The Koala Who Bounced … and kept bouncing

Karri the Koala came to life when the artist/cartoonist Eric Lobbecke asked my wife Sue if he she would write a kids book for him to illustrate. For some reason she suggested that he and I collaborate and meantime she introduced us to Selwa Anthony whose writer management agency was just getting going. With Selwa’s help we produced a kids book together called “The Koala Who Bounced”.
It took me six days to write and Eric six months to draw but we get equal shares of the royalties. How can that be fair? I even get top billing. I wish I could draw as well as Eric – actually, I wish I could write as well as Eric draws.

Eric is now writing his own stories but we still get cheques for that book every six months and it has even been translated into Korean. Why? Maybe someone thought it should be translated into Koalean and something got lost in translation. Anyway, thanks Eric and Selwa – our little bouncing koala has done us proud.

In 2011, Eric and I wrote and illustrated the follow-up The Koala Bounces Back which never really caushgt the public imagination the same way (despite, or possibly because of, its hidden message about refugees (and football)

But Karri is still bouncing around and who knows where he might show up next.

Watto

I often joke that the reason I came to live in Australia was so I could support an international Test team that wasn’t England. That’s a bit of an exaggeration but there would be an element of truth in that for any cricket-loving Scot.

Now, to be fair, Shane would be the  first to admit that he’s a bit young to have his life story written – but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a story worth telling.  His battle back from being the player most likely to be out with injury to the first name on the team sheet is inspiring and compelling (and that’s without my help).

He wasn’t even 12 years old when he got his first back injury although it’s hardly surprising, given he was playing rugby union, rugby league and cricket at the time.  Eventually, the other sports had to give way as he tried to build and strengthen his young body.  A process that has often been misrepresented as vanity was really the results of his efforts to ward off injuries that had plagued him from an early age.

What he couldn’t have known was that all those hours in the gym were the worst thing he could have done.  One observer said he was “too strong for his body” and while he scoffed at that at the time, he would later learn that there was a lot of truth in that comment.  Physio Victor Popov  was the first to suggest that he needed to build his core rather than his bi’s, tri’s and thighs.

It took a lot of courage and determination to turn his back on the traditional view of team medics and take his own route to fitness.  However he had been advised that the only cure for his recurring back injuries was to give up bowling.

At the time of publication, Shane had been recovering from his first fitness issues for years but, as we now know, his bowling had to be managed carefully – not too little and definitely not too much – for him to be able to give his absolute best for club, state and country.

Commentators like Peter FitzSimons and Alan Jones have both praised the book – and whatever you might think of Jones’ political views, the former Australian rugby coach knows his sport.

Despite snide and ill-informed comments that Watto was a quick, exploitative knock-off (hey, Cricinfo, if you can’t get basic facts right, what are you any good for?), this book was 18-months in the making and many hours revising and reviewing material – often with the help of Skype when Shane was in India – made sure this was Shane’s story, in his voice with the slightest non-Shane phrases removed.  For instance, I had no idea that he never refers to the No 3 batsman as ‘first drop” but he soon put me right.

Me with Watto and broadcaster Alan Jones at the launch in Dymocks, Sydney

My contribution was to prod and probe and try to get to the heart of the man then set my ego aside and write it so that it was his personality that came across (rather than mine).  The greatest compliment paid to the book was his sister Nicky telling me that when she was reading it she could hear his voice in her head.

One thing I did contribute was the idea of “drinks breaks” – little sections of insight where Shane explained everything from how reverse swing works (and how to get it) to the design of bats.  At one point the publishers even thought of extracting them and publishing them separately but it was decided to keep the book together and provide better value for money.

Unlike many sports books, it’s not full of stats or lists. It’s a rare insight into the thinking of a top-class sportsman (and one of the most decent human beings I’ve ever met).  For my part, considering I’d just written Snitch about the underworld in Kings Cross, I think Shane was pleasantly surprised that I knew the difference between a full toss and a happy ending.

You can buy Watto online HERE.

Pulped Non-Fiction

No longer available for legal reasons (see here), this book began when I got back from the Cannes Film Festival in May/June 2009 (name dropper!) and had two calls on my answering machine.  One from the Underbelly tv series Executive Producer Des Monaghan of Screentime and the other from publisher Richard Walsh.  Des’s call said “phone Richard”.  Richard’s call said “phone me”.

