An Unsentimental Bloke: The Life and Work of C J Dennis - Philip Butterss

Judges' Comments

An Unsentimental Bloke is a meticulously researched account of the life and times of C J Dennis, possibly the most popular writer ever to pen stories and poems for an Australian audience.  A great work of recovery, this biography recreates Dennis’s public and private life and also provides an illuminating analysis of the oeuvre, and its spinoffs, for which Dennis was famous and, briefly, rich.

Butterss builds a portrait of the little boy whose strict and severe father was countered by adoring aunts, then the restless young man who became both a dandy and a larrikin. This sets up the development of a story that illuminates the cultural ethos of the times as well as the character of a talented writer unable to change with those times. 
 
An Unsentimental Bloke is deeply researched and fluent in style. The writing is scholarly in the best sense – informed, perceptive and very readable. This first full biography of the man who wrote The Songs of the Sentimental Bloke is long overdue. Butterss’ book explains how cultural change as well as Dennis’s own colourful personal history created this gap in the record of our literature, now brilliantly filled in by a first-class biography which is richly rewarding.

About the Author

Philip Butterss grew up in Melbourne, studied at the University of Sydney, where he completed a PhD on Australian ballads, and now teaches Australian literature and film at the University of Adelaide. He has published widely on Australian cultural history and is currently working on a history of literary Adelaide.