AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Tim Burstall, the celebrated director of Stork, Alvin Purple and numerous other definitive "ocker" comedies, is credited with shaking the moribund Australian film industry out of its torpor. But long before that, in the early 1950s, he began keeping a diary to record the world of the group of "arties" and "intellectuals" he was living among in Eltham, then a rural area outside Melbourne, where cheap land was available for mudbrick houses and studios, and where suburban rigidities could be mercilessly flouted.
'Burstall was in his mid-twenties, with two young sons and an open marriage with his wife, Betty. Eager to become a writer, to go against the grain, he kept a record almost daily—of the parties and the talk in pubs and studios, about art and politics and sex, of Communist Party branch meetings and film societies, of political rallies and the first Herald Outdoor Art Show. Somehow, while holding down a public relations job in the Antarctic Division and juggling his love affairs and obsession with the beautiful, brainy Fay, he wrote 500 words almost every day. Betty, according to the diaries, kept the show on the road, feeding friends after the pub, milking goats and working in her pottery making bowls and mugs, which Tim sometimes decorated at weekends.
'These Memoirs of a Young Bastard, as Burstall dubbed himself and them, are among the most evocative Australian diaries of modern times. Burstall can write. He has an eye for the telling detail, an unerring ear for cant and pomposity and, most endearingly, an ability to mock himself—always from the perspective of a bloke of his generation.' (From the publisher's website.)
Contents
- About the Burstall Diaries, single work criticism (p. vi-xix)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
About the Burstall Diaries
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Memoirs of a Young Bastard : The Diaries of Tim Burstall, November 1953 to December 1954 2012; (p. vi-xix) -
Follow Your Lusts!
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 340 2012; (p. 20-21)
— Review of The Memoirs of a Young Bastard : The Diaries of Tim Burstall, November 1953 to December 1954 2012 single work diary -
Candid Camera
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 10-11 March 2012; (p. 18-19)
— Review of The Memoirs of a Young Bastard : The Diaries of Tim Burstall, November 1953 to December 1954 2012 single work diary -
Arty Friends Save the Day
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 10 March 2012; (p. 29)
— Review of The Memoirs of a Young Bastard : The Diaries of Tim Burstall, November 1953 to December 1954 2012 single work diary -
Diaries of a Philanderer
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 10 March 2012; (p. 16)
-
Memoirs of a Sexual Rebel, Faded Emlem of an Age
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian , 17 February 2012; (p. 15)
— Review of The Memoirs of a Young Bastard : The Diaries of Tim Burstall, November 1953 to December 1954 2012 single work diary -
Brickbats in Mudbrick
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 18 February 2012; (p. 26-27) The Sydney Morning Herald , 25-26 February 2012; (p. 37)
— Review of The Memoirs of a Young Bastard : The Diaries of Tim Burstall, November 1953 to December 1954 2012 single work diary -
Arty Friends Save the Day
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 10 March 2012; (p. 29)
— Review of The Memoirs of a Young Bastard : The Diaries of Tim Burstall, November 1953 to December 1954 2012 single work diary -
Candid Camera
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 10-11 March 2012; (p. 18-19)
— Review of The Memoirs of a Young Bastard : The Diaries of Tim Burstall, November 1953 to December 1954 2012 single work diary -
Follow Your Lusts!
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 340 2012; (p. 20-21)
— Review of The Memoirs of a Young Bastard : The Diaries of Tim Burstall, November 1953 to December 1954 2012 single work diary -
The Good Life : Lunch with ... Hilary McPhee
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 11 February 2012; (p. 3) Hilary McPhee talks with Jason Steger about editing Tim Burstall's diaries and also about a project, that did not reach publication, with Crown Prince Hussan of Jordan. -
Diaries of a Philanderer
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 10 March 2012; (p. 16) -
About the Burstall Diaries
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Memoirs of a Young Bastard : The Diaries of Tim Burstall, November 1953 to December 1954 2012; (p. vi-xix)
- Eltham, Lower Plenty - Eltham area, Melbourne - Northeast, Melbourne, Victoria,
- 1953-1954