Des and I knew each other from way back when he was a senior exec at Channel Seven and later, when he went independent, he developed my Bondi soap Breakers as Screentime’s first project.  I had worked for Richard before that, at ACP Magazines, but had never met him

Anyway, I finally did call him and met up and he told me about this larger-than-life character we came to call The Inspector, his nickname on the street, who had walked into the Underbelly 3 office and said if there’s anything you need to know about Kings Cross in the past few years talk to me.

And click HERE to listen to Jimmy and The Inspector interviewed by Merrick, Ricki-Lee and Dools on Nova 969.

And go HERE for print and radio reviews and features

Now, that’s not unusual except this guy really did have the goods:  he had worked for some of the heaviest crims and was and still is friends with the Ibrahim family.  He had also, incredibly, been a police informant and helped catch the killers of a police constable and politician John Newman.

Des saw the potential for a book and sent him to Richard who’s a consultant at Allen & Unwin.  Richard asked Des who he thought was crazy enough to take on a project like this and Des immediately thought of me.  Seven months later, the idea became a short-lived reality (although it came close to selling out).

The book is gone now, never to be seen again, but here’s the pitch that got it commissioned.

SNITCH – A PROPOSAL

As the trials and triumphs of the Ibrahim brothers of Kings Cross fill our newspapers every day, a close friend has broken years of secrecy to tell the whole story – his story.

The Inspector first knew nightclub owner John Ibrahim when he was a teenager (and almost accidentally got him killed) – yet for many years he was a confidante of some of the top detectives in NSW police.

From the moment he led police to the killer of one of their own he was given a “green light” to operate in the Cross, protected by the good cops, resented by the bad ones and accepted by his criminal friends who knew he’d never dob them in.

He traded information with both sides of the law, earning his nickname from his police friends and respect from his peers but only now is he telling the whole story.

The scams and rorts, the power struggles and gang wars, betting rings, illegal gambling and the rise of the Ibrahim empire – he was in the thick of it all.

He knew the good cops who only wanted information and the “dirty” cops who demanded money. He met the international stars who flocked to the Cross for fun … and those whose addictions wouldn’t allow them to leave.

The Inspector was the Snitch and as Australia reels at the increasingly lurid tales from the Cross, the one man who knows the whole story finally talks.

THE BACKGROUND

Between 1986 and 1996 crime was out of control in Kings Cross in Sydney and cops were as likely to be as crooked as crims.

Old school villains like Lennie MacPherson, Abe Saffron and George Freeman were past their prime and new names were moving in on their territory.

Louis and Bill Bayeh were already living large and another new clan was on the horizon: the Ibrahim brothers.

And in the midst of it all was The Inspector, a man who traded in a commodity that was more valuable than cocaine, booze and sex combined – information.  A known police informer he was a close personal friend of the Ibrahim brothers and cohort of some of Sydney’s most notorious gamblers.

If John Ibrahim was right when he told police “you guys don’t care what happens as long as nobody gets hurt,” The Inspector was the man who made the unspoken agreement run smoothly.

Snitch will track his life from when he arrived in the Cross as a callow youth and immediately began earning $2000 a week as a strip club doorman to the point where he became the very first witness called at the Wood Royal Commission into Police Corruption.

It will take us from strip clubs to illegal gambling dens, from low-lifes in the streets of Kings Cross to the high life in Sydney’s top hotels, clubs and restaurants. It will chart the decline of one crime empire and the rise of the Lebanese youngbloods, the Bayehs then the Ibrahims.

And finally it will take him to another life completely, when he is arrested and charged  –  ironically because he  has been recorded discussing drugs on a wire being secretly worn by one of his friends.

Click HERE to listen to Jimmy and The Inspector interviewed by Merrick, Ricki-Lee and Dools on Nova 969.

A NOTE FOR YOUNG WRITERS

I entered TV script writing very late (having been a journalist for many years) and, in an effort to make up for lost time, my motto was “never turn down a paying gig”. That led me to some weird and wonderful places but all the time I was learning how TV worked.  Eventually I found myself working on Gladiators (think Lycra, muscles, giant Q-tips) under Des Monaghan.  A couple of years later he quit Seven and set up Screentime and let it be known he was looking for a new teen soap.  I knocked together  a proposal for Breakers, because he knew me he took my pitch and then took the proposal to Cannes and sold it to Ten and the BBC and they made more than 300 episodes.  That’s how TV works – it’s not what you know, it’s not even who you know, it’s who knows what you know.  And never turn down a paying gig.

