Wool Away, Boy!

Book excerpt: A firsthand account of the shearing sheds of the 1950s and 1960s. The son of a shearer, Alan Blunt spent his teenage years in the woolsheds. As his father labored, Alan would imagine himself opening the batting for Australia or boxing for the world middleweight championship, only to be startled out of his daydream with a cry of: "Wool away, boy. Wake up " In this colorful memoir Alan chronicles all the larger-than-life personalities he met: the misfits, romantics, larrikins, and psychopaths. From the cooks who ruled the sheds--those solitary, often crazy men who could make or break a team's stay--to the gun shearers and maverick managers. With an irrepressible wit, he captures the voices of the men he worked with and brings to life a golden era of shearing.