Dramatic Writing

During his first working stint in Darwin John published his first book of poems. He sent a copy home to Tommy who informed him “that whilst it was not poetry it was verse”. Despite his father’s circumspect forebodings John has preferred to take Woody Guthrie’s advice along the lines that if you want to write a good song (poem) you’ve got to write lots of them.

By the time John was 15 he had nearly completed the first draft of his unpublished novel for young adults entitled “Tuamotu”. He carried this draft around Australia wherever he went and whilst working on several versions always tried to stay true to the first draft.  The complete novel can be found in this section.

During the 1970s he self-published a text “Is Band-Aid Social Work Enough?” which ran to 2 editions see Social Struggles. He also published another book of poems “ ”.

He was active in the Northern Territory Council of Civil Liberties and had sat through an inquest into the killing of an Aboriginal prisoner in and around the psychiatric ward of the old Darwin Hospital. He self-published a play about it entitled “The Death of Phillip Robertson” which had a reading at Brown’s Mart in Darwin and an 8 week season at the New Theatre in Newtown, Sydney in 1988.

Also in this section you will find some short stories, humour and satire.