NEWS

17 January 2012

Ken Fletcher will be inducted into the tennis Hall of Fame on Australia Day 2012 - that's Thursday week - during the Australian Open in Melbourne.

Click on the link below to read the excellent story that Mike Colman wrote  in the Sunday Mail newspaper on 16 January 2012.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/tomic-latest-link-in-great-heritage/story-fn6ck6i3-1226244453910

But...

 Fletch has not yet been honoured in his home town, even though he is the best tennis player ever to have come out of Brisbane (Annerley Junction).

There is a move on to name a Brisbane park after Kenny. The park is at our own tennis centre at Tennyson. It would be a fitting way to honour both his tennis achievements (which include five Wimbledon titles, the only man ever to win the Grand Slam of Mixed doubles [with Margaret Court], and his name is etched on the Davis Cup) but even more so, it would acknowledge his personal achievement in bringing US philanthropist Chuck Feeney to Brisbane to give $500million to medical research and hospitals in Australia, more than half in Queensland.

If you click on the link below, you can vote for the park to be named after Kenny.   Voting closes 25 January 2012.

 

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/729961/Tennyson-Riverside-Park

 You can vote whether you are a local, or from interstate, or from overseas.

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The Great Fletch Made Great

    JANUARY 2012

  Kenny Fletcher is at last to be honoured in the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame (to read Tennis Australia's official announcement, click on link below). Fletch will be Inducted in a special ceremony on the Centre Court during the Australian Open on Australia Day 2012 and his statue (bust) will be put on display on a pillar at Melbourne Park.

 It is a Great Honour which Ken earned with spectacular performances on tennis courts in most countries of the world, and then by bringing the American philanthropist Chuck Feeney home to Brisbane with him in 1992 which led to gift-giving and science-building on a scale Australia had never witnessed before -- so far $500million worth, which leveraged three times that much..

    http://www.tennis.com.au/news/2011/10/04/ken-fletcher-to-be-inducted-into-hall-of-fame  

                  If you want to know more about Kenny, you can read his eulogy on the news page of this site.

 

SPEECH

If you want to see the film of  the speech I made to graduates at the University of Southern Queensland in 2011 at the Empire Theatre in Toowoomba, the university put it up on youtube. It's in two parts, the links are below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMCi4lJI-jA&list=UU4Dr63DZknX3bfVJyVQLhYw&feature=plcp

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX-jgKfemic&list=UU4Dr63DZknX3bfVJyVQLhYw&feature=plcp

 State of Origin -- The Musical

I have written a Musical using all Qld songs and story that would involve the whole state. Only trouble is I don't seem to be able to get to anyone in the industry or govt who makes a decision on something like this. Anyone know anyone? How do you get something like this discussed in Qld??? Govt websites tells you nil.  Any suggestions to my  email address.

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 August 2011

The play I wrote of OVER THE TOP WITH JIM  was performed in Wynnum, Brisbane, by boys from Iona College plus girls from three local Catholic schools in August.

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 July 2011

My new radio serial was performed live on stage at the Queensland Music Festival 2011... and was  broadcast on ABC Local Radio throughout Queensland on Steve Austin's evening show. You can still listen to it  podcast at ABC via the link below.

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/07/18/3272095.htm?site=brisbane&microsite=accessallarts&section=latest&date=(none)

So what is it all about? The crew that does ROCKWIZ on SBS TV on Saturday nights asked me to write a five-part serial which was performed on stage in Townsville, Caloundra, Brisbane (twice) and the Gold Coast as part of their "Queensland Country Comfort Hour Show". The serial had to be heightened-reality, funny, contain music and sounds and be uplifting for Queenslanders everywhere after cyclone and flood.  The divine Julia Zemiro was the star. The serial was just 10 minutes in the second half of a full evening's concert featuring Brian Nankervis, Julia Zemiro, the Rockwiz band of James Black, Peter Luscombe and Mark Ferrie. Plus Brisbane actor Andrew Buchanan, Sydney actor Bruce Spence and a four-woman chorus called The Nymphs. Every show featured a  surprise guest: one night it was Don Walker from Cold Chisel, another night Patience from The Grates, Phil Emmanuel and Christine Johnston from the Kransky Sisters.  It was all part of the Queensland Music Festival 2011.

