My friend, the historian and author Ross Fitzgerald, has written a series of novels about a character who lets himself go regularly.

Grafton Everest is an academic who is somewhat akin to Sir Les Patterson. He stars in a string of fictional adventures, the latest of which was entitled Going Out Backwards, written by Ross in collaboration with the comedian Ian McFadyen.

Some people have noted vague similarities between the author and his creation but there is a big difference between the two. Ross says Grafton Everest is what he would be like if he let himself go. That’s a neat trick, letting oneself go vicariously through fiction.

Unfortunately, the number of people who have let themselves go in reality is swelling and all too real. I run into some of them when I go to the supermarket, folk who really should have looked in the mirror before they went outside. Although I really can’t talk considering the state I was in on my holidays – wandering around in public unshaven, in an unwashed T-shirt, muttering under my breath when I couldn’t find things.

Phil Brown, The Brisbane News, 10 October, 2017, p 8.