'Does it make him any less real? He was one of the great writers in the world.

'But, of course, Dickens was accused of exactly what you are doing, exactly what you are doing to me now,' he said. I ask if he can separate the two, his writing persona and real life. 'The only thing that's authentic about what a writer writes is his work.' 'Oh, come on, what does the term real mean?' he asks. 'Because to me it seems an absurdity, I'm a writer, there are two personas going here,' he said. I press him: 'So have you done that with your own life as opposed to just with your writing?'Ĭourtenay said he could not answer that and I asked him why not.

He was awarded the Order of Australia in 1995.

He has written 20 books in 21 years, which have sold more than 20 million copies.

His second book, April Fool's Day, is a tribute to his son who died at the age of 24 after contracting HIV/AIDS from a blood transfusion.

It has sold more than 9 million copies worldwide.

His first book, The Power of One, was published in 1989.

Studied journalism in London and worked in advertising before becoming a writer at the age of 55.

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1933.

'To make it interesting, to make it viable, to make it seem like something you understand and feel and love.' Who is Bryce Courtenay? 'My job, and that's my job, is to dress the naked truth,' he said. I ask if he has blurred the lines between fact and fiction. His response is short: 'Name me a fiction writer who doesn't.

I put to him a line from his second book, April Fool's Day, which he wrote to dispel the myths about HIV/Aids after his son Damon, a haemophiliac, died at the age of 24 after being infected by a blood transfusion.Ĭourtenay wrote 'I tell myself lies and soon I believe them'. His debut novel has gone on to sell 9 million copies worldwide. 'And that's what concerns me, not my childhood.' 'I have always tried to be honest' Loading.Ĭourtenay has mastered a style of popular fiction that has resulted in more than 20 million book sales, during a writing career that only began 21 years ago with The Power of One. 'Judge me on what I have done here and what I have said here and what I have been here and what contribution, if any, I've made whilst I've been here. 'One of the joys of having left a country where things were not always right for me and having come to a country where I've been able to give my utmost is, I want to be known for the 57 years I've been in Australia, not for the 17 years I spent in Africa,' he said. When pushed on why he will not refute outright claims that he has exaggerated some aspects of his childhood, Courtenay was less forthcoming. His doctor has given him the all-clear - for now at least. What does the term real mean? The only thing that's authentic about what a writer writes is his work.Ĭourtenay has had his own illness to contend with, after being convinced the stomach cancer he had been diagnosed with a year ago had spread.

The power of one courtenay