Shadowed Days: fragments of a Melbourne boyhood

'Two nights later our whole life is changed. I am reading a comic in bed, when from way down the hall I head my mother yell, 'Frank! Frank!' There is something in her voice that I have never heard before - not just panic, which is the first thing that strikes me, but a deeper note of fear...' Garry Kinnane's haunting evocation of his boyhood in Melbourne in the 40s and 50s brings to life the struggles of a small family. Frank and Thelma and their two boys, Garry and Ray, are always on the move - from Richmond to Mount Macedon, to North Melbourne, and finally to an uneasy life in Valentine Street. Garry Kinnane is the author of 'George Johnston: A Biography' (winner of The Age Book of the Year 1986) and 'Colin Colahan: A Portrait'.