A Bloody Good Rant: My Passions, Memories and Demons

‘When I was born in 1935 I grew up, despite the Depression and World War II, with a primitive sense of being fortunate … The utopian strain was very strong … if we weren’t to be a better society, if we were simply serfs designed to support a system of privilege, what was the bloody point?’

Thomas Keneally has been observing, reflecting on and writing about Australia and the human condition for well over fifty years. In this deeply personal, passionately drawn and richly tuned collection he draws on a lifetime of engagement with the great issues of our recent history and his own moments of discovery and understanding.

He writes with unbounded joy of being a grandparent, and with intimacy and insight about the prospect of death and the meaning of faith. He is outraged about the treatment of Indigenous Australians and refugees, and argues fiercely against market economics and the cowardice of climate change deniers. And he introduces us to some of the people, both great and small, who have dappled his life.

Beautifully written, erudite and at times slyly funny, A Bloody Good Rant is an invitation to share the deep humanity of a truly great Australian.