PublishedGazebo Books, April 2018 |
ISBN9780987619105 |
FormatSoftcover, 542 pages |
Dimensions20cm × 13cm |
First published twenty years ago, Peter
Blazey's audacious, irresistible autobiography is now available in a revised
edition with a foreword by the Honourable Michael Kirby. Candid and at times
provocative, these self-styled 'uncalled-for memoirs' encompass five decades in
the life of a controversial Australian journalist, biographer, and gay activist.
The reporter who got the scoop on the death
of Harold Holt, Blazey also wrote the definitive biography of Victoria's
longest serving Premier. He was appointed Press Secretary to
the Environment Minister in the Whitlam Government and followed this with
six months in a London Trot squat - a witness to punk while street
fighting the National Front.
In 1978, he was party to the riot that led to
Sydney's first Mardi Gras parade and later became a pioneering Gay Liberation
Candidate in the NSW State election. Blazey always found himself in the hub of
political and cultural times. He frequented Studio 54 in its heyday; enjoyed
life as a millionaire wastrel in Barbara Stanwyck's former Hollywood mansion; and, in his final years, agitated for change as an inflammatory columnist and
troublesome AIDS activist. Blazey was close to the mark when tagging
himself 'a belligerent old bugger' though, in the end, his larrikin spirit
was tempered by insights both heartfelt and profound.
Screw Loose is a unique account of a remarkable life
that remains as vivid, incisive, and raucously entertaining as when it first
appeared in 1997.
