 Book Reviews
with Robin Osborne
Inside Out
By Robert Adamson
Text $45.00
 The autobiography of Sydney born poet Robert Adamson was bound to be extraordinary, but its impact will not result from the author's musings on life with the likes of fellow poet Michael Dransfield or the late artist, Brett Whiteley, nor from his drug taking tales or admiration for early Bob Dylan.
More noteworthy are his harrowing accounts of a decade in boys' homes and prisons where the dreadful conditions and abuse can scarcely be credited. For those on the wrong side of the law, the 1950s were seemingly akin to the early days of penal settlement.
Born dyslexic, Adamson grew up in a working class family in Neutral Bay, less posh than today, and witnessed his father's drinking bouts and the verbal assaults directed at his mother.
He was gifted with his hands, sharing his skilled grandfathers' love of fishing and life on the Hawkesbury River. He developed a fondness for birds, constructing pigeon coops in his parents' backyard.
'They loved the home I built for them and even seemed to know me - they came when I called them. I often kept squeakers (baby pigeons) I'd stolen from nests high in the gutters of blocks of flats and two-storey houses....'
He dreamed of becoming an ornithologist, an ambition fostered by receiving a birthday present of the classic book What Bird is That? with an illustration of the magnificent riflebird (Ptilorus magnificus).
'Its neck feathers were shimmering turquoise edged by what looked like a rope of pearls, and its breastplate might have been beaten copper... I wanted to find out more.'
To do this he staged a midnight raid at Taronga Park Zoo, initially failing to abduct a riflebird, then returning next night to bag his prey and remove it to his aviary.
He confessed to police and was lucky to get off with a bond. Soon, after car theft and other transgressions, he was arrested again and despatched to Mount Penang Training School for Boys, a place of harsh, military style discipline. He would encounter many of its inmates later when serving time in adult institutions.
Adamson's prison recollections make harrowing reading, especially the accounts of sexual assault and brutality, his circumstances alleviated only when he acquired books, then writing materials and a love for literature and contemporary poetry.
These opened doors to the world he inhabits today, from where he has penned a tale too fantastic to be invented, recording the dark side - and many of the highlights - of mid-late 20th century Australian life.
- Thanks to Book Warehouse, Keen Street, Lismore for supporting this column.
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