Thread: Les Norton - will he return

its normally this time of the year a new adventure hits the bookshops


i'm guessing Robert is still struggling with cancer, hang in there buddy

Hey Ron, you could best describe Les Norton as the kind of bloke who 'Wouldn't be dead for quids'

In my younger days when I first came to the land of Aus I lived in Coogee and went to Giles Gym on just about a daily basis while I worked in night clubs and bars at night as a doorman believe it or not.

In several of his books Barrett used to write about Les going to train at skungy old Giles Baths at Coogee. Giles actually was a real gym and had been a bath house or such in its deep dark past. Giles was at the north end of Coogee beach on the head land, now all that is left of it is a concrete path that goes to a brick entrance and door way that the council kept when they took the gym back over and demolished it about 15 + odd years ago. It looks kind of daft this path heading up to a doorway that goes to nowhere

In his stories there was always these old Kings Cross gangsters and hit men who used to sit in the sauna and spa pool that looked over the beach with their gold chains speaking out of the corner of their mouths in hushed tones.

Well I can say that in the mid eighties that was still happening at Gile's, there was still plenty of the old retired gold chain wearing gangsters still there in the sauna and still talking out of the corners of their mouths.

These old blokes were at Giles most every week day from about 10:00amish. Much of what Barrett wrote about in his early Les Norton books could be traced back to actual things that happened and real people and places, even though he would slightly change the names and embelish on the actual real stsories, however if you ever spent time up in the Cross or around the seedy parts of the eastern suburbs around that time you would recognise plenty of what he wrote about and the going on's.

I read all of his books years later in the nineties and was blown away by how much of it was really like the way he wrote in his stories. I bet there were more then a few people back then who were very uncomfortable about how close his stories were to real life and real people.

I hope Mr Barrett gets over his ilness and lives a long life his writings have entertained plenty of people over the years myself included.

cheers,
Terry