Screw Loose

An incisive, provocative and witty chronicle spanning five decades of Australian politics, journalism, gay activism and the arts, 'Screw loose' is a unique autobiography by one of this country's more controversial larrikin figures. Ex Scotch boy, biographer of Bolte, and discoverer of 'The secret diary of Jeffrey Kennett (aged 45 1/4)', Peter Blazey recalls many episodes of sex and romance as a hormonal young man in the painfully conservative middle-class suburbs of fifties Melbourne. These "uncalled-for-memoirs" cover Blazey's trail from his wealthy upbringing in Victoria to the brink of poverty in Europe; stints in London, New York and Hollywood (where he lived it up in Barbara Stanwyck's old mansion); stories from his years as a "political bisexual" (he worked for both Liberal and Labor governments); and a personal account of the riot that would become Sydney's first Mardi Gras parade. Interspersed with these often hilarious accounts is the more sobering reality of Peter's illness and the changes in his life which have occurred since he contracted HIV in 1980. A series of diary entries, including excerpts from Peter's last months in hospital, make up the final chapter of the book as well as an epilogue by his partner of the last six years, Tim Herbert.