Article: Brisbane News, September 6th, 2006

Bowling for Redcliffe

A guest appearance at the Brisbane Writers Festival is a chance for
author and actor William McInnes to catch up on old times, his
old bed and his Mum's chicken soup

"A friend said to me, 'You could be in Alaska for 90 years and you'd
still be calling yourself a Queenslander.' I still get a bit feral
around State of Origin time"

The choice between a five-star hotel and his bedroom at the family
home in Redcliffe is an easy one for William McInnes. "I'm staying
with my mum," says the actor and author. "I turned down a bed
at the Stamford Plaza for my old one at home and chicken soup for
dinner." So as we start chatting over morning tea at Mary Ryan's
Books, Music & Coffee at Milton I have, in my mind's eye, this indelible
picture of the tall lanky star's feet sticking out the end
of his old bed.

William, 42, was recently dubbed Australian Star of the Year at the
International Movie Convention on the Gold Coast and is well known
for his roles in TV series including Blue Heelers and SeaChange
and movies such as Look Both Ways, an Australian production written
and directed by his wife Sarah Watt.

He will soon be seen as wartime Prime Minister John Curtin in the
telemovie Before Dawn and in a rural romance called Unfinished Sky,
which starts shooting around Beaudesert in October. But he's in
town wearing his other hat as an author on this visit, ostensibly
talking up his latest book, Cricket Kings. He will be a guest
at the Brisbane Writers Festival this month and his sessions are
sure to be packed, given his popularity. His literary debut, A Man's
Got to Have a Hobby, an endearing memoir about growing up at
Redcliffe, did very well. It was an honest book by a celebrity who
happens to be a bit of an anti-celebrity.

McInnes seems a tad shambolic (in the nicest possible way) and rather
a handful for his publicist, one imagines. Rather than being
chauffeured around town like most visiting celebrities, he insists
on driving himself. This sounds admirable but somehow he manages
to get lost while travelling several kilometres from Toowong to
Milton.

He arrives flustered and instead of launching into a PR blurb about
his new book wants to talk about old war movies after discovering
we share a mutual love of them. In the process he does fine impressions
of Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood from Where Eagles
Dare and soon moves on to The Dam Busters, a classic from our boyhoods.
"Who wants to be blown up by red hot Ack-ack at 40,000 feet?" he jokes
in his best pucker British squadron leader's voice. "I'd love
to sir, take me, take me ... ," he answers himself as an eager
young airman.

He talks fondly of Sunday afternoons on the couch at home watching
reruns of World War II flicks, or Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedies.

Such nostalgia is a big part of what William McInnes is all
about. His novel Cricket Kings is not quite as nostalgic as his
first book but the sentimental attachment to the past is still
strong. It's a story about men rekindling their boyhoods playing
in a suburban cricket team, the Yarraville West Fourths.

Chris Anderson the protagonist may not be a legend like Bradman or
Waugh, but he loves his cricket and revels in the camaraderie he
enjoys with the motley crew he has assembled for a match on the
Cec Bull Memorial Oval, a ground which could be anywhere in Australia.
The team is a cussing, drinking, wind-passing bunch that may
or may not resemble William and the fellows he has played with
in similar cricket teams.

"I played as a kid in Redcliffe and the year before last I had a full
year playing fourth-class cricket," says William, who describes
himself as a bowler primarily. "Actually, I think I've played
cricket in just about every state." So he doesn't get too typecast
as a professional Queenslander, William set the book in Melbourne's
western suburbs.

"After all, I have lived in Melbourne for about 14 years," he says.

"But where I come from is still important. A friend said to me,
'You could be in Alaska for 90 years and you'd still be calling
yourself a Queenslander.' I still get a bit feral around State of
Origin time.

And if my 13-year-old son Clem has done something wrong, I say to
him 'you Victorian!'" How cruel.

Cricket Kings by William McInnes (Hodder, $32.95).

Article: Hobart Mercury - September 9th, 2006

Cricket story is wicket-ly funny

Cricket Kings
By William McInnes
Hodder, $32.95

Actor William McInnes is a breath of fresh air. His new book Cricket
Kings follows the highly successful A Man's Got to Have a Hobby
and is written in the same colloquial, laconic style. It is an
unabashed feel-good story.

