NLA image of person
Barry Dickins Barry Dickins i(A21819 works by) (a.k.a. Barry Leonard Dickins)
Also writes as: K. G. Fish
Born: Established: 1949 Reservoir, Preston - Northcote area, Melbourne - North, Melbourne, Victoria, ;
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

Barry Dickins was born in Reservoir, Victoria, and attended local schools until the age of sixteen. After working in North Melbourne factories for five years, he became an apprentice set painter at Channel 7, Melbourne.

Frequenting Melbourne's La Mama Theatre, he began to write short plays and saw his play, Ghosts, produced there in 1974. Dickins is best described as a humorist who employs the people, traditions and rituals of Melbourne in his dramatic writing. His plays are short pieces written for small, intimate theatres where the audience can be directly implicated in the action.

Dickins has written more than fifty plays and is a regular contributor of prose and poetry to many newspapers. In addition to his published plays, he has published novels, stories, autobiographical fiction, reminiscences and selections of his journalism. Furthermore, his cartoons have been seen regularly in the Melbourne Age and are included in a number of his prose publications. Dickins has won a number of fellowships and has been a writer-in-residence at a several theatres and institutions.

Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • Brother of Chris and Robert Dickins.

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Last Words : The Hanging of Ronald Ryan South Yarra : Hardie Grant Books , 2017 10720669 2017 single work biography

'From acclaimed playwright and writer Barry Dickins, Last Words is the story of Ronald Ryan, the last man hanged in Australia. Fifty years after his death, questions remain unanswered. Ryan had been found guilty of murdering prison officer George Hodson during an escape from Pentridge Prison with fellow inmate Peter Walker. But did he really fire the bullet that killed Hodson?

'On 3 February 1967, despite public outrage and vocal protests from wide-ranging community groups, Ryan became the last person to be legally executed in Australia.

'It was the first time in 20 years that the death penalty had been enforced by the state. Many thought that Ryan's execution was Victorian Premier Henry Bolte's attempt to bolster his chances of winning the upcoming Victorian election, during which he ran a campaign promoting his law-and-order agenda.

'Last Words is as much about the hanged man as much as it is about the trauma of his family, and the political opportunism behind the decision to proceed with the hanging. In Dickins' lyrical prose he takes readers into the last weeks of Ryan's life and brings to life this infamous man whose personal story has gone undocumented until now. ' (Publication summary)

2018 shortlisted APA Book Design Awards Best Designed Non Fiction Book
Insouciance 2001 single work drama
— Appears in: Insouciance / The Prodigal Son 2001; (p. 1-40)
2002 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Prize for Drama
Last amended 15 Jul 2013 12:09:08
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