Farewell ... Australian author Robert G. Barrett / Pic: Katrina Tepper Source: The Daily Telegraph
BESTSELLING Australian author Robert G. Barrett, famous for his novels about hard-brawling Kings Cross bouncer Les Norton, died at his Terrigal home on Thursday after a long battle with cancer.
He was 66.
Barrett wrote some 27 books, almost all of them featuring Norton - a red-headed, knockabout, old-school Bondi bloke who worked as a Kings Cross bouncer but seemed to be forever getting involved in intrigue. Barrett was himself Bondi born and bred, leaving school at 14 to become a butcher.
He was laid up after a workplace accident in 1980 and did a series of short writing courses.
Norton first came to life in a short story called A Hard Man which was published by Australian Penthouse and eventually became Barrett's 1984 debut You Wouldn't Be Dead For Quids, which launched a publishing career that saw Barrett sell more than a million books.
Although eschewed by the literati, Barrett's novels were hugely popular among ordinary people, many of whom wrote to Barrett to say they'd never read a book before one of his Les Norton adventures.
"I don't write to impress critics, other writers or the arts council ... (only) the people that fork out their hard earned money to buy my books," Barrett once said.
First diagnosed with cancer in 2009, Barrett, a life-long bachelor, was cared for in the latter stages of his illness by close friends.
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