Barry Dickins

Barry Dickins (born 1949) is an Australian artist and writer of books and plays.

He was born in Reservoir, which is part of Melbourne. He left school early and worked in a factory. Later he painted sets and backgrounds for television programs. His first play, Ghosts, was performed in 1974 at La Mama Theatre. He has written many more plays. His play Remember Ronald Ryan won the 1995 Victorian Premier's Literary Award. He has also written short stories, biography, other non-fiction and children's books. Barry is known to use many 'half rhymes' in his work.

Dickins' books and plays

Drama

• The Banana Bender and The death of Minnie. (Currency, 1981) ISBN 0868190535
• Lennie Lower. (Yackandandah, 1982) ISBN 0868050121
• One woman shoe. (Yackandandah, 1984) ISBN 0868050105
• The Bridal Suite and Mag and Bag: Two plays. (Yackandandah, 1985) ISBN 0868050407
• Beautland. (Currency, 1985) ISBN 0868191302
• The Golden Goldenbergs. (1986)
• The Fool’s Shoe Hotel. (Yackandandah, 1987) ISBN 0868050555
• Royboys. (Currency, 1987) ISBN 0868191779
• Remember Ronald Ryan. (Currency, 1994) ISBN 0868193925

Stories

• Post Office Restaurant and Other Stories. (Pascoe, 1992) ISBN 0947087192

Non fiction

• The Gift of the Gab: Stories from the life of Barry Dickins. (1981; Penguin, 1987) ISBN 0140108661
• What the Dickins! A symposium of pieces from the low life. (Penguin, 1985) ISBN 0140072535
• You’ll Only Go In for Your Mates. (Allen & Unwin, 1991) ISBN 1863731474
• Guts and Pity: The Hanging that ended Capital Punishment in Australia. (Currency Press, 1996) ISBN 086819-424-7
• Ordinary Heroes: Personal Recollections of Australians at War. (Hardie Grant Books, 1999) ISBN 186498-014-1
• Articles of Light: Reflections on lowlifes, ratbags and angels. (Penguin, 2000) ISBN 0140297529
• Black and Whiteley: Barry Dickins in search of Brett. (Hardie Grant Books, 2002) ISBN 1740640012 Review Archived 2007-09-21 at the Wayback Machine

Children's books

• My grandmother. (Penguin, 1989) ISBN 0140122834
• My grandfather: Years of hope and vigour. (Penguin, 1993) ISBN 0140178597
• Joey: A dog for all seasons. (Puffin, 1995) ISBN 0140370919

References

Other websites

• Interview from The Age
• Drawings Archived 2015-03-23 at the Wayback Machine
• Saint Dymphna's Bells Archived 2007-02-20 at the Wayback Machine Poem