Baby Boomer | Greg Young in Conversation
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A sharply observed reflection on three-quarters of a century of change, powered by boundless curiosity and gentle humour. ~Paul Bailey, Gold Walkley Award-winning journalist and editor of the Australian Financial Review, 2011-2022
How will history judge the Baby Boomers? And what do they think of themselves? Greg Young offers one answer through a life lived at the fault lines of a changing nation. Born into Tasmania’s colonial amnesia, he came of age at university in Hobart as a young gay man in the turbulent 1960s. Backpacking through swinging London and fascist Spain — and surviving a Colombian jail — gave way to public service in Whitlam’s Canberra. Pioneering work followed in Sydney, in heritage and cultural planning — and later in academia. Nothing, however, prepared him for the premature death of his partner in the 1980s. Drawing on scholarships in Venice and at the Getty Conservation Institute, Young reflects on what history, culture and philosophy can mean for a life — and why a nation needs them. Deeply personal and political, this memoir is a reckoning with the generation that shaped postwar Australia.
Amanda Lohrey has over many years abandoned three tenured academic positions in order to do a lot of scribbling. She has published eight novels, a collection of short stories, two Quarterly Essays and a book on why singing is good for you. Her ninth novel, Capture, will be published by Text in 2026.
Join Greg and Amanda at the Afterword Cafe.