Michael Kirby - A private life
September 19th 2011 06:57
Original Creative Writing:
Michael Kirby - A private life
The life of Australia's longest serving judge is already well documented, but as the author states himself his publishers thought it would be meeting a demand for him to write in his own voice some fragments of memory; and those publishers were quite correct in their thinking.
The difference between reading about a person of great interest, and reading their own words discussing various moments in time is quite enormous. I have had the great honour of eating luncheon with Michael Kirby, and interviewing him on community radio. There is always a difference between the person and the legend regardless of the actual position the person fills, be it David Williamson, Anna Volska, Kate Fitzpatrick or the High Court's Justice Michael Kirby. Simply reading about Kirby's thinking behind revealing his long term same sex relationship with an assembly of Judges in Zambia who look upon homosexuality as immoral is fascinating and reveals far more about the man than you may imagine.
To place oneself on the line as it were is both quietly heroic and bold as brass. Immediately open to ridicule and moral judgement as a result of making such an advanced declaration among inscribed homophobes, it also shows grave insight into the subject of quelling the spread of HIV and AIDS in a country rife with the problem.
Likewise his chapter on love is wrapped in the type of heroic activities one only reluctantly supposes may have some element of heroism in a very retrospective way, many years later, not that Kirby himself suggests any heroism; he simply recounts the facts as he sees them of an appeal in the 1960's against a prosecution of obscenity and the eventual meeting between himself and the great love of his life - such a romantic story, and told so simply. In a way the memoir is a series of slightly romantic tales pragmatically told interwoven with fragments of horror. Not the horror of zombies or vampires, but the horrors of ignorance and discrimination in all their notable glory.
An easy read for some will plumb the depths of emotion for others - I'm one of the others who will undoubtedly return to reread this private life again and again simply because of the wonderful serendipity to be found in finding love, in speaking truth and in knowing humility.
My favourite this year so far, Michael Kirby, A private life is a wonderful and not at all laborious read.
ISBN: 9781742376202
Australian Pub.: October 2011
Edition:1
Publisher: ALLEN & UNWIN
Imprint: ALLEN & UNWIN
Subject: Memoirs
Edition Number:1
When he retired from the High Court of Australia on 2 February 2009, Michael Kirby was Australia's longest serving judge. In addition to his judicial duties, he has served on three university governing bodies, being elected Chancellor of Macquarie University in Sydney (1984-93). He has also served on many national and international bodies, including the World Health Organization's Global Commission on AIDS, the International Commission of Jurists, the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee, the UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights, and the UNDP Global Commission on HIV and the Law. He is a truly great Australian.
The difference between reading about a person of great interest, and reading their own words discussing various moments in time is quite enormous. I have had the great honour of eating luncheon with Michael Kirby, and interviewing him on community radio. There is always a difference between the person and the legend regardless of the actual position the person fills, be it David Williamson, Anna Volska, Kate Fitzpatrick or the High Court's Justice Michael Kirby. Simply reading about Kirby's thinking behind revealing his long term same sex relationship with an assembly of Judges in Zambia who look upon homosexuality as immoral is fascinating and reveals far more about the man than you may imagine.
To place oneself on the line as it were is both quietly heroic and bold as brass. Immediately open to ridicule and moral judgement as a result of making such an advanced declaration among inscribed homophobes, it also shows grave insight into the subject of quelling the spread of HIV and AIDS in a country rife with the problem.
Likewise his chapter on love is wrapped in the type of heroic activities one only reluctantly supposes may have some element of heroism in a very retrospective way, many years later, not that Kirby himself suggests any heroism; he simply recounts the facts as he sees them of an appeal in the 1960's against a prosecution of obscenity and the eventual meeting between himself and the great love of his life - such a romantic story, and told so simply. In a way the memoir is a series of slightly romantic tales pragmatically told interwoven with fragments of horror. Not the horror of zombies or vampires, but the horrors of ignorance and discrimination in all their notable glory.
An easy read for some will plumb the depths of emotion for others - I'm one of the others who will undoubtedly return to reread this private life again and again simply because of the wonderful serendipity to be found in finding love, in speaking truth and in knowing humility.
My favourite this year so far, Michael Kirby, A private life is a wonderful and not at all laborious read.
ISBN: 9781742376202
Australian Pub.: October 2011
Edition:1
Publisher: ALLEN & UNWIN
Imprint: ALLEN & UNWIN
Subject: Memoirs
Edition Number:1
When he retired from the High Court of Australia on 2 February 2009, Michael Kirby was Australia's longest serving judge. In addition to his judicial duties, he has served on three university governing bodies, being elected Chancellor of Macquarie University in Sydney (1984-93). He has also served on many national and international bodies, including the World Health Organization's Global Commission on AIDS, the International Commission of Jurists, the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee, the UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights, and the UNDP Global Commission on HIV and the Law. He is a truly great Australian.
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David Jobling
