‘What a life. What a book. When it’s not making your ribs rattle with laughter, it’s making your heart ache with all the pathos and poetry. A memory box of jewels from a true Brisbane treasure.’ – Trent Dalton
Hilarious, heartfelt and revealing.
Phil Brown tells all (well almost all) in this rollicking account of his career in literature and journalism from The Morning Bulletin in Rockhampton to Melbourne’s Sunday Age and back to The Courier-Mail in Brisbane. He shares his challenges as a young surfer foolishly yearning to be a poet and his personal struggles on the road to becoming a writer with a fluctuating passion for poetry and a top drawer full of rejection slips. There are the seminal friendships with poets Bruce Dawe and Les Murray and a cavalcade of characters from the world of arts and letters – Barry Humphries, Willem Dafoe, Daniel Craig, Alain de Botton, Richard E. Grant and a cavalcade of characters he meets (and interviews) along the way, for better and occasionally, worse.
Confessions of a Minor Poet is a hugely entertaining memoir that shows us all how the life of a writer can be frustrating, even enraging but ultimately life-enriching. This is a vital, wild and affectionate ride across Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria, from the seventies to now.
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