Finding My Voice: The Peter Brocklehurst story
Allen & Unwin, $29.95pb. 231pp
Little Black Bastard: A story of survival
Hodder, $35pb, 248pp
Live Performances
People often assume that actors and performers are extroverts, and that their work is a natural extension of an outgoing personality. But while, indeed, there are quite a few extroverts in the business, many who work in the performing arts are more likely to be introverts, for whom communicating with an audience is a form of expression that gives meaning to their lives.
These three memoirs all speak of difficult journeys. Jo Buchanan’s Wings of Madness tells the story of her son, Miles, whose brief but notable career as an actor was cut short by drugs, alcohol and psychotic depression. It is billed as ‘a story of faith, human resilience and eventually, a happy ending’. In Finding My Voice, on the other hand, Peter Brocklehurst (with some help from Debbie Bennett) recounts how only in middle age did he find the career he really wanted, as a tenor. It is, Nick Columb assures us in his foreword, ‘inspiring and uplifting’, about a journey that is ‘wondrous’. And in Little Black Bastard, Noel Tovey, from the vantage point of his seventy years, reviews a remarkable life that took him from a childhood of deprivation and homelessness to a successful international career as an actor, dancer and director.
Continue reading for only $10 per month. Subscribe and gain full access to Australian Book Review. Already a subscriber? Sign in. If you need assistance, feel free to contact us.
Leave a comment
If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.
If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.
Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.