From student to actor to author, McInnes books attention
Published on 09 April, 2009
As a young Arts student at our predecessor Capricornia Institute of Advanced Education, William McInnes impressed colleagues with his sense of humour...
Decades later, this talent is still coming through with the publication of his latest book, That'd Be Right*.
*Published by Hachette Australia, RRP $35, Available now
The same mixture of humour and thoughtfulness that readers loved in A Man's Got to Have a Hobby is included, as McInnes looks back at Australia over the last 30 years.
McInnes brings the world, or at least Australia, into readers' backyards as he writes about families and sport and politics and life in a style that makes you feel as if he is sitting down talking to you.
Both funny and insightful, That'd Be Right is part memoir, part personal history of Australia over the last 30 years. It's a biographical trip told through sport, and families and personal experiences.
Some of these events would be considered momentous, some small and personal. And all are seen through McInnes' eyes.
They range from a day at the Melbourne Cup with his mother where too many champagnes and too few winners were picked; a swimming carnival early in the morning after a gloomy and long federal election the night before; watching truly surreal Grand Final moments in a pub with a group of odd and unknown bar companions; sailing on a massive yacht during the Sydney Olympics while listening to the conversation of an elderly lady from Texas in the cabin below.
"As with A Man's Got to Have a Hobby I weave in and around the events that have held such fascination for this country over the last 30 years or so, connecting them all with the progression of a life," McInnes says.
McInnes is one of Australia's most popular stage and screen actors, and with the publication of his memoir A Man's Got to Have a Hobby and his novel Cricket Kings, he has become a much-loved writer too.
In 2006 A Man's Got to Have a Hobby was selected as one of the Books Alive 50 Great Reads and McInnes was named ‘Australian Newcomer of the Year' at the Australian Book Industry Awards, and in 2007 Cricket Kings was shortlisted in the ‘Australian General Fiction Book of the Year' category for these awards.
McInnes received critical and public acclaim for his leading role in the film Look Both Ways, written and directed by his wife Sarah Watt. His roles in SeaChange and Blue Heelers had already made him a household name.
McInnes grew up in Queensland and has travelled extensively throughout Australia. He now lives in Melbourne with Sarah Watt and their 2 children.