Philip McLaren
Short
Bio
I’m an Aboriginal Australian born in Redfern of Kamilaroi
parents from the Warrumbungle Mountain
region of NSW. Today I’m the author of five books. I lived abroad for
twelve years and worked as a set designer/ graphic artist/ illustrator/
architect/ sculptor/ lifeguard/ copywriter and creative director in television,
advertising and film companies in Australia,
New Zealand, Canada,
USA and England.
My first novel, 'Sweet
Water - Stolen Land',
(University of Queensland Press) won the David Unaipon Award for
Literature. A work of fiction set in 1869, it is based on the true
accounts surrounding the brutal settlement of my clan's ancestral lands - it's
about landscape, art, love, lust, religious fervor, massacre and hope. It
became a national best seller.
My second book, 'Scream
Black Murder',
(HarperCollins) is a crime
novel set in the present day on the black streets of Sydney.
A serial killer is murdering black women and white Australia doesn't
care. It was short listed for a Ned Kelly Crime Writers' Award;
published in hardcover in the USA and was contracted to American film
production company – Smith-Hemion; it has also been translated into French and
distributed throughout France, Switzerland, Belgium, Quebec-Canada, Polynesia
and Africa.
My third novel, 'Lightning
Mine',
(HarperCollins) is a thriller,
set in the present day and is concerned with the mining of sacred Aboriginal
land, and the inspirational fight to stop the desecration by the
traditional custodians of the Lightning Spirit's resting place. It is
contracted to an independent Los Angeles
film production company and is presently being translated into French for
release throughout France,
Switzerland, Belgium,
Quebec-Canada, Polynesia and Africa.
‘There’ll be New Dreams’,
(Magabala Books) was released to wide critical acclaim. It is a departure
for me in that it is a character driven novel. It's about very
different Aboriginal people, each person's story is
linked in saga-style sequences. It's a work of fiction but several situations
are taken from Australian history. It is set primarily in the 50's and 60's.
It has also been translated into French and released in France,
Switzerland, Belgium,
Quebec-Canada, Polynesia and Africa
in 2003.
‘Utopia’
will be released next month at the Paris Book Fair (March 2007). It’s the story
of a reformed alcoholic surgeon from New York who is frustrated in providing
medical services (with an under-staffed, under-funded medical centre) to a
neglected Aboriginal communty in the red centre of Australia. He falls in love
with a powerful black woman and is swept up in a gruesome ritual killing. He
has to assist the coroner in gathering evidence and find the killer.
I am just putting the final bits and pieces together on my
sixth book, ‘West of Eden – Man From Snowy River: the Original’, which is a
return to the historical novel for me. This story is based on the true accounts
of Toby, the legendary Kurnai horseman from the mountians; Bunjileenee, the
Kurnai leader, and Lauren Tucker his consort for life, a white woman who in
real life was shipwrecked on the Kurnai tribal beach at the mouth of the Snowy
River – Toby’s defacto mother. It’s
also about the real-life, uncontrollable vigilante mobs led by renown
‘explorer’ Angus McMillan who were responsible for hundreds of murders of the
first mountain people. But the novel primarily recounts the factual
underdog-story of one young man’s feat of such outstanding horsemanship that it
has become etched into the history, literature and lore of his country; Toby is
the original man from Snowy River.
My work in progress is Black
Silk. Set in the chaotic offices of an extremely busy Aboriginal Legal
Service, we follow Ian Cain, Australia’s
first black QC (there is no such thing), as he and his small dedicated staff
defiently tackle an unbelievable volume of cases. Their resources stretched to
the limit, they now learn the government is trying to close them down. In the
middle of this lunacy an horrific murder case lands on
Ian’s desk and the focus of the mass media on his doorstep. This thrilling storyline
is based on the real life landmark payback-murder case of Jack ‘Congo’
Murrell and will shine a light on the lopsided arrest and conviction rate of
Indigenous Australians.
If you can’t find my
books for sale
I’ll arrange to get
them for you,
personally
signed.
[email protected]