Some claim cricket is a metaphor for life itself, and this particular
match provides a vehicle for McInnes to explore roles and relationships
and some important social issues as well.

It's not just another cricket book. There are certainly philosophical,
even moral undertones here. But putting these heavier considerations
aside, I chuckled, laughed, reflected and pondered through
every delightful page of it.

This is the story of a Yarraville West Fourths cricket team and the
last match of their dismal winless season. "Dismal'' may be inappropriate;
"inconspicuous'' might be better.

I was curious about McInnes's choice of location and the circumstances
that unfold in the story. I think there is a healthy dose of
authenticity here. McInnes reveals an easy intimacy with the physical
and social environment.

His detailed understanding of the vagaries of the game, and his knowledge
of the peculiarities of the little suburban ground and its
surrounds, it seems, could not be acquired without some direct
personal immersion.

Research alone would not be enough to capture the mystical quality
of this hot summer day experience as McInnes has done.

Even the Cec Bull Oval beneath the players' feet provides an intriguing
story component.

A colourful politician and local identity, Alderman Bull had been
linked with the ground since childhood and some dark secrets have
been buried there. It seemed somehow appropriate that he died there
in mysterious circumstances.

As in most sports, cricket now is all about excellence, elitism, big
dollars and media exposure. Little country towns, social clubs
and suburban teams are hanging on by a thread that is a love of
the sport. But as this story reveals, the real rewards are in a team's
camaraderie and mateship.

Yarraville West Fourths' threads are indeed thin and near breaking
point. They invariably play one or two players short and some of
their personnel are reluctant participants.

On this memorable day the captain and driving force of the team, Chris
Anderson, has cobbled together an unusual crew. It includes
an old doctor friend recently returned from service in an African
war zone, a disengaged and lonely bus driver, an effervescent butcher-turned-wicketkeeper,
an intellectually handicapped son of a
friend and two teenagers roped in from the under-17s "just to have
a go''.

There is also Chris's schoolboy son Lachlan and the family baggage
he brings to the game.

They are a disparate group that however becomes a unified force. With
a mammoth score to chase and last to bat, the Fourths face a
former A-grade demon bowler. A surreal series of events unfolds.

The players summon up the spirits of the legendary batsmen Allan
Border and Rick McCosker and the game goes down to the wire.

This story will warm the heart and reassure locals that the level
of competition is not necessarily a reflection of the passion and
joy of participation. If anything, there may be an inverse relationship.
William McInnes has done it again. The "Kings'' and the book are
winners.

Photographs from Brisbane Writer's Festival - September 2006

William arrives at BWF for the First Time Novellists panel talk:



William reads from Cricket Kings:



William at his Cricket Kings book talk:

Final Video - Brisbane Writer's Festival - 17th Sept 06

Part 2 of William's analysis of the Captain's Tug. Again, it's sideways because he's so tall he needs the portrait frame! And it moves because I was laughing.

Brisbane Writer's Festival - Video 5 - 17th Sept 06

Part one of William demonstrating "The Captain's Tug". Sadly the video is sideways as that was the only way I could fit his whole frame into the shot, but if you can't turn your screen, turn your head! It's worth it!

Brisbane Writer's Festival - Video 4 - 17th Sept 06

William talks about the blokiness of sport, and how it gives men a chance to bond.

Brisbane Writer's Festival - Video 3 - 15th Sept 06

William talks about age and his career...

Brisbane Writer's Festival - Video 2 - 15th Sept 06

William talks about using humour to tell a story:

Brisbane Writer's Festival - First Video - 15th Sept 2006

William reads a passage from Cricket Kings:

Transcript - Sunday Profile ABC - 3 September, 2006

Click Here for transcripts and links to multi-media downloads.

Article - ABC News Online - September 4, 2006

William McInnes: writer who acts or actor who writes?

Australian actor William McInnes first rose to public attention on our TV screens in shows such as Blue Heelers and Sea Change, and has now carved out a niche as a successful writer.

He has climbed into the top 10 in both fiction and non-fiction lists with A Man's Got to Have a Hobby and now Cricket Kings but, despite his success, has told Maxine McKew on Sunday Profile he's not yet ready to give up acting.

"Oh I don't know, maybe not. I don't know, I have no idea, it's a bit of fun, it's nice, there's no accounting for tastes," he said.

He says it is nice to have struck a chord with readers.