Details: www.qmf.org.au

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My LATEST BOOK is "WORDS FAIL ME: a journey through Australia's lost language"

WORDS FAIL ME is the sequel to "Lost for Words". After "Lost for Words" came out, readers inundated Hughie with more old words and phrases, plus stories, so he put them together in WORDS FAIL ME. 

WORDS FAIL ME revisits the rich, inventive and roguish language Australians used to speak before globalism stole it away.

So many phrases arrived, it was like trying to take a sip out of a fire hose. Some were so obvious, if they were snakes they would have bitten Hughie by now.

WORDS FAIL ME intertwines the sayings and phrases of yesteryear with true stories and anecdotes which recapture what Australia used to be like back when. These contrast with modern language madnesses: the road signs, the asterisks, the gobbledegook, jargon and corporate-speak that have replaced the way we used to speak. we used to have our own lingo --- clear, joyful and exaggerated.

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Forgot to mention department: Two of my books -- Over the Top with Jim and Lost for Words -- were named in the "50 books you can't put down" as part of "Books Alive".

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New York TENNIS Magazine said of "The Great Fletch" -- "Think Russell Crowe in tennis whites".

The SMH said: "The life of a working-class kid from Brisbane who, with only his talent and charm, conquered the world... so compulsively entertaining... imbued with warmth and charm".

Kris Humphreys wrote in the Sunday Age: "This book had me wishing I could race out and buy tickets to the tennis... Ken Fletcher was the James Bond of the tennis world mixing it up with film stars and royalty, yet worried that his mum would disapprove of his glamourous life."

Graem Sims, "Inisde Sport": ..."As good as it gets... you will be genuinely moved by the mad, magic rollercoaster of his life. They don't make 'em like The Great Fletch anymore."

SPIES LIKE US

The talking book of Spies Like Us has been released by ABC Music.

The 5-CD set is introduced with Macca singing his own song  Spies Like Us, which perfectly captures the James Bond era in which the story is set.. Ian McNamara wrote the words and the music.

The 48 episodes ~ which were broadcast on Macca's national  ABC Radio show, Australia All Over in 2009 ~ are read by Melbourne actor Peter Curtin, who did the Over the Top with Jim radio reading. 

Spies Like Us starts with arrival in Hong Kong in 1964, follows Hughie and Ken Fletcher's escapades with girls, gambling, tennis and journalism, through to Hughie's dramatic entry into China, Russia, then through Berlin and on to the swinging sixties  in London where Ken once again tries to conquer Wimbledon.

The talking book is for sale in ABC Shops plus music shops.

   ICONS

Six authors were voted Queensland Icons in the vote to celebrate Queensland's 150th anniversary in 2009. The authors, including Hughie, were in the influential artists category.  Those who have "left a lasting impression on the people of Queensland".

The authors were David Malouf, Hugh Lunn and William McInnes plus Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Judith Wright and Steele Rudd.  Some of the other cultural icons were the Bee Gees, Powderfinger, Geoffrey Rush, Keith Urban and Savage Garden.

In other categories the demolition of Cloudland and the Bellevue, and the Fitzgerald Inquiry were named.

You can check out all 150 winners at www.q150.qld.gov.au 

Working for Rupert review

Hypercritically reviewed in The Australian the memoir Working for Rupert finally received a good review -- in Mexico!! Washington-based journalist Ignacio Cruz Herrera  wrote an article about Murdoch's Wall St Journal take-over in 2008:

'Among the dozens of books written on the most influential Australian in history there are at least a couple of biographies instructive, that of Neil Chenoweth and William Shawcross, but without a doubt the most instructive, emotional, enlightening and ironic is the Australian journalist Hugh Lunn's Working for Rupert.'

