Days Like These

This memoir by a leading Australian playwright casts a shrewd eye over Australian culture and politics. Michael Gurr has written, directed and acted. He's also been a political activist, for causes such as asylum seekers in Australia. He's worked with the Australian Labor Party as a speech writer. He has won a number of awards, including four state Literary Awards for Drama. The diary meshes the personal with the political—from the Dismissal in 1975, through the rise of economic rationalism, net culture, and globalisation to the transformed Australia of 2006. As a playwright and activist, Michael Gurr has been a close observer of Australian politics and culture for more than twenty years. Days Like These is his personal account of a writer's evolution against the backdrop of a changing nation: a clear-eyed, often darkly humorous riff on how the times have come to be out of joint. Michael Gurr is the recipient of four State Literary Awards for Drama in NSW and Victoria. His work has been produced Australia-wide and in the UK and the USA. He was speechwriter for Steve Bracks in the campaign that returned the ALP to power in Victoria in 1999.