Book Description

A world-famous Australian writer, an inspiration to Robert Hughes and Clive James, a legendary war correspondent who also wrote bestselling histories of exploration and conservation . . . and yet forgotten? In this dazzling book, Thornton McCamish delves into the past to reclaim a remarkable figure, Alan Moorehead. As a reporter, Moorehead witnessed many of the great historical events of the mid-20th century: the Spanish Civil War and both world wars, Cold War espionage, and decolonisation in Africa. He debated strategy with Churchill and Gandhi, fished with Hemingway, and drank with Graham Greene, Ava Gardner and Truman Capote. As well as being a regular contributor to the New Yorker, in 1956 Moorehead wrote the first significant book about the Gallipoli campaign. With its countless adventures, its touch of jet-set glamour and its tragic arc, Moorehead’s story is a beguiling one. Thornton McCamish tells it as a quest – intimate, perceptive and superbly entertaining. His funny, ardent book reveals an extraordinary Australian and takes its place in a fresh tradition of contemporary biography. Winner of the 2017 Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards Shortlisted for the 2017 Prime Minister's Literary Awards and the 2018 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature Longlisted in the 2016 Walkley Book Awards ‘[McCamish] succeeds beautifully: Our Man Elsewhere is crammed with anecdote and shrewd observation, with the kind of detail and ruminative digression that conventional biographers might consider trivial or irrelevant ... [it] is such a good book that I’m hard put to find anything wrong with it.’ —Inside Story ‘This is one of those rare biographies that will keep you transfixed right to the very last pages, even though in this instance, they are scorchingly sad.’ —Country Style ‘McCamish’s triumph is to apply Moorehead’s own relentless curiosity to his subject, and add a modern prism to the man and his work. McCamish’s writing is elegant, frosted in fresh insights ... marvellous.’ —Herald Sun ‘A detailed, involving and very readable look at the life of a flawed man with a large appetite for life.’ —Books+Publishing ‘Full-hearted, free-striding – this is a book that sings.’ —Helen Garner