I bought this at Book Fair Australia 2024. Shaun Micallef was a guest speaker there and I managed to sit in on his Q&A, not an easy feat, it meant getting to the seats several minutes before he started. It was lovely to watch him walk up the aisle saying ‘hello’ to us. He seemed a nice man, but funny. No, I didn’t ask any questions, instead I bought his books.
This is a series of essays written by one of our finest TV personalities. Some have been published elsewhere and some probably wouldn’t make the cut anywhere else. And the term ‘essay’ is a bit loose for some of these items. Just for example, the limerick printed on the back cover:
There once was a poet who thought
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Using words like fought, ought and wrought
Brought a purity sought
But it all came to nought
When he ended his last line with drought.
This is one of those things that are better read out loud. Not every essay is so simple. Some of them border on the almost sensible combined with the ridiculous. I feel he might almost have been influenced by Monty Python or even The Goodies with the way some of his essays start one way and proceed to a totally different country, through Rocky Mountains high and low and everything in between.
He has interesting words to say about religion which religious people may not be happy about. But then again anyone arguing with religion can attract the ire of certain religious people. I reckon Micallef could hold his own with those people, probably by asking many questions and looking entirely as if he wants the answers.
One of the very last essays was about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It was very amusing and equated them to musicians. If the world is going out then I’d quite like these men to give the last concert, it would be very entertaining. But why were none of them women?