Bright Lad Wanted

There has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful.
——- Dr Samuel Johnson

Quite. Biographies are often more than useful but the editorial selection involved is rarely easy.

Judicious, though? Judging what to include and what to leave out? So the man drank a lot. Big deal, some say. However, a daughter tells you he was tremendously proud to have become a teetotaller on his 50th birthday. So is it sound judgment to touch on the matter?

Faithful? Mmmm. That’s a heavyweight discussion. Faithful to the subject’s own view of himself or herself? Faithful to

“the truth” as seen by reasonable observers, perhaps.

As a journalist on daily newspapers I have delved into some aspects of thousands of lives. In 1999 I had the rare honour of being invited to write a book that focused more strongly on a couple of dozen people. CENTURY, published by Fremantle Arts Centre Press in October of that year, was a collection of voices and views covering chronologically every decade of the 20th-century.

Bright Lad Wanted was a self-published memoir of my father, Frederick John Cornish; Howard’s Way was a recollection of a dear friend.

I enjoy biographical work and aim to satisfy criteria of judiciousness and faith.


Bright Lad Wanted