“Sod the wine, I want to suck on the writing. This man White is an instinctive writer, bloody rare to find one who actually pulls it off, as in still gets a meaning across with concision. Sharp arbitrage of speed and risk, closest thing I can think of to Cicero’s ‘motus continuum animi.’

Probably takes a drink or two to connect like that: he literally paints his senses on the page.”


DBC Pierre (Vernon God Little, Ludmila’s Broken English, Lights Out In Wonderland ... Winner: Booker prize; Whitbread prize; Bollinger Wodehouse Everyman prize; James Joyce Award from the Literary & Historical Society of University College Dublin)


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25 December 2011

IN MEMORY OF ONE VERY COOL BROTHER















Andy's Gone With Cattle

Our Andy's gone with cattle now -
Our hearts are out of order
With drought he's gone to battle now
Across the Queensland border

He's left us in dejection now
Our thoughts with him are roving
It's dull on this selection now
Since Andy went a-droving

Who now shall wear the cheerful face
In times when things are blackest
And who shall whistle round the place
When Fortune frowns her blackest

Oh, who shall cheek the squatter now
When he comes round us snarling
His tongue is growing hotter now
Since Andy crossed the Darling

The gates are out of order now
In storms the 'riders' rattle
For far across the border now
Our Andy's gone with cattle

Poor Aunty's looking thin and white
And Uncle's cross with worry
And poor old Blucher howls all night
Since Andy left Macquarie

Oh may the showers in torrents fall
And all the tanks run over
And may the grass grow green and tall
In pathways of the drover

And may good angels send the rain
On desert stretches sandy
And when the summer comes again
God grant 'twill bring us Andy.


Henry Lawson















ANDREW JOHN WHITE PSYCHING UP TO RIDE A BRUMBY IN THE TARCOOLA CUP, 1977 ...THAT NIGHT WE DANCED CLEAN THROUGH THE FLOOR OF THE TARCOOLA SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL HALL photo JOHN PEACHEY

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

big mob at the races that year whitey your brother was a good man he helped me

Anonymous said...

forgot to say looks like henry knew him too

Smiffy said...

Looks like one of them blonde brumbies Phil!

Burky said...

Funny how those cockies wear big hats all year and then put real little ones on for the races.

Anonymous said...

Henry. I remember Johnny. He was very very cool. They got him in his sleep.