Of Tony’s half a dozen published books, “Fit to Print – A Lifetime’s Press Despatches” will be his most substantial.
Due out mid-year from Connor Court Publishers, it comprises 97 essays and features totalling well over 300 pages. It follows his 2016 book of essays “That’s Debatable – 60 Years in Print”.
The first half of ‘Fit to Print’ is called “The Lost City of Perth” and covers quirky tales and colourful characters from Perth of the 1960s, such as wrestler Gorilla Monsoon and a private-eye specialising in evidence for adultery-based divorces.
The second half – “Profiles, Polemics, Travel and Whimsy” – covers his prolific and provocative writings for Quadrant Magazine in the past five years. One ground-breaking essay covers Prime Minister Menzies and his secret support for price-fixing rings and cartels covering the entire Australian manufacturing, distribution and retail sectors. The most controversial portrait is of Australia’s most decorated war hero Sir Hughie Edwards VC DSO DFC and his brief and unfortunate term as Governor of Western Australia in 1974.
John Stone, Secretary of the Commonwealth Treasury 1979-84, writes, “The essay on Hughie Edwards VC alone would make this book worth buying.”