Snitch in the media

The very few remaining copies of Snitch were pulped as a consequence of an out-of-court legal settlement with a person named in the book who claimed that they had been defamed.  I can’t name the person or comment on the outcome of the case which, contrary to some reports,  never actually went to court.  All I can say is that for legal reasons Snitch is no longer available … but we had some fun publicising it, though.

Jimmy and the Inspector on Nova 969.

17-04-2010, Examiner, review

01-05-2010 Newcastle Herald, feature

08-05-2010 Hobart Mercury review

24-04-2010 Burnie Advocate article

Watto

One of these three isn’t used to having his picture taken: Me, Shane and Alan Jones at the launch of Watto in Dymocks, George St, Sydney, in November 2011

I often joke that the reason I came to live in Australia was so I could support an international Test team that wasn’t England. That’s a bit of an exaggeration but there would be an element of truth in that for any cricket-loving Scot.

Anyway, you can imagine my delight when I was approached by my publisher Allen & Unwin to see if I was interested in writing Shane Watson’s biography.

Now, to be fair, Shane would be the  first to admit that he’s a bit young to have his life story written – but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a story worth telling.  His battle back from being the player most likely to be out with injury to the first name on the team sheet is inspiring and compelling (and that’s without my help).

He wasn’t even 12 years old when he got his first back injury although it’s hardly surprising, given he was playing rugby union, rugby league and cricket at the time.  Eventually, the other sports had to give way as he tried to build and strengthen his young body.  A process that has often been misrepresented as vanity was really the results of his efforts to ward off injuries that had plagued him from an early age.

What he couldn’t have known was that all those hours in the gym were the worst thing he could have done.  One observer said he was “too strong for his body” and while he scoffed at that at the time, he would later learn that there was a lot of truth in that comment.  Physio Victor Popov  was the first to suggest that he needed to build his core rather than his bi’s, tri’s and thighs.  It took a lot of courage and determination to turn his back on the traditional view of team medics and take his own route to fitness.  However he had been advised that the only cure for his recurring back injuries was to give up bowling.

Right now, Shane has been recovering from his first fitness issues for years but, he assures me, it’s only because of his new regime that he can hope to make an appearance in the Test series against India.

Commentators like Peter FitzSimons and Alan Jones have both praised the book – and whatever you might think of Jones’ political views, the former Australian rugby coach knows his sport.

Despite side and ill-informed comments that Watto was a quick, exploitative knock-off (hey, Cricinfo, if you can’t get basic facts right, what are you any good for?), this book was 18-months in the making and many hours revising and reviewing material – often with the help of Skype when Shane was in India – made sure this was Shane’s story, in his voice with the slightest non-Shane phrases removed.  For instance, I had no idea that he never refers to the No 3 batsman as ‘first drop” but he soon put me right.

My contribution was to prod and probe and try to get to the heart of the man then set my ego aside and write it so that it was his personality that came across (rather than mine).  The greatest compliment paid to the book was his sister Nicky telling me that when she was reading it she could hear his voice in her head.

One thing I did contribute was the idea of “drinks breaks” – little sections of insight where Shane explained everything from how reverse swing works (and how to get it) to the design of bats.  At one point the publishers even thought of extracting them and publishing them separately but it was decided to keep the book together and provide better value for money.

If you like cricket and you don’t know what to do with the book tokens you got for Christmas, have a look at this.  It is, quite simply, the best thing I have ever written.  It’s not full of stats or lists. It’s a rare insight into the thinking of a top-class sportsman (and one of the most decent human beings I’ve ever met).  For my part, considering I’d just written Snitch about the underworld in Kings Cross, I think Shane was pleasantly surprised that I knew the difference between a full toss and a happy ending.

You can buy Watto in most bookshops and online HERE.

‘Snitch’ in the media

Jimmy and the Inspector on Nova 969.

17-04-2010, Examiner, review

01-05-2010 Newcastle Herald, feature

08-05-2010 Hobart Mercury review

24-04-2010 Burnie Advocate article