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Going Out Backwards: A Grafton Everest Adventure

Ross Fitzgerald and Ian McFadyen

Going Out Backwards: A Grafton Everest Adventure

2017 - Shortlisted

Shortlisted

Going Out Backwards is the fifth volume detailing the farcical adventures of a Queensland academic who finds himself holding the balance of power in the Australian Senate. How this eventuated is as much a mystery to Senator Everest as it is to everyone else. He is still obsessed with his penis, as his life and career continue to drag him through a series of preposterous adventures.

For this latest outing, political commentator Ross Fitzgerald has enlisted the aid of comedy writer Ian McFadyen, and together they concoct a well-crafted political farce, replete with a cavalcade of ludicrous characters. The writers take aim at many targets and bullseye most of them as they pass by: minor political parties, the corporatisation of tertiary education, arts funding, medical science, natural remedies, anti-bikie legislation, obesity, sexual politics, and, inevitably, impotence (in various manifestations). The language is playful, cynical, and epigrammatic, as the novel moves with pace and an accelerating rhythm to its bizarre and satisfying conclusion.

About the authors

Ross Fitzgerald

Ross Fitzgerald AM, political commentator, biographer, novelist, historian and broadcaster, is Emeritus Professor of History and Politics at Griffith University. Professor Fitzgerald is the author of 39 books, including four previous Grafton Everest fictions. His memoir My Name is Ross: An Alcoholic’s Journey, published by New South Books Sydney, is available as an e-book and a Talking Book from Vision Australia. Ross lives in Redfern, Sydney with his much loved wife Lyndal Moor.

Ian McFadyen

Ian McFadyen, best known as the creator of The Comedy Company, has been writing since he was a student at Melbourne University. In the Seventies, he wrote university revues, children’s plays, stage musicals and created several long running educational series for ABC radio and television. In the Eighties, as independent producer, he made his living writing training films and documentaries while writing and performing cabaret shows at night. That led him to producing the seminal television sketch comedy series The Eleventh Hour which later spawned both The Comedy Company and Fast Forward. He has also written feature films, television drama, sitcoms, children’s animation and a libretto for a children’s opera. He is now tired and just wants to play computer games.