Currently, my friend Grantlee Kieza is Australia’s best selling history author, a honour that he richly deserves.

Over the past decade he has published a dozen books about the history of Australia that some of you will have read. Absolute gems like Sister Viv, Flinders, Hudson Fysh, Banjo, The Remarkable Mrs Reibey, Lawson, Monash, Banks, Macquarie etc. If you have not read them, I recommend you do so right now as you will enjoy them immensely.

Some years back when Grantlee was a popular journalist at Brisbane’s Courier Mail he wrote some feature articles about my life and work. We struck up a close friendship from which I have hugely benefitted as Grantlee is my mentor who helps me immensely to improve my personal skills as an amateur author.

He especially helped me to write my last three books,

A BEAUTIFUL SUNSET, CATCHING THE LINVILLE TRAIN and WALKING WITH THE MAN BUT NOT TO CHURCH.

This week we met again for one of our regular lunches where he gave me a signed copy of his most recent book about legendary Australian swimmer of a century ago ANNETTE KELLERMAN who swam the English Channel a century ago wearing ‘shocking’ swim gear that enabled women thereafter to swim publicly in ‘revealing bathers’.

We chatted happily for a couple of hours about the books we are currently writing and we are helping one another with research.

Grantlee’s latest will be about MRS PENFOLD, founder of the wine empire.

Mine will be a novel, WALK IN THE SPIRIT, coauthored with Neil Florence. Neil and I are long standing mates who are both 93 years old and we have been advised by our publisher that never before in history have two 93 year old authors written a book together.

The truth is that Grantlee and I love the relaxing pastime of writing books.

I have another three planned in the years between now and my century. Grantlee will easily double that number.

Cheers. Everald