There was a time when Robert G. Barrett was ‘in his forties, out of goal, out of work, had three books published, but was stone motherless broke’. Political correctness had him confused and he had no desire to be more literary, even if he was the author of books that had been described as ‘the scatalogical nadir of the pile’ and ‘insidiously revolting…pray God they don’t get published overseas’.
Then, through a twist of fate and good fortune, along came People magazine, who signed Barrett to produce a weekly column focusing on Australian life and its heroes and villains. So What Do You Reckon? Is a collection of the best of these columns. Many are outrageous and all are written in Barrett’s highly popular and immediately recognisable style.
