In his entertaining memoir, Alan Blunt offers readers a glimpse of an era in Australia that greatly contributed to our country’s cultural identity. Alan tells of growing up in rural Queensland in the 1950s and learning his father’s sheep-shearer trade.

Alan would endure early morning wake-up calls and hear his father yell, ‘Wool away, boy!’, which conveyed the urgent need for the sheep to be shorn as quickly as possible. Alan soon proved himself, earning a good reputation among his fellow shearers. It wasn’t long before Alan was on the books of a shearer manager, and his shearing life expanded to other rural areas.

He recounts his shearing life on the road: earning good money, encountering colourful characters and establishing strong friendships. Memorable regulars included the cooks, some of whom expected to be treated like royalty. Alan’s shearing buddies and roommates included young runaways or fugitives from the law. He was a voracious reader, and his fondest memories were sharing his love of books and stories with fellow shearers and friends. This memoir captures changes to the shearing industry, the image of the hard-working Aussie, and a rural Australia of a more innocent, bygone era.