 

The book on Kenny Fletcher's dazzling life

ABC Books published my biography on my mate Kenny on October 1 2008.

I have always wanted to write a book about Kenny’s amazing life because few Australians (if any) have ever done half the things he did, or ever knew half the people he befriended around the world.

He was unusual in that he literally had hundreds of very close friends. Such as the revered war hero Leonard Cheshire VC, the billionaire philanthropist Chuck Feeney, and Australian tennis legend Frank Sedgman.

He won Wimbledon with John Newcombe and Margaret Smith Court.
 

 

 
 In the new ABC edition of 'Spies Like Us', Hugh Lunn goes undercover into Red China in 1965 

● National radio broadcast on Macca’s Australia All Over

● Now out as a book and as 5-CD talking book

● Hear how the actor Peter Curtin reads my adventures

● And hear Ian McNamara’s 10 out of 10 new song that he wrote and sings especially for the serial of my book Spies Like Us. His song includes the immortal line: “We’re spies without sunglasses”

●  ABC Books has republished my book Spies Like Us. ABC Music has published the talking book

My Wimbledon tennis mate Fletch had an idea in 1964 when I’d lost in love. ‘Hong Kong is full of girlfriends!’ Fletch said. ‘Let’s go to the Orient!’

But we found that living it up in nightclubs wasn’t enough.

In 1965, on the eve of the Cultural Revolution, I blundered into forbidden Red China using my translated name ‘Dragon on a Pillar' and armed only with Banjo Paterson’s ballads and rosy cheeks.

I soon learned that life is not all cricket and cheongsams.

 




My  book 'Lost For Words - Australia's Lost Language in Words and Stories' is now in its ELEVENTH printing with ABC Books.
The book is arranged in 100 themes, and  also has a 15-episode wireless serial about Bert and Grace written in the old language! 

Lost For Words is about all the old words and phrases which have drifted out of our everyday life, now that we all talk in American sit-com speak.

Reading Lost for Words is like bumping into a long-lost beloved friend.

Hughie started collecting these after he finished Over the Top with Jim. It took him 16 years to collect them! Phrases like "It's snowing down south", "I'd know his hide in a tannery", "Who do you think you are,? King Farouk?", "Mrs Kerfopps"... thousands of them.

There are about 30 photos from Australia's past.... with old phrases in thought and speech bubbles for the characters.

STOP PRESS..

At a dinner to celebrate Queensland Parliament's 150th in 2010, speakers included Hugh, language professor Roly Sussex, and former Treasurers Joan Sheldon and David Hamill.   

STATE of ORIGIN

The True Story

(An extract from my book Working for Rupert)

Flying First Class to Canberra, where the entire city has been screened through the interview process, that November 1979 I ended up sharing a double-seat up front with a Senator, an ALP Senator who attended the same school as me, St Joseph’s College, Gregory Terrace. Senator Ron McAuliffe also just happened to run the Queensland Rugby League. Ron didn’t care that I’d been offered a job to write speeches for the Liberal Party's PM Malcolm Fraser; but he wasn’t too pleased about my article on the Queensland Rugby Union team. They were taking crowds away from rugby league, he said. They were playing like a club team, nearly every week. He’d even tried to get the Australian Rugby League to buy some of their best players to ruin their winning ways: ``They sent up some scouts but said none of them would be good enough to make it in our game.’’

``What! Not even Mark Loane?’’ I asked incredulously.

``Yeah. They said he might make a good winger.’’

I knew Ron fairly well because every year in May I wrote a news article about the upcoming inter-state Rugby League match, because I had followed these games since I was a boy. In fact, once Ron had said, while having his photo taken under the goal posts at Lang Park: ``I should make you my press officer.’’ So I felt I could talk freely.

