Mad Mabel Mieko Kanai and Josephine Baker

and Josephine Baker

This first full-length biography of the Nobel Laureate to appear in a quarter century explores John Steinbeck's long apprenticeship as a writer struggling through the depths of the Great Depression

making our meditative way across continents

European merchants

rapid-fire drum breaks

Mad Mabel Mieko Kanai and Josephine BakerThey called it murder. She called it justice. In 1959, at just fifteen years of age, Mabel Waller became the youngest Australian in history to be convicted of murder. In 2025, on a quiet Melbourne lane, an elderly man is found dead by his neighbour, 81 year old Elsie Fitzpatrick. No one suspects any foul play. Until they discover Elsie's past. In the 1950s, her name was not Elsie. It was Mabel. She is known around the world as Mad Mabel. But is she