Remarkable story grabs attention

Memoirs

AUTHOR: Mike Willesee PUBLISHER: Pan Macmillan RRP: $44.99 hardcover REVIEWER: Mary Ann Elliott

VETERAN television journalist over 50 years, Mike Willesee has always known how to tell a good story.

Perhaps the biggest of all the challenges he has faced over his long career is now, writing his own.

Here is the remarkable story of Mike Willesee’s epic life, told with his typical “no holds barred” approach.

Son of Don Willesee, a minister in the Whitlam cabinet, Mike was a football star before finding fame as a journalist and Vietnam War correspondent.

In This Day Tonight, Four Corners and as creator of A

Current Affair, his interviews became legendary, transforming him into an icon. He also pioneered FM radio which is now 2Day FM, and made acclaimed documentaries.

It sometimes seemed that Willesee wielded as much (if not more) political power and had equal celebrity status as some of his famous interviewees.

More recently he joined Seven’s Sunday Night, reclaiming his place as Australia’s preeminent TV interviewer.

From leading a consortium to save the Sydney Swans, buying successful thoroughbred stud farms, he also found time to be a husband (three times) and a father of six.

After a tempestuous life, he finds great consolation and joy with his many grandchildren.

Now fighting cancer, with a poor prognosis, Mike now lives his life “on a prayer and a punt”, and it seems there’s no stopping him in his tracks; he is as ever, keen to conclude the story.

True to form, and full of his old passion and energy, his book grabs the attention from start to finish.

It’s a scoop!