Chalk and Cheese: A Fabrication by Ross Fitzgerald and Ian McFadyen,
From Griffith University Media
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2 July 2025
Interview with prolific author and historian Ross Fitzgerald on hilarious new book Chalk and Cheese
Chalk and Cheese: A Fabrication by Ross Fitzgerald and Ian McFadyen, a compelling novel fromHybrid Publishers, features two feisty octogenarian ex-radio stars, Bill and Ben, as theynavigate rivalry and reconciliation in a nursing home.
With humor and heart, this tale explores aging, and unlikely alliances. Their tech-savvy grandchildren, Carl and Lily, help them launch …
Switching from a failed vape and tobacco policy to a successful oneby ROSS FITZGERALD
Australia’s health policy in relation to vapes is in disarray. Yet this deeply flawed approach is currently supported by all state, federal and territory governments.
Vaping nicotine was developed in 2003 by a Chinese chemist Hon Lik – a heavy smoker who was desperate to find an effective way to quit smoking after his father died from lung cancer.Vaping was marketed in 2007 and within a few years it became increasingly popular, especially in America and the United …
Michael Briody‘Two Peas in a Podcast.’Chalk and Cheese: A Fabricationby Ross Fitzgerald & Ian McFadyenHybrid, 2 025, 262 pages,$24.99
Ross Fitzgerald and Ian McFadyen’s powerful new novel, Chalk and Cheese: A Fabrication (Hybrid, Melbourne, $24.99), features two octogenarian former rival radio stars, Bill and Ben, who detest each other—until they find themselves in the same nursing home.The plot centres around these two men in the twilight of their lives who refuse, as Dylan Thomas wrote, to “go gentle into that good night”. The novel sets the scene for the flood of …
The first review of Chalk and Cheese: A Fabrication
Michael Briody‘Two Peas in a Podcast.’Chalk and Cheese: A Fabricationby Ross Fitzgerald & Ian McFadyenHybrid, 2 025, 262 pages,$24.99Ross Fitzgerald and Ian McFadyen’s powerful new novel, Chalk and Cheese: A Fabrication (Hybrid, Melbourne, $24.99), features two octogenarian former rival radio stars, Bill and Ben, who detest each other—until they find themselves in the same nursing home.The plot centres around these two men in the twilight of their lives who refuse, as Dylan Thomas wrote, to “go gentle into that good night”. The …
Chalk and Cheese: A Fabrication, by Ross Fitzgerald and Ian McFadyen, Hybrid Publishers,$24.99,
Do you worry about how the elderly are treated in nursing homes?
Chalk and Cheese: A Fabrication, by Ross Fitzgerald and Ian McFadyenCategories: Fiction, Released Soon. Product ID: 8193
“Chalk and Cheese is a work of brilliantly cinematic quality.”–Nigel Marsh, Smart, Stupid & Sixty
Ross Fitzgerald and Ian McFadyen’s powerful new fiction, Chalk and Cheese, is a tale of two 80-year-old former radio stars, Bill and Ben, who hate each other, but who end up in the same nursing home.Even though …
Letter To The EditorWinning decisionIt would be a wise and potentially vote-winning choice for the State ALP to change tack and, instead of supporting the building of a hugely expensive Aussie Rules Stadium in Hobart, to redevelop the existing stadium in Launceston.This would not only deliver a long hoped for AFL team for Tasmanians but at the same time protect Hobart-heritage-values and the state’s financial condition.As a lifetime Collingwood supporter I do understand that “football isn’t a matter of life or death. It’s much more important than that!”But this has …
Last week on Canberra Radio 2CC, Emeritus Professor of History and Politics at Griffith University, Ross Fitzgerald predicted that in the federal election the Liberals, headed by Peter Dutton, would receive the lowest percentage primary vote in history.
And that, as a result, the ALP would govern in its own right.
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Misfit: The Unravelling of Samantha XAmanda GoffEcho 2025, 272 pages, $34.99ROSS FITZGERALDAmanda Goff’s Misfit is an emotionally raw, utterly honest, and at times very funny book. Although this is her third memoir, it is the first written and published under her own name. It opens with Goff physically and metaphorically laid bare, describing her visceral pain: “If I peel my whole body, will I discover who I am?”
While devouring Misfit, I kept thinking of another remarkable woman, Marilyn Monroe, who starred in my favourite movie, The Misfits. Released in 1961 …
Senate candidate Fiona Patten most resembles the independent senator for the ACT David Pocock, and the feisty senator for Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie.”
Former Canberran and self-styled ‘Strumpet of Patriots’ Fiona Patten is in a political comeback fight for a Victorian Senate seat against the might of Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots’ candidate and, strangely, Mark Zuckerberg, writes ROSS FITZGERALD
As the Australian voter’s penchant for independents and minor parties continues to grow, the Senate is becoming a very colourful chamber.
Accoding to Prof Ross Fitzgerald, In the federal election, there will be a …
PROFESSOR ROSS FITZGERALD
Peter Sainsbury response ” Tobacco, not alcohol causes most harm in Australia ” (Pearls & Irritations, April 15) makes some valid claims.
But as far as harms are concerned, it is important to understand that, unlike tobacco, consuming alcohol often causes extreme violence and dangerous social disturbance in many drinkers .
Professor Ross Fitzgerald, Redfern, NSW
April 16, 2025
Tobacco, not alcohol, causes most harm in Australia
April 15, 2025
Ross Fitzgerald correctly asserts that alcohol is a significant sources of illness, trauma, premature death and social distress for users and people close to …
Alcoholics Anonymous in Australia is celebrating its 80th anniversary with a national convention in Sydney this month.
ROSS FITZGERALD, who has been sober for 55 years, looks at the organisation’s history.
Australia was the first country outside North America to hold AA meetings. The first such meeting was on March 1, 1945, in Sydney.
The founder of Alcoholics Anonymous in Australia in 1945 was my friend Dr Sylvester Minogue, who was the medical superintendent of Rydalmere Hospital in Sydney.
Dr Minogue was an alcoholic, who from time to time had to be incarcerated in …
