Derek Rielly is the talk of the literary town!
Derek Rielly has always been, and will always be, the love of my professional life. Our paths first crossed well over a decade ago. He was an Australian surf stalwart having edited Surfing Life and Waves magazines, being the founding editor of Surf Europe and then co-founding Stab. I was but a small nothing, having traveled to some Middle Eastern/East African countries and writing about the adventures for Vice. Derek read, we got in touch, and I started writing for Stab.
I loved everything about it. The stories, the font, the pictures, the style. I would write and send Derek my embarrassingly juvenile work then wait patiently by the mailbox until the physical issues were printed, bound and flown across the Pacific to my Los Angeles home. All I wanted to do was be in Stab but realized, right when Derek left, that the only person I wanted to write for was Derek. He was the magazine’s beating heart. He was the reason it made my heart pound.
Three-ish years ago now he told me about BeachGrit and, even though I thought I was exiting this surf world, would never tell him no. And that’s where we are now.
Derek is as brilliant as he is quietly humble. He never rings his own bell which is why you may not know that he has just published a book in Australia that is a total smash. Wednesdays with Bob features Derek going to chat with Australia’s most loved ex-PM over the course of a year. It is about love, loss, struggle, cigars and sculling beers. And it is an outright hit.
The Australian writes:
Wednesdays with Bob is a unique book that finds no precedent in Australian politician writing. It is, as Rielly tells us, based on Mitch Albom’s bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie, which chronicled visits to his former college professor to talk about life as he was nearing death.
Rielly traverses Hawke’s life with eye-for-detail prose and extracts comments on turning points, regrets and achievements. There are times when Hawke is brusque, trails off-topic or lets his interlocutor know the questions need to improve. It makes for a lively portrait of an unforgettable prime minister.
Booktopia says:
The result is an extraordinary portrait of a beloved Australian – a strange, funny, uniquely personal study of Bob Hawke ruminating on his (and our) past, present and future.
And I’ll say it is a work of genius which also happens to be a runaway best-seller in Australia. Would you have guessed that your little old BeachGrit was home to a literary lion?
Well there you go.