The Singing Line by Alice Thomson (Vintage, £7.99 in UK)

As the subtitle neatly explains, this is "the Story of the Man who strung the Telegraph across Australia and the Woman who gave her Name to Alice Springs". The author, a journalist with the Daily Telegraph (appropriately enough) is the great-great-granddaughter of these intrepid souls, and she sets out to track not only her ancestors but also the engrossing tale of Charles Todd's extraordinary feat of engineering, political diplomacy and man management in stretching the thin copper line from Adelaide across the desert, swamps and mountains of central Australia to Darwin. Thomson has produced a remarkable amalgamation of modern travelogue, popular science and Australian history which burns into the imagination with the power of an Outback sun.