The Gift of the Gab

by Barry Dickins

This is a marvellous tragicomic collection of real life dramas and images from Barry Dickins, one of our most perceptive and original writers and illustrators. We see his mum and dad before Dickins was born, on a bus to Reservoir at the end of the war - 'he with his gorgeous blue eye and his army shirt, she so beautiful in her pineapple print dress'. We walk along magical Collins Street with young Dickins and his dad, watch his nan in Preston flinging lit matches at the gas jet, weep with Mr Greeb, headmaster. Dickins writes of hippy days, the glory of it all, and the horrors at the Albion Hotel - 'I wouldn't go into the Albion now if someone promised me a free weatherboard house and a garden full of children.' Barry Dickins has an extraordinary gift of the gab. He has captured the absurd and the everyday - the pain and the pleasure and the poetry in the life of the artist battler struggling to make sense of it all.

Paperback

Published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Ruprecht · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a book is a series of stories, vignettes and reminiscence, set in chronological order of growing up in post-war Melbourne! Barry, a post war baby grows up in the new burgeoning suburb of Reservoir, what was then a bleak, isolated suburb. It's clear from a young age Barry has a good intellect and ambition, he starts an apprenticeship as a junior illustrator at the Truth newspaper a seedy, shonky, mediocre tabloid of the 70's (Blanko chapter). Disappointed that he cannot better himself, the Truth management won't send to Melbourne Tech to study are illustration, he leaves.
Eventually, things start to improve for Barry when things start to improve for Barry when he becomes involved with the APG, Australian Performing Group in inner Carlton. 70's Inner Carlton, saw the growth of many budding theatre groups, like Pram Factory, La Mama and Malthouse. It the starting point for many of Australia's talented actors, directors and playwrights. Of which Barry would be one, Barry could act, write (newspaper columns, plays and poetry) and illustrate. Unfortunately this is not detailed in this book, it ends with Barry securing employment a Melbourne College and feeling very disenchanted!

[Jeff Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful ramblings and rumblings from childhood and adolescence.. snapshots of a time and place for us kids of the 50's and 60's.. loved the fine line artwork, it gave so much more to the stories and poems.. had many laughs and chuckles