My father is the greatest man I know, strong, dependable and smart. He is the rock of our family and a giant I stand in awe of. Long ago I came of age and saw that he was just a man like us all but he remains someone I deeply admire and cherish. He will turn 75 this December and as a family we savour the time left together, it gives me some peace to know that my parents became grandparents last October, they have earned that milestone and time was running out.
Time ran out for author John Birmingham and his family a little while back and the result for John was six months of depression. When he came out of it he wrote On Father and knowing him by reputation I sought a chance to see him talk about On Father at the Brisbane Powerhouse as part of the series Writers+Ideas. Scenestr made it possible and you can read my review of what I saw here http://scenestr.com.au/arts/john-birmingham-on-father-in-conversation-with-paul-barclay-review-brisbane-powerhouse-20190417
Produced by Eyeball Media Enterprises Scenestr is an online national magazine with local offices around Australia. Having started in 1993 they’ve excelled at moving into the digital realm but they remain at heart from the streets. They still publish magazines in print for Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland every month.
-Lloyd Marken
Back to the Drawing Board Productions 
Nice review, Lloyd. And the photos made me want to try a Goat Beer. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
Thank you Pete, I should try one myself. I hope you and yours had a good Easter.
Good weather at least. Mowed the grass, drunk some red wine. Good enough. 🙂 🙂
Nice, I did perchance have some Muscat with friends on Thursday night. Delicious.
Best wishes Pete.
I found it very difficult to cope with my Dad’s passing, even though it was quite expected and we didn’t always have the warmest of relationships. But he was strong mentally and as I realise now, patriotic and brave. He left a big hole in my life. Sixteen years later when I see that the soccer team he used to support are winning a game by a large margin, just for a split second I think to myself “I bet my Dad’s enjoying watching that” and then I realise.
Thank you for sharing John, I like to think he is watching somewhere. Birmingham wrote about his father quite movingly and he has already a lot of feedback from readers that they found the essay in dealing with their grief.
Nice job with the interview. He seems very interesting. Good work!
He is very interesting, a story about a bath converted to a bong came up at one point. He was very composed and entertaining. Hope you had a nice Easter.
Very nice, thanks. You two, as well!
Thank you for the kind words of encouragement Cindy.