THE ASCENT OF EVEREST
This year the nimble Melbourne publisher Hybrid have taken a punt and released The Ascent of Everest, a boxed set of four Australian political satires.
All these fictions centre on Dr Professor Grafton Everest, whose first academic position, in the mid-1980s, was a lecturer in Life Skills and Hospitality at the ultra leftist University of Mangoland. At the same time, Grafton Everest was also assailed by the uber-right-wing government of the odious premier of Mangoland, Sir Otis Hoogstratten.
These days, in 2025, through no wish or effort of his own, Grafton has become the first Australian Secretary-General of the hapless United Nations.
Written by Emeritus Professor of History & Politics at Griffith University, and Ian McFadyen of ‘Comedy Company’ fame, The Ascent of Everest four-pack is on sale for $49.99.
Readers may be intrigued to know that, in the latest Grafton Everest adventure, Pandemonium , Russia’s president for life Vladimir Putrid and America’s bat-shit crazy president, Ronald Thump, are both assassinated.
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Of the nine novels featuring Grafton Everest, four have been written by Ross Fitzgerald in collaboration with Ian McFadyen: Going Out Backwards, The Dizzying Heights, The Lowest Depths and Pandemonium. This unique series of four satirical novels charts the rise of the insecure and self-indulgent university lecturer – Doctor Professor Grafton Everest – from the corridors of a provincial Australian campus to the international corridors of power.
How did this hapless, work-shy, anti-hero repeatedly save his country and the world without intending to? And who were the mysterious persons that orchestrated his inexplicable rise from obscurity to world leadership? The Ascent of Everest is an epic satire that mocks, without mercy, politics, academia, media, culture and sex.
‘Pandemonium is a work of comic brilliance, a perfect consummation of the uproarious Grafton Everest series’ – Nigel Marsh, author of Smart, Stupid & Sixty
‘I reckon I laugh out loud at least once on every page, it’s bloody brilliant and hilarious!’ – Brendan Clarke, leading Australian jazz musician
Read Phil Browne’s perceptive piece in In Review: https://rb.gy/jcqmpz ‘The #MeToo predictor: How Grafton Everest is always one step ahead’
About the authors:
Ross Fitzgerald AM is Emeritus Professor of History & Politics at Griffith University. He is the author or co-author of forty-five books, including a memoir Fifty Years Sober: An Alcoholic’s Journey. He lives in Redfern, Sydney.
Ian McFadyen is a multi-award winning writer, actor and television producer who has created a number of successful television series, books and plays. He has collaborated with Ross Fitzgerald to write the previous Grafton Everest novels, Going Out Backwards, The Dizzying Heights, and The Lowest Depths. He lives in Queensland.
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