"Like an actor would like to have his work or her work watched and appreciated, so it's nice to write a book and have people go and read it, that's the good thing," he said.

"In the end, that's the best thing you can say about it, because in the end, I know I'm not the world's greatest writer."

He says in an ideal world he would like to be able to do a bit of acting and a bit of writing.

"Because I do like being apart of a group and working together," he said.

"Lots of actors that I knock around with, lots of them don't have much time for sport, which is interesting the interesting thing, because acting to me, is the ultimate team sport.

"You have your own little individual space to shine, but I like being part of a group because you can shine in your own little spotlight if you like, but you're all pulling together in a certain direction, so I like that about acting.

"Especially film work, any acting actually: TV, theatre, you've got that team that sits together, works together to achieve an end, and I find that very satisfying."

Cricket tragic

McInnes recently demonstrated his love of cricket while in Byron Bay for the writer's festival, donning his pads for a net session with cricketing author and journalist Gideon Haigh.
And McInnes's latest novel, Cricket Kings, charts the lives of the men who play for Yarraville West on a Saturday afternoon.

"I wanted to use cricket as a backdrop because when you're driving through the suburbs, you're waiting at an intersection, waiting for the lights to change, and out of the corner of your eye you see these people standing in an oval, dressed in white," he said.

"Nothing much is happening, but they're playing cricket, usually scratching themselves in various parts of the anatomy, but they are not just fondling themselves in public under the suburban sun, they are playing cricket, but they are also living their lives.

"And I thought that was the interesting thing: a pastime that seems so static, and what are they doing? They're living their lives, thinking about what was gone on this morning, the week before, what's going to happen, what happened 20 years ago perhaps."

William McInnes: R.I.P.

McInnes has drawn on his upbringing in Redcliffe, a sleepy Queensland seaside town, in his writing. He says he had a ball growing up.

"I mean, I was bored and restless like other teenagers, but I did have a ball growing up, and you only realise that when you look back and you think, 'Gee I was nestled in a very comfortable nest', and like so many Australians, you don't realise how comfortable it is until you open your eyes and look at the world," he said.

He says there seemed to be an "endless horizon of mischief, mayhem, and things to get up to", such as placing his death notice in the local paper.

It read: "In memoriam: William Matthews mourns the loss of Darryl William Matthew McInnes. Requiem mass to be held. Lost in an accidental collusion with a Zurich Zoo truck, while serving with the Swiss Navy."

"I don't know why, I thought it would be funny," he said.

"And there was a pretty, simple girl on and she sort of took the message and it was stuck it in the Redcliffe Herald.

"I was walking back from school, and the only way I knew that it had been published was by my mother's booming voice from across the avenue saying: 'Oh, you idiot, you stupid boy, you are not coming to eat in my house, you're dead, you're a dead man, you fool, you're stupid. Nineteen hours it took for me to have you, for what? A dead man?'"

Political views

His books are also flavoured by his upbringing - his Dad was a perennial Labor Party candidate in a seat that the Country Party always won.

"So he usually had his opinions, and it was a fierce debate," he said.

"We had a big table that we grew up around and it was on for young and old some nights, and it was fascinating to watch.

"Because I was the youngest, I sat up the end of the table and watched it all, and there were huge debates about land rights, the right for women to choose whether or not to have an abortion, the right to sort of, march in the streets."

McInnes says he has a lot of respect for his parents' generation, because they maintained a "generosity of spirit".

"I mean, they may have gone, 'Oh it was much better when I was a kid, what you need is good war to set everything out, that would be alright', but they were a good generation because they kept on going, and they kept supporting that hope, that optimism that by living a good life, and a fair struggle, that some good would come of it," he said.

"They weren't pessimistic that often, and I think they were optimistic because I don't think they had much choice. I think that that was a generation that made a lot of sacrifices."

McInnes has recently immersed himself in the past, playing war-time prime minister John Curtin.

"That was a fantastic gig, a really, really interesting thing to do, an it was great that the ABC whacked it on," he said.

"It's a telemovie about Curtin's first year on the job, when everything seemed to be going completely wrong for Australia.

"And it's interesting because it doesn't really paint anyone as really whiter than white, the great white knight of hope and salvation for Australia.

"Everyone has got their good points, and their bad points, it's very even handed."