BOOKS: VIBRANT FABULATIONS.
By Garry Wotherspoon Historian Wotherspoon follows the life of Clive Madigan, a central figure in the Sydney “camp scene” after the end of World War II.
Affectionately known as “The Viscountess de la Clive”, Madigan was part of what became known as “the Hyde Park Push”; a group of camp men who drank and cruised other men around the Archibald Fountain in Hyde Park, and who began organising parties for themselves at various suburban venues. account as well as a vibrant fabulation. The end result makes less of a claim to accuracy and focuses more on the meditation on memory, truth and fiction.
So, who was Clive Madigan? He was born into a working-class Sydney family in 1925. He left school at 14. His early career as a teenaged petty criminal saw him spend many periods in jail. From slum boy to petty criminal, safe-breaker, the master of ceremonies, and in his older age, a writer, Madigan lived many lives.
He was a fierce opponent of “respectable” Australian society. His animosity to the world may have been influenced by his family’s pretensions to respectability, and fuelled by his awareness of his homosexuality, which was not only illegal at the time but deeply socially unacceptable.
Nevertheless, Madigan’s references to literature, evident in his final choice for the memoir’s title, might signal his acute imagination and breadth of creativity. Though his career might remind us of French artist and activist Jean Genet, who was also a wellknown petty criminal with a sharp mind, Wotherspoon realises that Madigan’s work does not carry deep contemplations on the meanings and consequences of actions. Wotherspoon observers that while Madigan had the capability to string words together to make an impact, “His stories are all on the surface.”
Wotherspoon’s account is written in an accessible and eloquent style. The book provides excerpts of Madigan’s first-hand stories and personal accounts, and a glimpse into a secret gay male world before the Gay Liberation movement.
And it all started under the floodlit Archibald Fountain with Clive “The Viscountess” Madigan.
By Joseph O’Connor
Irish author O’Connor (brother of singer Sinead O’Connor) has a string of popular books to his name but this, his latest, will have a special appeal to gay readers.
It’s explores the life of author Bram Stoker. Generally, people know very little about Stoker’s life even though his book, Dracula is one of the world’s most famous. This is possibly because the book wasn’t a success until after Stoker’s death.
Shadowplay is largely set in London around the Lyceum Theatre and explores Stoker’s complicated relationships with the famous real-life actors Henry Irving and Ellen Terry. O’Connor depicts Stoker as a closeted gay man, and he had very good reason to remain closeted. This is the time of Oscar Wilde’s downfall. Wilde even makes a couple of cameo appearances, and throws around hints of an intimacy between himself and Stoker.
Henry Irving is also affected by the Wilde scandal, and although both he and Stoker are married to women, they share an intimacy that transcends their work together. The novel opens with the two of them travelling and, for all intents and purposes, they appear as a devoted elderly couple. Then we step back in time and learn their full story. After Stoker and his family left Ireland for London, he fell in with Irving and ran his theatre, trying to steer and contain this star and all his grandiosities. Then there’s Stoker’s own frustrations at failing to achieve success with his writing.
Shadowplay is written in the style of a Victorian novel and O’Connor’s vivid descriptions create an atmospheric and pungent portrait of London at the time. Add in Jack The Ripper stalking the East End and terrifying the populace and you begin to see how Dracula came to be written. The novel ultimately depicts the satisfactions and torments of the creative life. It is especially sad considering Stoker never knew his own success. Thankfully, his legacy was saved due to his long-suffering wife’s shrewd grasp of copyright.