Graeme Aitken
Author of 50 Ways of Saying Fabulous
About the Author
Image credit: Greame Aitken (from the Author's Home Page)
Series
Works by Graeme Aitken
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1963
- Gender
- male
- Occupations
- writer
bookshop manager - Short biography
- Graeme Aitken is best known for his two popular bestselling novels '50 Ways of Saying Fabulous' and 'Vanity Fierce', published by Random House Australia and by Hodder Headline in the UK. '50 Ways of Saying Fabulous' was adapted into a feature film in New Zealand and was an official selection for the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival. It also became a popular hit on the queer film festival circuit. Most recently, Graeme has been working as an indie author, writing and self-publishing his own e-books, most notably 'The Indignities' series, a sequel to 'Vanity Fierce'.
In addition to his work as an author, Graeme has also worked as the manager of Sydney's specialist LGBT bookshop for the past 23 years. There are now only a handful of these shops left in the world. With all this experience he is an Australian authority on LGBT books/writing and he edited 'The Penguin Book of Gay Australian Writing' back in 2002. Graeme is also extremely knowledgeable about publishing (he has experience with all facets - mainstream, small press, and indie self-publishing) and the current state of the publishing/bookselling industry.
Graeme was born and raised on a remote farm in Central Otago, New Zealand, but has made his home in Sydney, Australia. He has lived and worked there for the past 25 years. - Nationality
- New Zealand
- Birthplace
- Central Otago, New Zealand
- Places of residence
- Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Associated Place (for map)
- New Zealand
Members
Reviews
Sweet, fat, theatrical Billy-Boy was never cut out to be a farmer, but as his father’s only son he’s obliged to try. The cows are wayward and the chores are gruelling, but Billy finds escape in a fantasy world. A place where the turnip paddock becomes a lunar landscape, a lavender bed jacket a slinky space suit, a cow’s tail a head of beautiful blonde hair, and where Billy can become Judy Robinson, heroine of TV’s 'Lost in Space'.
But in an isolated conservative farming community in show more 1970s New Zealand, not everyone approves of Billy’s transformation. On the brink of adolescence, Billy is beginning to discover that growing up is far more complicated and confusing than he could ever have imagined. While the mysteries of sex confound him, emotions are unleashed which urge Billy to betray those closest to him.
'50 Ways of Saying Fabulous' is a poignant and endearingly comic novel. Anyone who grew up in a small town, grew up feeling that they didn’t fit in, or simply grew up will find this book funny, touching and unforgettably evocative of childhood lost.
Praise for '50 Ways of Saying Fabulous':
'I loved this funny sad tale of growing up a sissy in New Zealand. Graeme Aitken proves that even the most extraordinary events can occur to wonderfully ordinary people. If I knew fifty ways of saying fabulous, I’d use them all to praise this charming first novel.’ EDMUND WHITE
'Thoroughly engaging.' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
'A funny but also achingly sad first novel'. OBSERVER
'A sort of gay Adrian Mole ... There are laughs aplenty but also moments of agony ... Told with bare faced honesty, it is a warm, cruel, funny tale.' THE SUNDAY AGE
'Touching and sad, '50 Ways of Saying Fabulous' also has some very funny moments.' THE TIMES
'An entertainment, a gentle, poignant story of a fat boy who fantasises romance and glamour without yet having a name for what he is ... Aitken writes with a distinctive voice, one that is wonderfully evocative.' DENNIS ALTMAN, THE AGE
'... an important work ... What Aitken has demonstrated fabulously is his skill in the art of telling a good story ... his honesty and fearlessness in confronting those squirmy adolescent secrets is to be admired.' CANBERRA TIMES show less
But in an isolated conservative farming community in show more 1970s New Zealand, not everyone approves of Billy’s transformation. On the brink of adolescence, Billy is beginning to discover that growing up is far more complicated and confusing than he could ever have imagined. While the mysteries of sex confound him, emotions are unleashed which urge Billy to betray those closest to him.
'50 Ways of Saying Fabulous' is a poignant and endearingly comic novel. Anyone who grew up in a small town, grew up feeling that they didn’t fit in, or simply grew up will find this book funny, touching and unforgettably evocative of childhood lost.
Praise for '50 Ways of Saying Fabulous':
'I loved this funny sad tale of growing up a sissy in New Zealand. Graeme Aitken proves that even the most extraordinary events can occur to wonderfully ordinary people. If I knew fifty ways of saying fabulous, I’d use them all to praise this charming first novel.’ EDMUND WHITE
'Thoroughly engaging.' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
'A funny but also achingly sad first novel'. OBSERVER
'A sort of gay Adrian Mole ... There are laughs aplenty but also moments of agony ... Told with bare faced honesty, it is a warm, cruel, funny tale.' THE SUNDAY AGE
'Touching and sad, '50 Ways of Saying Fabulous' also has some very funny moments.' THE TIMES
'An entertainment, a gentle, poignant story of a fat boy who fantasises romance and glamour without yet having a name for what he is ... Aitken writes with a distinctive voice, one that is wonderfully evocative.' DENNIS ALTMAN, THE AGE
'... an important work ... What Aitken has demonstrated fabulously is his skill in the art of telling a good story ... his honesty and fearlessness in confronting those squirmy adolescent secrets is to be admired.' CANBERRA TIMES show less
With the title literary reference, I was expecting for Vanity Fierce to be a metaphor on how beauty is not all in life… but indeed I have the feeling that Stephen, the golden boy whose life is the center of the novel, didn’t catch the moral theme of his story, and I’m pretty sure he is still convinced that being the more beautiful of the batch is the ultimate solution. The fact is that, he is so sure of his persuasion that the reader admittedly has to agree with him, and while he is show more probably the most unlikable character you can find in a novel, you cannot avoid to like him.