For the next hour-and-a-half on the plane I berated Ron for allowing the annual inter-state matches against NSW to fall into disrepute. ``Once you could never get a seat – in 1971 there were 10,000 people outside with no tickets left. I was one. But this winter – just eight years later -- I had a hundred yards of the outer to myself.’’ If he wanted to compete with the success of rugby union then he had to take up the age-old idea of a ``State of Origin’’ match (where the players are chosen for the state they grew up in) to give Queensland a chance: instead of being thrashed over and over and over again by our own players who had been lured to Sydney by large payments funded by poker machines in clubs.

``We’ve been through all that a dozen times,’’ said Ron. ``I know that some of our boys have been over the top too often. But why should we reward players who desert our competition for Sydney’s and present them with our precious maroon jersey? If we did, then what’s to stop all the young stars like Wally Lewis and Mal Meninga also leaving for the south?’’ Ron’s voice softened as if he were about to tell a secret: ``And -- while I know we would never contemplate it -- what if we hold a State of Origin and we lose? We’ve been saying to our fans for decades that we’d thrash these southerners if only we had all our champions back. But where would we go from there if we still lost?’’ Queensland had lots of young champions coming through who would make the matches competitive again; and, anyway, Ron doubted the Sydney clubs would release Queensland players in the middle of their money-making club season -- ``and, just say they do: will men who have lived and played in Sydney for twelve or thirteen years, since they were seventeen, give their all against their Sydney club mates?’’

. Rugby league was dead in the water if he wouldn’t do it.

As we got off the plane in Canberra, Senator McAuliffe said he was glad we had our ``little talk’’. ``I’ll tell you what,’’ he said. ``If we lose the first two matches badly next winter with our new young stars – and mind you I don’t think we will – then I will hold one of these Origin matches and I will invite you to dinner in the board room before kick-off.’’ I forgot all about it until the following June when my phone rang after Queensland had lost the first two inter-state matches: ``The time has come for all loyal Queenslanders to gather at Lang Park,’’ Ron McAuliffe said succintly. It was on! I sat next to Ron McAuliffe at dinner, and in the grandstand during the match, on that cold night July 8, 1980: which, of course, we won. The ground was once again full, and Ron no longer held any doubts that Queenslanders living in Sydney might not perform when they pulled on the precious maroon jersey:

``Champions are like good horses: they rise to the occasion. Beetson and Reddy are two immortals who haven’t played for Queensland yet; they are two old warriors who have heard the bugle call. Patriotism is a great thing you know … when the kids say `Dad, why didn’t you ever play for Queensland?’ it doesn’t impress them much if you start talking about money, deals and offers.’’

 
Click Here for more news
 

Kenny Fletcher, a lonely only child with an irrepressible spirit, used to bang a tennis ball against the board in his back garden, day and night. Using a racquet far too big for him, gifted by a passing French tennis star who couldn’t know what he’d started,  he perfected a stunning forehand. Even so, Annerley Junction was more than a bit surprised when young Ken was seeded Number 3 at Wimbledon, had his name etched on the Davis Cup, and won a Grand Slam (with Margaret Smith), using the stroke that Harry Hopman called ‘the best forehand in the world’ to devastating effect, and then went on to lead a life of dazzling glamour in Paris, London and Hong Kong.

The Great Fletch explores whether great talent and misfortune make a pair and shows us a more innocent time in Australian sporting history.

ABC TV's  Australian Story did a programme on Kenny Fletcher, which has so far been screened four times.

Spies Like Us is available at ABC Shops in book form or as a 5-CD talking book introduced by Macca's song.

Hugh spoke at Kenny's funeral on 16 February 2006.  If you would like to read it, please click here . 



 


 

 






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House and Snow Flakes  

So, here we are, setting off in our Zephyr Six at warp speed on the cyber highway. By clicking here, you can buy the books or visit the other pages.
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Email: hughlunn@hughlunn.com.au (c) 2003 Hugh Lunn