Adam Ouston

Shortlisted, ALS Gold Medal 2023 Longlisted, Miles Franklin 2023 In 1910, the famed escapologist Harry Houdini made an ill-fated attempt to become the first person to fly an aircraft over Australian soil. Yet while Houdini is remembered today for his failure, the true record-holder has been forgotten. This quirk of history becomes the focus for the obsessions of Bernard Cripp,...

'If he were to move there was the chance he might fall, perhaps this time to his death, there was no way to know, and for a long time his fear of the unknown kept him locked in place and counting; come, come, come, was it beckoning him over the precipice?' While searching for inspiration for what will be his...