The son of a mediocre actress and a mediocre lawyer, Stephen didn’t have much trouble in being the beau of the ball while he was in high school, and he managed pretty well in maneuvering all people around him to his own dance. When he goes to college, Stephen decides that he is in love with his neighbor Ant, a young man who was already badly hurt by another golden boy and that is weary to be burnt again. While Ant is searching Kip, his ex, in all the blond hair-blue eyes boy of Sidney gay neighborhood, he seems to relegate Stephen to the role of best friend (with no benefits). Instead of being discouraged, or maybe honored that Ant values him so much, Stephen does everything he can to conquer Ant, arriving even to steal Ant’s new love interest, Carson, only to dump him soon after he finds out Carson is HIV positive.
What is funny is that Stephen is always able to find a right justification for all his actions, managing to find the right even in the worst wrong situation. But probably the reason why the reader cannot hate Stephen is that there is no malice in him, everything Stephen does is for love (or at least what he thinks love is) and there is no interest in him, if not wanting for everyone to love him, or better to adore him, like he is some gay god sent to earth to “enlighten” all the gay boys. Stephen can probably have everyone, he even manages to catch the perfect boyfriend, handsome, young, well-off, but he is not Ant, he is not his love, and so, nothing matter. While I’m not sure we are doing good for Ant, I ended cheering for Stephen in his quest of catching his love.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0091837162/?tag=elimyrevandra-20 show less
The son of a mediocre actress and a mediocre lawyer, Stephen didn’t have much trouble in being the beau of the ball while he was in high school, and he managed pretty well in maneuvering all people around him to his own dance. When he goes to college, Stephen decides that he is in love with his neighbor Ant, a young man who was already badly hurt by another golden boy and that is weary to be burnt again. While Ant is searching Kip, his ex, in all the blond hair-blue eyes boy of Sidney gay neighborhood, he seems to relegate Stephen to the role of best friend (with no benefits). Instead of being discouraged, or maybe honored that Ant values him so much, Stephen does everything he can to conquer Ant, arriving even to steal Ant’s new love interest, Carson, only to dump him soon after he finds out Carson is HIV positive.
What is funny is that Stephen is always able to find a right justification for all his actions, managing to find the right even in the worst wrong situation. But probably the reason why the reader cannot hate Stephen is that there is no malice in him, everything Stephen does is for love (or at least what he thinks love is) and there is no interest in him, if not wanting for everyone to love him, or better to adore him, like he is some gay god sent to earth to “enlighten” all the gay boys. Stephen can probably have everyone, he even manages to catch the perfect boyfriend, handsome, young, well-off, but he is not Ant, he is not his love, and so, nothing matter. While I’m not sure we are doing good for Ant, I ended cheering for Stephen in his quest of catching his love.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0091837162/?tag=elimyrevandra-20 show less
Wow. I really struggled to get through this one. The main character is extremely difficult to relate to and has no redeeming qualities. Everything about him was frustrating, and I honestly didn't understand the overall point of telling his story. I finished it because I don't like giving up on a book, but I struggle to understand exactly who would find this book appealing.
Without doubt Top Mark is a story with a twist, so unexpected that it turned almost in a thriller from the sweet romance the author was lulling us at first.
The story of stylish Mark who meets new-hippy Mark, 6 years of difference and a whole world of experience between them, they become the Marks, Top Mark and Marx; but Marx is like a bloodsucker, eating Top Mark’s life. Does he realize it? I don’t think so, the old Marx seems really smitten by Top Mark, I liked him. Not so much now, show more reliving their story from Top Mark’s perspective, reading how he is basically mistreating a man in love, not giving him neither the decency of a farewell.
This is not a happily ever after romance, but it’s for sure good literature.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0085BEJZS/?tag=elimyrevandra-20 show less
The story of stylish Mark who meets new-hippy Mark, 6 years of difference and a whole world of experience between them, they become the Marks, Top Mark and Marx; but Marx is like a bloodsucker, eating Top Mark’s life. Does he realize it? I don’t think so, the old Marx seems really smitten by Top Mark, I liked him. Not so much now, show more reliving their story from Top Mark’s perspective, reading how he is basically mistreating a man in love, not giving him neither the decency of a farewell.
This is not a happily ever after romance, but it’s for sure good literature.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0085BEJZS/?tag=elimyrevandra-20 show less
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- Works
- 9
- Members
- 283
- Popularity
- #82,294
- Rating
- 3.3
- Reviews
- 11
- ISBNs
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