Ray: Stories of My Life - The Autobiography by Ray Martin

'For me as a kid, the idea of sitting in a TV studio, wearing make-up and talking to royalty or to a screen legend like Audrey Hepburn was white-fella dreamtime stuff. Not even in the glossy pages of her Australian Women's Weekly bible could my mother have imagined such an alluring future for her only son.'

Ray Martin needs no introduction. As the face of The Midday Show, A Current Affair, 60 Minutes and Carols by Candlelight, he is instantly recognisable. Indeed, after more than forty years on our television screens many people feel that they have come to know him.

But not many people know the real story behind Ray's rise to stardom. His was an impoverished childhood; his world as far away from Hollywood and movie stars and the bright lights as is possible to imagine.

Before he had even got to high school, Ray had lived in thirteen different places, in three Australian states, mostly in the bush. His father was a violent, drinking man who would lash out at his wife and children, ultimately forcing Ray's mother to uproot the family across to the other side of Australia to escape him.

Far from being crushed by his difficult childhood, though, Ray drew strength from his remarkable mother and sister, and developed an irrepressible sense of humour.

Here, now, in his own words, is the long-awaited, warts-and-all autobiography of Ray Martin: his exceptional career, his happy marriage to Dianne and his lasting love affair with the people of Australia.

Funny, thought-provoking and inspiring, this is the most compelling autobiography you will read this year. The man who has interviewed everyone - from Lauren Bacall to Jennifer Lopez; from Paul Newman to Elton John; from the train robber Ronnie Biggs to British royalty, and even cricketing royalty Don Bradman - is finally telling his own story.