ANU Meet the Author: Shaun Micallef
De’Ath takes a holiday
6-7pm Monday 25 May
Shaun Micallef will be in conversation with Adam Shirley on his new novel De’Ath takes a holiday.
Vote of thanks by Kaaron Warren
Free Event: Registration is required
“‘If I wasn’t dead, I would sue.”
This is the origin story of the first real vampyre (not Dracula).
The trouble with immortality is that eventually you get sick to death of it, and so to soothe his sickened soul, the Comte De’Ath decides to take a trip. From psychoanalysis in Vienna to blood transfusions in London, the Comte learns that a holiday is as good as a change. On the way, he meets the Queen, brings her husband back to life, helps win the Second Matabele War, matches wits with the Elephant Man, inspires Henry Ford to pursue the American Dream, almost solves the crisis in the Middle East and even falls in love.
Will he become mortal again in time for his funeral in Carfax Abbey? Ah – but what a fine book this would be if we gave away the end of the story in the blurb.
From the man Ben Elton once described as ‘perhaps Australia’s finest satirist’ comes a Victorian novel for modern times. A tale of Gothic horror so bloodcurdling that it makes Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson and Oscar Wilde look like they could barely write the word ‘cat’.
Shaun Micallef is a Australian comedian, writer, actor, producer, author and bon vivant. After several years of practising law, Micallef threw it all away for a life in comedy and television. Since ’94 he has graced Aussie TV screens in shows such as Full Frontal to Sea Change, to his own gig on Micallef Tonight, Thank God You’re Here and Talkin’ Bout Your Generation – to name but a few. He has authored two books for adults, Smithereens and Preincarnate, and received several awards including two Logies, an Aria for Best Comedy Release and an AFI for Screen Craft.