Adam Courtenay: My Father Bryce

Next date: Saturday, 08 August 2026 | 02:00 PM to 04:00 PM

The Friends of Kiama Library invite you to a talk with Adam Courtenay about his moving and unforgettable memoir, My Father Bryce.

Bryce Courtenay was one of Australia's highest-selling and most-loved authors as well as a larger-than-life character. From his first book, The Power of One, he captivated readers. With his third, the non-fiction title April Fool's Day, he captured their hearts. Many of his fans would have thought they knew him, and they did - they knew the version of him that he wanted to present to the world.

Bryce's son Adam also knew that version. And he knew the Bryce the rest of the world only glimpsed, or never saw at all. His father was a natural-born storyteller and occasional fabulist whose tales never quite felt true. He was a man who forever publicly grieved the loss of his son Damon, the subject of April Fool's Day, but who seemed reluctant to connect with his remaining two sons.

Dynamic, complex, driven: Bryce Courtenay was all of these as well as one of Australia's most beloved authors. To his son Adam, he was larger than life, mercurial, and impossible to know completely. In this bittersweet, heartfelt memoir, Adam searches for the real Bryce.

Adam Courtenay is a Sydney-based writer and journalist. He has had a long career in the UK and Australia, writing for papers such as the Financial Times, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Financial Review and the UK Sunday Times. He is the son of Australia's best-loved storyteller Bryce Courtenay and the author of several Australian histories, includingThe Ship that Never Was, Three Sheets to the Wind and Mr Todd's Marvel.

$8 Friends members / $10 guests (includes afternoon tea). Everyone welcome.

Books available for purchase and signing.

Tickets are available online, at the library, or call 02 4233 1133.

Reviews

'A truly revelatory biography, unflinching and unsentimental, which shows how Bryce became a man who wouldn't let truth ruin a good story' - THE GUARDIAN

'Moving and unforgettable. You've never seen Bryce as he is here' - WOMAN'S DAY

'A voyage around his father, a portrait of a self-made man, it is full of love, scepticism and frustration' - THE AGE

'Both charming and heartbreaking . . . My Father Bryce has a bittersweet humour, it is truthful, heartfelt and ultimately forgiving' - THE AUSTRALIAN