Letters from Kalangadoo: The Roly Parks Collection

Roly Parks lives in Kalangadoo, a small in the South East of South Australia. Each week Roly writes a letter to his son, Gene, who lives in London with his partner, Ahmed, a Moroccan ballet dancer, formerly with the Royal Ballet.

Roly’s letters have been broadcast nationally on ABC radio for over twenty five years. Roly’s letters range from his ongoing marriage counselling encounters with his wife of fifty years, Sonya, his run-ins with the town gossip Beryl Coates and Mrs Phipps, the letter-opening post-mistress and assortment of other characters like the ‘Whingeing’ Jack Smillett, ‘Sick’ Alf and Roly’s annoying elderly doctor. We hear of his hilarious attempts with his old mates to scatter the ashes of his best mate ‘Bull’ Devine in the river at Port Adelaide, Roly’s futile effort to placate the ghost of the late Dot Mathieson and how he copes with a new courtship to his closest friend Milton’s crime-writing sister, Margaret.

The Letters are ironic, humorous and deeply touching. This is Australian story telling at its finest from Bryan Dawe, one of Australia’s most acclaimed satirists.