Cirrus@Austlit

'The incredible true story of how a street-fighting petty criminal, who was kicked out of school at fourteen, became one of Australia's most celebrated and successful portrait artists.

'Raised amid poverty and violence on the poor streets of Melbourne, Vincent Fantauzzo was just a boy when he accepted he would either die very young, become a gangster or end up behind bars. Tormented by a troubled home life and dismissed as a simpleton at school where he struggled to read and write, Vincent projected a violent and frightening persona as a means of self-protection. Inside that tough exterior, however, lived a thoughtful, sensitive and creative boy whose only wish was to be loved - and to one day break free of the intergenerational dysfunction he seemed doomed to inherit. He could never have imagined how far his dream of a better life - and an uncanny knack for drawing - would take him.

'Virtually illiterate, Vincent used forged papers to hustle his way into art school where dark secrets threatened to sink his brilliant career before it even began. Today his work hangs in galleries around the world including the National Portrait Gallery and Federal Parliament House in Canberra. He's sold out international exhibitions, won the Archibald Prize People's Choice Award more times than any artist and taken out the Doug Moran Portrait Prize. Twice.

Arguably Vincent's most impressive and important achievement is his survival and the remarkable, sometimes ridiculous and occasionally glamorous, life he willed into existence despite severe and undiagnosed dyslexia that left him with no formal education and debilitating memory problems. Sometimes tragic, often hilarious but always deeply moving, Unveiled is a paint-spattered, star-studded, white-knuckle ride from the Housing Commission ghettos of Australia to the art galleries of Hong Kong, through the back roads of India and into the nightclubs of New York as Vincent chases his dream with humility, humour and a boundless love for people and a life better lived.'  (Publication summary)

'If politics has indeed become so absurd it's putting satirists out of business, then spare a thought for Richard Roxburgh.'  (Introduction)

'A fabulously funny madcap adventure from the multi-talented actor, director and writer Richard Roxburgh, now writing and illustrating books for children.

'Artie and his best friend Bumshoe have stumbled upon a Cave-of-Possibly-Stolen-Stuff, and along with it a gang of shady characters including scary Mary, fang-toothed Funnel-web and the devious Mayor Grime.

'Artie and Bumshoe's attempt to solve the mystery sparks a chaotic chain of events that involves kidnapping, puppy-dog cutlets, modern art and pioneering the sport of the bungee- wedgie.

'It's a sticky situation and if Artie's going to he might need help from family, friends, a little old lady, a small dog and the Fartex 120Y.

'A fabulously funny, madcap adventure from the multi-talented Richard Roxburgh. ' (Publication summary)

'On any single day, Cleaver Greene is described as many things. Whilst his ex-wife may call him 'unreliable", his son will call him "a mate". To his learned friends at the bar table he is "a real wag", to his jurors he is "hilarious", and to most judges he is "an outrage". To the Tax Office, he is "a defendant", to a certain brothel owner "a legend", and to his former cocaine dealer "a tragic loss".

'The clients he loves the most - the cases that thrill him - are those that appear to be utterly hopeless. There's something about being on the wrong side of conventional wisdom that feels right to him, be it at the bar table or the dinner table.

'He will do whatever it takes to defend and save life's truly lost souls. The big sinners. Its drug lords. Its cannibals. Its bestialites. And at the same time, he will struggle to save himself, to stop himself falling back into the abyss that has characterised most of his self-destructive adult life thus far.

'Despite his own hopelessness, his wit and charm have won him hordes of companions over the years. Most nights of the week, there is no shortage of invitations: dinner with a judge at the RMC (His Honour pays), or with some drug dealers in Chinatown (Manos pays), or with some of his copper mates at the Matador (no one pays).

'Any gaps in his diary will inevitably be filled by either all night sessions in chambers preparing for court or similarly lengthy sessions at his favourite brothel, simply referred to by those in the know as "the Club" (here, Cleaver is more than happy to open his own wallet). He tends to wake up bruised. Physically. Emotionally. Spiritually. Usually it's a combination thereof. He spends a nano-second wondering how his life came to this - living in a studio above a café in the Cross, without his wife and son, in love with a prostitute, defending hopeless cases. Then he gets up, puts on his dressing gown and a pair of brogues and goes downstairs for a coffee. Then it's out into the world - onto the battleground that is Cleaver Greene's day.'

Source: ABC Television website, http://www.abc.net.au/tv/
Sighted: 1 November 2010.

Film adaptation of Raymond Gaita's biography.