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Tony Wilson, author
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What's your favourite work of fiction set in Victoria?
My favourite novel set in Victoria is Frank Hardy’s Power Without Glory. I found it a constant source of inspiration during the writing of ‘Players’. I admire Hardy’s courage for making his John West character so provocative and for writing a story that was both compelling and controversial. I now write from a studio in the back streets of Collingwood, and Power Without Glory gives a wonderful historical colour to the bluestone greys of the alleys and pubs here. Another favourite book is Chris Daffey’s A Girl, A Smock, and a Simple Plan, which is a hilarious story about puppy love at the top end of primary school. Strictly speaking, it is more memoir than fiction, but then is Power Without Glory purely fiction? I guess the Supreme Court decided it was.
Which Victorian writer do you admire the most?
I think Tony Martin is the funniest writer in Victoria and that his ‘memoir of little consequence’ Lolly Scramble is magnificent. In terms of literary fiction, Christos Tsiolkas is original and daring. Loaded was the sort of first novel that so many people try to write, but Christos passion for observing life around him and his skill with the micro of a sentence made it work. Reading Dead Europe was like a punch to the face, but it was the carefully controlled blow that the author was seeking to deliver. He’s also been very helpful and encouraging with my own writing and ideas. I also love Shane Moloney. His sentences have an effortless grace and humour and he brings Melbourne to life on the page.
Where do you like to do your reading in Victoria?
I read on the couch at home in North Fitzroy between 10 and 11 in the morning, or in bed at night. In good weather, I take a book to the Edinburgh Gardens in North Fitzroy. Another favourite reading place is my parents’ house at Red Hill.
What do you believe is the best film adaptation of a Victorian book?
I love On The Beach if we can claim Nevil Shute as an honoury Victorian. I almost like it as much as a time capsule for the city of Melbourne as I do for its superb acting and bleak nuclear message. For scenery and storytelling, Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock deserves its status as a classic of Australian cinema, but the music is so mid-seventies creepy, it taints the film. Saw writer, Leigh Whannell made a wonderful short film a few years ago called Aaron, Darren and the Baron in which the mysterious Miranda turned up in the wardrobe of two bogans on a bender. In recent times, I really enjoyed the made for television adaptation of Shane Moloney’s The Brush Off. Screenwriter John Clarke and director Sam Neill condensed what I think is Moloney’s best novel into a funny, pacy telemovie. The oversized balloon scene was a cracker. Almost as good as the oversized balloon scene in Woody Allen’s Broadway Danny Rose.
What is your most treasured memory of a public library?
What is your best holiday read?
I judge a good holiday read by whether I sit in bed eating tins of tuna instead of getting up for meals. This occurred with Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold. The novel has romance, magic, suspense and Houdini-like escape scenes, set around the death of President Harding in the 1920s. It has incredible historical detail about the magicians of the era and Gold has a lovely command of both language and plot. I even envy his ability to write a great acknowledgments page. Other contenders: David Mitchell’s Number 9 Dream, Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity (for mine, the perfect comedy-drama) and every novel from John Irving before The Fourth Hand. For a Victorian book, you can’t go past A Girl, A Smock and a Simple Plan by Chris Daffey, or Tony Martin’s Lolly Scramble. Both underrated. Both incredibly funny.
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