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The Local Wildlife

The Local Wildlife

by Robert Drewe
Hardback
Publication Date: 26/06/2013

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$29.99
Welcome to the Northern Rivers, where the 'local wildlife' can refer to more than just the exotic native fauna. After a decade spent in this picturesque corner of Australia, home of chocolate-coated women, pythons in the ceiling, online Russian brides, deadly paralysis ticks, and the mysterious Mullumbimby Monster, Robert Drewe wiped the green zinc cream from his face and set down some of the unusual wildlife experiences that the far north coast of New South Wales - home of the world's greatest variety of ants - has to offer. Drewe's trademark gentle wit, acute observational powers and mastery of the English language are all on display in this collection of sketches and anecdotes based on the quirkiness of daily life. His sharp eye for human foibles - including his own - is tempered with a generosity of spirit. Tall tales from Australia's master of the short story - but this time these short, short stories are true. 'Excuse me, mate,' he asked the fluorescently green, bespectacled, half-submerged man, who was trying to put pen to paper while sitting in water, flicking ants off his work, and wincing as he shifted his buttock position. 'Is that how writers do writing?' 'Yep.'
I frowned verdantly over my glasses. 'It's a very complicated job.'
ISBN:
9781926428482
9781926428482
Category:
Memoirs
Format:
Hardback
Publication Date:
26-06-2013
Publisher:
PENGUIN BOOKS AUSTRALIA
Country of origin:
Australia
Pages:
256
Dimensions (mm):
191x138x29mm
Weight:
0.36kg
Robert Drewe

Robert Drewe was born in Melbourne on January 9, 1943, but from the age of six, when his father moved the family west to a better job in Perth, he grew up and was educated on the West Australian coast. The Swan River and Indian Ocean coast, where he learned to swim and surf, made an immediate and lasting impression on him. At Hale School he was captain of the school swimming team and editor of the school magazine, the 'Cygnet'.

Swimming and publishing have remained interests all his life On his 18th birthday, already wishing to be a writer but unsure 'who was in charge of Writing', he joined The West Australian as a cadet reporter. Three years later he was recruited by The Age in Melbourne, and was made chief of that newspaper's Sydney bureau a year later, at 22. Sydney became home for him and his growing family, mostly in a small sandstone terrace in Euroka Street, North Sydney, where Henry Lawson had once lived.

Robert Drewe became, variously, a well-known columnist, features editor, literary editor and special writer on The Australian and The Bulletin. During this time he travelled widely throughout Asia and North America, won two Walkley Awards for journalism and was awarded a Leader Grant travel scholarship by the United States Government. While still in his twenties, he turned from journalism to writing fiction.

Beginning with The Savage Crows in 1976, his books include the widely translated and acclaimed A Cry in the Jungle Bar, The Bodysurfers, Fortune, The Bay of Contented Men, Our Sunshine, The Drowner, Grace and The Rip, as well as a prize-winning memoir, The Shark Net, and the non-fiction Walking Ella. Fortune won the fiction category of the National

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