Spoken Word

2 Dec 2023

Spoken Word: Episode 38: Fat, Fifty & Fu*ked! By Geoffrey McGeachin

Arts, James WF Roberts, Joy Media, Joy94.9, Literature, Performing Arts, Philosophy, Podcasting, Spoken Word

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Spoken Word: Episode 38: Fat, Fifty & Fu*ked! By Geoffrey McGeachin

James talks to photographer, writer and yarn-spinner, Geoffrey McGeachin, about his re-release of his book.

Twenty years ago, after decades of secret dreams of being an author, Melbourne-born photographer and photo-educator, Geoffrey McGeachin, sat down to see if he could actually write a book.

Fat, Fifty & Fu*ked! (most definitely not an autobiography) was the result, winning the 2003 Australian Popular Fiction competition, securing McGeachin an agent and a publishing deal, while also creating something of a marketing dilemma. . . “From an author you’ve never heard of, with a name you’re not sure how to pronounce, comes the book you might be too embarrassed to ask for.”

Fat, Fifty & Fu*ked! was published by Penguin in August 2004 and immediately won a big following, described by the Sunday Tasmanian as “one of the most exhilarating debut novels in many moons … wildly imaginative, irreverent, bitingly funny, beautifully paced and populated by the sort of characters we’d all love to know”. It continues to entertain and amuse Australian and international readers.

After a red-hot response from reviewers and readers, McGeachin went on to write six more books, three humorous adventure thrillers featuring an Australian ‘James Bond’, Alby Murdoch, secret agent and international photographer, and three crime novels starring detective Charlie Berlin, an ex-bomber pilot and POW with a troubled past. The Berlin novels won Ned Kelly Awards for Best Australian Crime Fiction in 2011 and 2013.

Fat, Fifty & Fu*ked! shifted my life in a new direction,” McGeachin said. “I always wanted to write but it took a serious nudge from my wife to get me rolling. The book took on a life of its own once my characters hit the road.”

McGeachin said he had resisted the temptation to update Fat, Fifty & Fu*ked! for this new edition.

“While there may be some dated technology, there are surprisingly relevant opinions and attitudes from its wide-ranging cast of characters: banks are still bastards, media moguls have some interesting ethical issues, the government is a touch dodgy, and librarians are disturbingly capable people when it comes to disposing of a body,” he said.

“The themes are pretty universal. And there is a whole new generation of people turning 50 – this title it’s the perfect birthday present.”

When the story begins Martin Carter is having a crook day. His home life’s a misery, he’s been retrenched by the bank and everyone’s forgotten his birthday. But a million-dollar payroll, a pistol in a biscuit tin, and a split-second decision change everything.

Hurtling north on a motorcycle with the intriguing Faith, a librarian, Martin encounters a mysterious hit-man, a new-age bikie gang, a reclusive media mogul, and the booby-trapped mountain hide-out of an old schoolmate. With Faith’s help, he learns about love again, along with some bitter truths about instant coffee, brown suede shoes, and the legendary Great Aussie Truck-stop Breakfast.

McGeachin said that Fat, Fifty & Fu*ked! is essentially a love story but it’s also an on-the-run adventure, taking its characters on a wild ride with an undercurrent of impending danger.

Fat, Fifty & Fu*ked! is also about renewal and reinvention, new beginnings and taking chances. And when the world is going to hell in a hand basket it’s a good time to escape into, as one reader called it, ‘a real laugh-out-loud Aussie gem of a book’,” he said.

Check out this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN8RGYdDN1w

The audio book continues to amuse truckies, bikies and anyone with a long winding road in front of them.

Two decades later Clan Destine Press believes people will march into bookshops around the country and demand a copy of Fat, Fifty & Fu*ked!

After an exciting career as a world-travelling photographer and photo-educator, Geoffrey settled in Sydney where he wrote his first novel, Fat, Fifty and Fu*ked!, in 2003. This was followed by three tongue-in-check spy novels featuring photographer/secret agent Alby Murdoch: D-E-D Dead, Sensitive New Age Spy, and Dead & Kicking.

In 2010 he wrote the first of the Charlie Berlin series, The Diggers Rest Hotel; followed by Blackwattle Creek and St Kilda Blues. The series, set in 1947, 1957 and 1967, earned him two prestigious Ned Kelly Awards for Best Australian Crime Fiction.

Geoffrey now lives on the Central Coast of NSW with his wife, Wilma.