Humping My Bluey

Graham McInnes: brother of Colin – both sons of the formidable novelist-Angela Thirkell – here tells the story of his youth in Australia in the Twenties and Thirties.

His boyhood is evoked with all the captivating spirit of the born raconteur: his schooldays at Scotch College, donning a Digger Hat to enact the unmilitary ritual of National Service, life at university – more sedate, except for an unwitting and near-disastrous arson – and the discovery of the characters and beauties of the land of youth and opportunity.

Here is a magical and hilarious portrait of being young in God’s Own Country. It is also a touching farewell to a charmed way of life, for Colin is set to sail for England, and Graham to embark on a search for his father and a new life in Canada.

‘A deft, at times brilliant, talent’- Elspeth Huxley

Graham McInnes (1912-70) became a distinguished diplomat, art critic and novelist. Humping My Bluey is one of three volumes of his classic autobiography, the others being The Road to Gundagai and Finding a Father.

New Introduction by Barry Humphries.