Reviewed by Colleen McLennan
William McInnes is an Australian author and actor. He grew up on the Redcliffe Peninsular in Queensland and attended the Humpybong Primary School and Clontarf Beach State High School. In 1985 he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at Rockhampton Campus of Capricornia Institute of Advanced Education (now Central Queensland University). Further studies in drama were undertaken at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) graduating in 1988. William McInnes has had a long career in Australian film, television and theatre and has written several books.
This book covers memories of times gone by. The author’s style is humorous, upbeat and sometimes tinged with pathos. He has encountered joy and sadness in his life journey and achieved much success in the roles he has taken on. His early family life gives us a glimpse into the way his parents handled their brood of five children. He had no doubt that his parents loved him but they sometimes had an offhand way of dealing with a lively household. His father’s way of speaking could be somewhat irreverent, but humorous and cheeky. His mother had a unique way of “encouraging” him from slumber when she though he had slept in long enough in the morning.
I detect a very sensitive side of his personality which comes through in his witty and larrikin approach to the phases of his 62 year life span. To read the book, the reader should accept that his stories do not appear in chronological order. His stories relate to summer months at the different phases of his life. It seems he recalls relevant past experiences when he is writing and reflects on them, whichever stage of his life he is in and adds them in. Those impressionable times send him and us, the readers, down memory lane to times and places tucked away in the little pathways of our minds. We are made acutely aware of the differences in our way of living then and now. The difference in our language is stark. Not now do we hear the terms cobber, coot, togs, drongo, boofhead and rarely, budgie smugglers. Within his words there is time to remember the interactions we had with people who came into our lives. Some people stayed. Others left us far too early.
The author delivers his memories of the three months of the year, our Australian summer. In that time frame he writes about yearly events that were significant in his life, school break up, family holidays, Christmas, Boxing Day and the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, to name some. Also mentioned are the natural climatic conditions during this time, bush fires, floods and cyclones that were potential hazards for his plans for time at the beach , cricket playing and test match cricket watching on television, and youthful antics with his mates, referred to as “arsing around”. Also mentioned were familiar treats of the era, Webster’s biscuits, iced vovo, monte carlo and lolly snakes, sought out of the family biscuit tin and very well-known to families far and wide.
Later in his life when the author took a break from his drama school studies at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, he went back to the family home in Redcliffe to spend time with his family. The conversation turned to Clem Jones and Sallyanne Atkinson, influential and forward thinking Council Mayors of the time who were instrumental in securing, for Queensland, the Commonwealth Games in 1982 and Expo 88. These events were the catalyst for changing Brisbane into the vibrant city it is today.
Another side of summer that was also remembered by the author were the sounds of summer. He mentions the drone of air conditioners and fans, the cicadas singing, the rumbling of a looming thunderstorm and the music of the era. The sounds of different accents of the visitors in and around Bondi made him very aware that the visitors provided an extra layer to the summer sounds, in their efforts to escape the European winter, to experience an Australian summer.
Coming to the end of the book, he remembers the people he encountered during the various summers. He reflects on the fragility of life and contemplates mortality. This is tempered with the promise of another summer and the chance to make new memories, to be with loved ones and doing the things he loves to do. As for the Australian summer … well what can we say … It’s a Scorcher !!!
It’s a Scorcher!
[2025]
by William McInnes
Hachette Australia
ISBN: 978 0 7336 5291 2 (paperback)
$34.99; 295pp