly talented members of our design team added some perfunctory (but perfectly effective) supers and our web team uploaded it to a specific URL only company staff could view. I posted the URL to the ideas forum the next week, and MAGcast was born.

It’s now five episodes old: in that brief period, it’s evolved from me talking incessantly at the camera about new music releases, to a fully fledged mini music TV show on the internet. MAGcast now features news, interviews, a tech segment from our TechMag editor Julia Gaw with various guests, DVD reviews and a music clip to run over the credits. We’ve promoted it only via our tweets on Twitter, in the print version of MAG, and via one-off e-letters to the music industry and to our database subscribers. And in that short time, it’s risen to reside the top 12 video podcasts on the Australian iTunes store! To quote Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody, “from little things, big things grow”.

MAGcast can be seen at musicaustraliaguide.com

You can subscribe to it free via iTunes here.

The aim was to create a more user friendly environment for football fans to view our images and purchase prints for sale. The site is designed for fans, with our commercial and editorial clients continuing to use our existing site, via the link on this homepage – slatterymedia.com/images.

The entire site has been rebuilt and the search functionality changed, allowing fans to search by one of three ways.

1. The most recent collections, sorted into the last eight games, or the most popular (by month or day). This is for the many users who come to the site to check out the latest and most timely images; this is an easy way for them to check in and see the latest from the round or from their team's last match.

2. Search by player – the search button on the right hand side of the home page and running throughout the site allows you to search by player name. Enter in the name and every image with the player tagged will appear. You can view the results as a grid or as a slideshow.

3. Search by club – on the top right side of each page throughout the site you'll see our new team search. This compiles all images that are club specific and creates galleries based on club events and games. You can view a s a grid or by slideshow.

We've also made ordering prints easier and allowed cropping so that the consumer can tailor the print to be exactly as they want it.

Visit the new site now... HERE.

Padley, who writes a daily report on market conditions via his website marcustoday.com.au, and is a columnist in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The West Australian, has a rare capacity to unravel the tricks, treats and tragedies of investing in equities.

Geoff Slattery, CEO of The Slattery Media Group, said he never missed Padley’s weekly columns. “Marcus can make you laugh in bad times, grimace in good times. He is a marvellous writer and interpreter of something that is unfathomable to most of us – investment strategies on the stock market,” he said.

“He has been writing these incisive and personal columns for many years, but the first is just as lively, timely, and informative as the last.

“I believe Marcus Padley’s Stockmarket Secrets will become a ‘must have’ in the bookshelves of all of us who dabble in the market.”

Marcus Padley’s Stockmarket Secrets will include more than 100 Padley columns, all aimed to inform the reader about big and small details of investments. It will be published on October 1, 2009, and will be sold through bookshops, slatterymedia.com.au/books, and via marcustoday.com.au.