“Now that he’s history, Brett Whiteley remains one of the strangest artists the world ever saw. He was just about the only Australian painter to make the grade as a pop superstar, and, as such, may well be the last to die in a blurry hunt to recapture some of his own panache. A czar of art, he seemed afraid of nothing except being forgotten.”

Through Dickins searching interviews, we come to see Brett Whiteley as the diminutive and wriggly schoolboy who drew to escape into the innocent, hopeful world his pictures offered, to his fame and acclaim to the dark, lonely years he spent battling the twin demons of his drug and alcohol addictions.

154 p. : 24 cm. #010122

Author: Barry Dickins is a prolific Australian playwright, author, artist, actor, educator and journalist, probably best known for his historical dramas and his reminisces about growing up and living in working class Melbourne.