My father Bryce. Adam Courtenay. 2025.

Bryce Courtenay was one of Australia’s highest-selling and most-loved authors as well as a larger-than-life character. From his first book, Power of One, he captivated readers. With his third, the non-fiction April Fool’s Day, he captured their hearts. Many of his fans would have thought they knew him, and they did - they knew the version of him that he wanted to present to the world. 

Bryce’s son Adam also knew that version. And he knew the Bryce the rest of the world only glimpsed, or never saw at all. His father was a natural-born storyteller and occasional fabulist whose tales never quite rang true. He was a man who forever publicly grieved the loss of his son Damon, the subject of April Fool’s Day, which dominated his attitude to his family for the rest of his life.

In seeking to understand his father,Adam recounts his own 1960s and 1970s childhood, Bryce’s career in advertising and his metamorphosis into bestselling novelist. Bryce became a household name even as his personal life was plagued by tragedy and heartbreak - some of his own making. Nobody came out of it unscathed.