Cirrus@Austlit

'"The Giraffe's Uncle" is a new one-man comedy drama about idiosyncratic Sydney short story writer and freelance journalist Les Robinson. The former Radio National arts broadcaster, journalist and theatre critic Martin Portus is playing Les, taking on the one-man show after thirty years away from the stage.

Les Robinson was an eccentric figure on Sydney's bohemia scene between the 1920s and 1960s, whose unconventional ways gained him much local notoriety. Refusing to pay rent, he lived in derelict houses and caves around Sydney Harbour, writing, fishing and playing his old gramophone on the rocks. Robinson's comic and absurdist short stories remain unique to Australian fiction - his one and only short story collection in 1933, The Giraffe's Uncle, was re-published recently by Angus and Robertson. He was a contributor and cartoonist to The Bulletin, The Australian Worker, Punch and the Lindsay's magazine, Vision. His work was supported by contemporary Australian literary notables such as Kenneth Slessor, Norman Lindsay, Douglas Stewart, the critic HM Green and many cartoonists.' Source: Emma Collison Publicity (Sighted27/10/2011).