Six authors were voted Queensland Icons in the vote to celebrate Queensland's 150th anniversary. 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 

NEWS

Working for Rupert review

Hypercritically reviewed in The Australian finally received a good review -- in Mexico!! Washington-based journalist Ignacio Cruz Herrera writing about the 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.

 

New 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

● Every Sunday morning on ABC Local Radio at about 8.15

● 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”

● To coincide with the serial, ABC Books has republished my book Spies Like Us.

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.

If you miss the serial on the radio, you can podcast it on www.abc.net.au




My  book 'Lost For Words - Australia's Lost Language in Words and Stories' is now in its seventh 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..
See above for how to vote for Queensland's 150 Icons
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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.

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