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 …

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 Muddle-Headed Wombat Abroad

Matthew WhiteQuadrant, June 2024 pp 81-84

Is there any point in being a satirist in the postmodern world, especially in present-day liberal democracies? How can one create a sense of just ridicule of social and political conduct when the daily newsfeed promises to produce examples that are more absurd than the satirist’s imagination, leaving even his or her best work the loser in a sinister game of psychic one-upmanship?

Who can better as satire the Prime Minister refusing to comment on his telephonic argument with Father Frank Brennan about …

Launch of The Ascent of Everest : The Outrageous Adventures of Grafton Everest by Ross Fitzgerald & Ian McFadyen.(Hybrid Publishers, Melbourne, $49.99)

The Olsen Gallery Woollahra, Sydney 6pm May 9, 2024.

Tuesday morning, when I was stumbling around Surry Hills, a middle-aged woman asked: “Are you Professor Fitzgerald, author of the Grafton books?”

After I responded “Yes”, she said , “You look much better on the television!”

When, as many people do, she then inquired, “Is Grafton you?”, I responded : “Of course not. He’s what I could become if I let myself go!”

But …

He comes from a place that resembles Queensland and now Professor Ross Fitzgerald’s shambolic academic and former politician Grafton Everest is back in a new satirical novel and you will never guess what he’s up to now..
Author Ross Fitzgerald’s shambolic fictional character Grafton Everest back in a new novel and this time around he’s the boss of the world.
Grafton Everest is the shambolic former Australian independent senator recently elevated to become the first Australian Secretary-General of the United Nations. You didn’t hear about this?
Well then, you need to read about …

Here’s the first review of Pandemonium. “This is the best Grafton Everest satire yet.” – Ken Spillman
 

Pandemonium 
By Ross Fitzgerald and Ian McFadyen 
Hybrid Publishers: Melbourne, $32.99 
 
Review by Ken Spillman 
 

The late Barry Humphries knew a thing or two about creating memorable characters. It’s notable, then, that the front cover of Ross Fitzgerald and Ian McFadyen’s latest collaboration, Pandemonium, quotes Humphries’ view that ‘Grafton Everest is a wonderful creation’. 
 
And so he is. In this latest satire, the world-weary Grafton’s escapades stem from his baffling appointment as Australia’s first Secretary-General of the United Nations. …

GRAFTON EVEREST MEETS THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAYThe Lowest Depths by Ross Fitzgerald & Ian McFadyenHybrid Publishers, Melbourne 2021RRP: $24.99 (pb)Reviewed by Alan GregoryGraham Green’s term “An Entertainment”, probably best sums up this beautifully produced book.The Lowest Depths is a very good read, with equal elements of a socio-politico farce and of a spy thriller, plus a touch of sci-fi!As with its predecessor, The Dizzying Heights, this book featuring Dr Professor Grafton Everest is written by two Melbourne High School old boys – Ross Fitzgerald and Ian McFadyen. Ross Fitzgerald AM is …

Professor Ross Fitzgerald’s speech at the launch of My Last Drink: 32 Stories of Recovering Alcoholics,$29.95, published by Connor Court in Brisbane. My Last Drink is also available from Amazon and Booktopia.
The Olsen Gallery, Woollahra, Sydney, 6pm Tuesday 21 February 2023.
It’s very good to be here tonight, Tim. Indeed, at my age it’s very good to be anywhere!
My Last Drink: 32 Stories of Recovering Alcoholics is edited by me and my long-term buddy, Neal Price, who is with us from Tasmania. We are 53 and 39 years sober respectively. Our third speaker is Gail …

Ross Fitzgerald & Neal Price, MY LAST DRINK : 32 stories of Recovering Alcoholics, (Connor Court,$29.95)
One of our regular contributors, Ross Fitzgerald, is recovering nicely from open-heart surgery. Having spent several weeks in hospital, he’s now at home, and he appreciates all your good wishes. He isn’t slowing down on the book front, having recently completed the editing, with Neal Price, of ‘My Last Drink : 32 stories of Recovering Alcoholics’ (Connor Court, $29.95, available now). As the blurb notes, the notion of “last drinks” long ago entered the Australian …

The Sydney Morning Herald & The Age
FICTION PICK OF THE WEEK
The Lowest DepthsRoss Fitzgerald & Ian McFadyen, Hybrid, $24.99

reviewed by Cameron Woodhead
Riffing off The Lower Depths – the Maxim Gorky play about being down and out in Russia – the latest Grafton Everest novel sees our mock-hero on assignment in Moscow.
This time, Grafton’s breathless incompetence is required by the United Nations. His mission? To expose electoral fraud in Russia. He does have an ulterior motive – he’s found a decades-old letter from his mother to someone in the Soviet Union, suggesting that …

A riotous work of comedy – full of twists and turns that would put an Olympic gymnast to shame
The eighth book in the Grafton Everest series is back in the hands of the prolific and visionary author Ross Fitzgerald, teamed up again with comic genius Ian McFadyen, and sees the hapless ex-President of the Republic of Australia, Dr Professor Grafton Everest, caught up in a web of international espionage and intrigue that he is hopelessly ill-equipped to handle.
Abandoned to his own inadequate devices when his wife Janet departs on a world …