R.I.P Robert G. Barrett

Them books were great,every one of them,I must say the first
5 books were the best,I'll read'em again & again,my brother has
Read all his books many times over,great character was Les.
RIP Robert Barrett,,Legend.

 

Glad to see there's some other Robert G Barrett fans here.

I've read all his books (except for the Tesla one) and the Les Norton series multiple times. The series was brilliant especially early on but they were all were worth a look and provided laughs.

Les was a ripper but Price,Billy Dunne, George Brennon and Eddie Salita were all great characters as well and for fictional characters and rogues they were all strangely likable and felt like old mates.

I was chatting to my brother about this the other day and I'd love to see a battling young writer with some talent and no literary pretensions take over from Bob and keep the Les Norton story going. It probably wont happen but there's plenty of legs on a timeless character like Les and just because Barrett's gone there's no need for Les to die as well.

I reckon Robert G Barrett would've loved for Les to keep on punching.

 

Great books, my uncle grew up in Sydney and reckons most of the characters weren't all that fictional.

 

These books were made for the likes of you lot

Dumbed down pap, designed for blokes who struggle to read menus

Blokes who strangely believe that they are a part of the story & the characters are real & they're romantic rogues just like Les, Eddie etc

Lets face it, they were getting stupider & stupider

 

You've just described a whole genre. Fiction. Well done.

Might want to tell that to the bird who wrote Harry Potter. What was she thinking putting the reader right in the drivers seat, pretending that wizards are just like real people. It'll never take off.

 

She wrote for young inquisitive minds, unfortunately Bob wrote for drunken dead**** boxing fans with a predisposition for violence & bad grammar who'd probably only read letters to the editor in their dads penthouse

They had a smameness that was gratifying to the audiesnce he sought, they didnt have to drift too far from the first book to the last, they became a tavelogue for the north & central coast of NSW, you could have probably got a few tips on where to eat & drink i suppose if you payed attention

 

True.

People often think I’m Les Norton. I’m not, although I’d certainly like to be. Les Norton is based on these QLD blokes I met in the meatworks at Ross River with this dry, outback sense of humour. And a gangster in Sydney called Richard Gabriel (Dick) Riley. He was the original, hard man and the best streetfighter in Sydney. He ran Kings Cross with Perce Galea, who I based Price Galese on. George Brennan and Eddie Salita are based on dealers who worked at the casinos. Billy Dunn based on a champion fighter of that time. ****** Edwards is based on a bloke I shared a house with in Bondi Junction who worked in advertising. Grungle is based on a dog called Pete. Although I’m not Les Norton, some of the stories in my books did happen to me and a lot of the places and characters are real. Like the farm in The Godson and the restaurant in Between The Devlin and The Deep Blue Seas and Hank, the ratty American in And De Fun Don’t Done, and Mick the Aussie cop in Mele Kalikimaka Mr. Walker.

It resonates with the target audience. Fiction.

 

They resonate with an audience that has either never read a book other than a Les Norton or blokes who left school at twelve & take three months to read "wouldnt be dead for quids", i mean ffs, i read it in about two hours, thank **** i didnt have to buy it

 

Correct again.

 

A large percentage of Bob's readers were female actually and seeing as his books often contained an enviromental/green element I doubt that his books were aimed squarely at knuckle headed wife beaters like you're suggesting.

The fact his books stuck to a formula is irrelevent. Any series of novels featuring the same principal character does exactly that as well. Read anything from Ian Fleming, George Macdonald Fraser, Bernard Cornwell, Mickey Spillane etc and you'll see that the reason their series of novels succeeded was because they didn't stray too far from same basic premise that made them popular to begin with.

And so what if Barrett's book were a trifle simplistic and far fetched? It was fiction and the main reason you read it is for escapism not for some deeper hidden meaning or to challenge yourself. I'd much rather spend an afternoon reading about Les getting a root and beating up some thugs than trying to decipher Finnegan's Wake or one of William Burroughs piles of wank.

 

Sorry mate I tried to add a photo but I don't know how to do it.
There is a post on my mates FB where I commented that my grade 6 teacher confiscated "You wouldn't be dead for quids" and I thought it was fair enough because there was a girl with a dick and one ball.
I was 11. It took me six weeks.

 

you were prob just pissed off les pulled women and u only pull your **** u fkwit head up wide anus forum troll

 

A Les Norton movie would be a blockbuster - done right would beat Crocodile Dundees success by the proverbial country mile . Casting the actor who would play Les Norton would be the biggest problem .

 

psssssttt...the books are fiction :good