A.D. Hope

A.D. (Alec) Hope (1907-2000) was one of the most significant Australian poets of the twentieth century: satirist, scholar, master at once of erotic verse and of the discursive mode. He was the author of poems such as Australia and The Death of the Bird that, along with the works of Patrick White, Judith Wright, and Manning Clarke, scripted Australian thought for decades.

David Brooks, forty-six years his junior, first met Hope when, as a student, the ANU asked him to photograph the poet for a building they'd just named after him. A friendship formed that lasted twenty-five years, saw Brooks become Hope's editor, and eventually give the poet's eulogy.

Penetrating, surprising, and supported by an intimate knowledge both of the poetry and of the man himself, this memoir of their relationship is a must for readers of A.D. Hope and of Brooks alike.