My father Bryce Courtenay: the charming, charismatic, compulsive liar

Conversations

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11d ago 52:00

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To Australia he was a genius adman and best-selling author but behind closed doors Bryce Courtenay was a deeply flawed husband and father. His son, Adam, has tried to make sense of the lies, the ego and the heartbreak.

When Adam Courtenay was growing up, he saw his dad Bryce as a hero.

Bryce worked in advertising so he knew all the latest, coolest trends, and at bedtime, Bryce told Adam and his brothers amazing stories about his life in South Africa and the Courtenay family’s noble origins.

When Bryce went from adman to wildly successful writer with his debut novel, The Power of One, Adam couldn’t have been prouder.

As Adam grew older, he became aware of the gaps in the stories his father told so well, and realised just how many lies Bryce had told his family and the nation.

At first, Adam tried to ignore the fables and fibs - he wanted badly to believe them because they made Bryce's storytelling so powerful.

But when Adam became a writer himself, an author of historical books and a journalist, he needed to champion the truth above all else.

Further information

My Father Bryce is published by Hachette.

This episode of Conversations explores novels, writing, advertising, Australiana, Australian books, memoir, father son relationships, big egos, Australian voices, Tandia, The Night Country, Whitethorn, The Potato Factory, Tommo & Hawk, Solomon's Song, Nick Duncan Saga, The Persimmon Tree, Fishing for Stars, The Milky Bar Kid, knowing your parents, marriage, fatherhood, journalism, betrayal, cancer, divorce, affairs, infidelity, public personas, modern history, literature.

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