'From one of Australia's most wryly funny writers comes an original and utterly hilarious memoir of reaching for the stars while lying in a ditch.
'I was sleeping in what might reasonably be described as a ditch, though I tried not to think of it in those terms for morale reasons . . .
'Robert Skinner arrives in the city, searching for a richer life. Things begin badly and then, surprisingly, get slightly worse. Pretty soon he's sleeping rough and trying to run a literary magazine out of a dog park. His quest for meaning keeps being thwarted, by endless jobs, beagles, house parties, ill-advised love affairs, camel trips and bureaucratic entanglements.
'Sometimes a book catches the spirit of the times. I'd Rather Not is about work, escape and that something more we all need.' (Publication summary)
Robert Skinner in Conversation
Christine Gordon
(interviewer),
2023
26809637
2023
single work
podcast
interview
'In today’s episode, from one of Australia’s most wryly funny writers comes an original and utterly hilarious memoir of reaching for the stars while lying in a ditch.' (Production summary)
'The Irish writer and wit Oscar Wilde said we can be in the gutter but look to the stars. The Melbourne-based writer and humorist Robert Skinner agrees on the location but what he sees is the gutter. “Say what you want about rock bottom,” he writes in his whimsical, insouciant memoir I’d Rather Not, “but at least it’s sturdy.”' (Introduction)
'The Irish writer and wit Oscar Wilde said we can be in the gutter but look to the stars. The Melbourne-based writer and humorist Robert Skinner agrees on the location but what he sees is the gutter. “Say what you want about rock bottom,” he writes in his whimsical, insouciant memoir I’d Rather Not, “but at least it’s sturdy.”' (Introduction)
Robert Skinner in Conversation
Christine Gordon
(interviewer),
2023
26809637
2023
single work
podcast
interview
'In today’s episode, from one of Australia’s most wryly funny writers comes an original and utterly hilarious memoir of reaching for the stars while lying in a ditch.' (Production summary)
