After a near 10-year writing process, Bowning’s Tony Southwell has finished his book “The Cruci-fiction of Southy”.
Whilst the book is in the final stages of publishing, it’s unlikely to be available for purchase until later in the year.
What inspired Tony to put his life on paper was the loss of several long-time friends around the time of his 50th birthday.
“In 2012 I turned 50, and I lost a lot of friends all the same age as me, in a really short amount of time, and they’d all lived a pretty similar lifestyle to what I had lived, and one of them was the best friend I’d ever had.”
“On my way to his funeral, I was thinking about his girls, he’s got two beautiful daughters, and I was thinking about his life and how his daughters are never going to get to hear his stories and hear his life.”
“On my way home from the funeral, I thought ‘, I don’t want that to happen to my kids!'” he said.
So, whilst Tony’s four daughters and two sons were the initial inspiration for his piece, the reception he received from family and friends forced him to think it through further.
“I thought I’d write a chapter for each year of my life, and it ended up being 15,000 words.”
“I printed it out, and I gave it to some family and some friends, and people really liked it and responded to it.”
“A friend of mine passed it onto a friend of his in the book world, and they loved it,” he said.
From there, Tony began to add to his stories until he reached a final copy which is 96,000 words and 222 pages, but the publishing process has been no easy feat.
“There’s been three or four different publishers along the line, one of them pulled out, an American publisher pulled out because of the picture of me on the cross.”
“The picture of me on the cross is the whole thing about the book because I have lived my life differently to a lot of people because I lost a friend when I was 19, and I decided then that I wasn’t going to wait until I was 65 to enjoy life.”
“That’s what the book’s about, me being crucified for my life choices,” he said.
Tony eventually found a small-time publisher who was willing to publish it the way he wanted it done and is aiming to sell the book on Amazon and at newsagents across the country.
The book is undoubtedly for mature audiences and not for the easily offended, with Tony proudly claiming to hold the world record for the most times using the f-bomb in a book at over 400.
Whilst the Yass Valley is filled with historical wonders to admire, perhaps Tony’s book and the trials and tribulations he details throughout will give a true insight into what it was like to grow up in the Yass Valley, even if some of the stories may seem extraordinary.
Max O’Driscoll
