Dave Glasheen's life began spiralling out of control after he lost his family's vast fortune in the stock market crash of 1987. After a series of catastrophes, he needed to take drastic measures to restore himself. Opting out of the rat race, he cast himself away to a deserted island off the north-east tip of Australia, as far off the grid as was humanly possible. He has lived there ever since. One annual supermarket shop, a sketchy internet connection, and enough ingredients for a home brew satisfy Dave's material needs. He catches fish, traps rainwater and cooks on an open fire. For company he tames dingoes, meets with friends from the Aboriginal community 40 kilometres away, and entertains drop-ins such as Russell Crowe sailing past on his honeymoon. Then there's Dave's running feud with Boxhead, an antisocial saltwater crocodile who just won't leave him in peace. Between heartbreak and hair-raising adventures, Dave has found happiness on Restoration Island. Brimming with humour, eccentricity and hard-earned wisdom, The Millionaire Castaway will give you a whole new view on life.

How popular films from Memento to Slumdog Millionaire can help us understand how memory works. In the movie Slumdog Millionaire, the childhood memories of a young game show contestant trigger his correct answers. In Memento, the amnesiac hero uses tattoos as memory aids. In Away from Her, an older woman suffering from dementia no longer remembers who her husband is. These are compelling films that tell affecting stories about the human condition. But what can these movies teach us about memory? In this book, John Seamon shows how examining the treatment of memory in popular movies can shed new light on how human memory works. After explaining that memory is actually a diverse collection of independent systems, Seamon uses examples from movies to offer an accessible, nontechnical description of what science knows about memory function and dysfunction. In a series of lively encounters with numerous popular films, he draws on Life of Pi and Avatar, for example, to explain working memory, used for short-term retention. He describes the process of long-term memory with examples from such films as Cast Away and Groundhog Day; The Return of Martin Guerre, among other movies, informs his account of how we recognize people; the effect of emotion on autobiographical memory is illustrated by The Kite Runner, Titanic, and other films; movies including Born on the Fourth of July and Rachel Getting Married illustrate the complex pain of traumatic memories. Seamon shows us that movies rarely get amnesia right, often using strategically timed blows to the protagonist's head as a way to turn memory off and then on again (as in Desperately Seeking Susan). Finally, he uses movies including On Golden Pond and Amour to describe the memory loss that often accompanies aging, while highlighting effective ways to maintain memory function.

Describes how, in 1990, wealthy antiques and art dealer George Kogan was killed in cold blood and how it took authorities almost twenty years to uncover the evidence needed to convict his estranged wife, Barbara.

Only I could get marooned on a desert island with my gorgeous ex... I've never forgotten Theo Prince. He was the first man I ever loved, and, if I'm honest, the last. But he broke my heart, and although I've thought about him often, I've done my best to avoid him. I didn't expect our first meeting in seven years to be on a plane flying back to New Zealand from Fiji. I didn't anticipate it getting struck by lightning and plunging into the ocean. And I certainly didn't think we'd get marooned on a desert island together. Being stranded is terribly dangerous-there are no doctors, little food, baking hot sun, and spiders the size of my hand. And I don't want to be alone with Theo, because he wants to talk about what happened seven years ago, and raking over the ashes of our past always makes me cry. But then the tropical storm hits us, and we're stuck together in a cave for the longest night of my life. It's hot. The man is wearing next to nothing. And even with an unkempt beard, he's the sexiest man I've ever met. As the attraction that once burned between us flares again, I do my best to fight it. But then he admits something that turns my whole world upside down...