Sunny Garden

Nick Earls hasn't looked back since he put down his stethoscope and picked up a pen to become one of Australia's best selling authors. His latest novel, Perfect Skin, has secured his place at the top of the book-pile but as Rebecca Sparrow found out, there's more to this Literary Seinfeld than stories about Thai food and Tim Tams. For one thing he has a soft spot for the set of 'Good Morning India'...

ATTEMPTING TO INTERVIEW Nick Earls, the Irish born, Australian raised author of the best-sellers Zigzag Street, Bachelor Kisses and Headgames is no easy task. The GP turned writer seems to deliberately divert any conversation about his achievements preferring instead to dodge the spotlight and shoot the breeze on any number of alternative, obscure topics: his fondness for kitsch souvenir pens with moving parts ('they have the dual workplace uses of being a writing implement and a way of checking that your desk is level', he insists); his efforts to paint his new back deck coupled with his desire for more credibility in hardware stores and the role that weetbix can play in a good carbonara sauce. (After some discussion, we both agree that frankly there is no role for breakfast cereal in Italian cooking, and Earls - who is unduly proud of the fact that he invented the recipe - contends that he cooks with not much style but a lot of movement and purpose.)

Earls' marked lack of celebrity pretension (and delicious sense of humour) makes it easy to forget who you're talking with ... the man described as Australia's brightest literary star.

Dressed in a grey Mooks shirt and black jeans, 36 year old Earls projects a laid-back likeability and university student-style, dishevelled charm. Just like his novels, which can be described as literary anti-depressants, face to face Earls' dry sense of humour has a habit of sneaking up on its victims ...and before you know it you are laughing out loud at his anecdotes (or ridiculous cooking techniques) and encouraging curious glances from passers by. But perhaps this is only appropriate considering Earls' first adult novel, the smash-hit Zigzag Street, (a tale of Thai food, Tim Tams, getting dumped and knocking someone unconscious with footwear) was itself described by critics as a 'laugh out loud' book when it was released in 1996.

His follow-up novel the critically acclaimed Bachelor Kisses (the story of a medical lothario who is looking for love in all the wrong places ... nurses quarters to be precise) won him national and international recognition and has gone through nine or 10 reprints to keep up with demand. And critics predict that the just released Perfect Skin (the tale of a single thirty-something man and his six month old baby, a soggy cat and a girl with 80s hair) will secure Earls' position as this country's literary Boy Wonder.

The son of a doctor mother and management consultant father, Earls says that his mother's enthralling bed-time tales, prompted his initial foray into story-telling. As a four year old Earls captivated fellow pre-schoolers with weekly adventures of what happened when a bird called Tommy got flushed down the toilet ...

'My mother had a bedtime story formula called 'The Witches Flats,' Earls laughs fondly. 'So it was only natural that my first stories about Tommy (in the land of Poo) would follow a formula as well! It was years later that I realised that my mother might have made medicine and story-telling seem like a natural combination to me ... well, her and Dr Seuss of course.'

Bird lovers can breathe easy. Earls moved on from Tommy's toilet-hopping adventures and went on to write his first novel-length story by 14 and had a book of poetry published while at university. Yet, despite his obvious talents and his desire to be a writer, Earls went on to follow in his mother's footsteps ... to be a doctor.

Graduating with honours from the University of Queensland, Earls practised as a GP for several years before deciding that writing books not medical scripts was where his future lay.

He hasn't looked back since.

His first book Passion (a compilation of short stories) was runner-up for the prestigious Steele Rudd Award, Zigzag Street earned him the UK's Betty Trask Award, he has been the subject of an Archibald Prize portrait, has written stage plays one of which has been performed in London's West End, has two novels for young adults that are currently part of the secondary school curriculum, was asked to write (and then perform) spoken lyrics for a hip-hop CD (which he got to perform at Livid) and this year the author is watching Zigzag Street being turned into a movie by Australia's most prominent cinematic duo Nadia Tass and David Parker.

Not bad for someone who has only been writing full time for five years.

But perhaps the biggest indicator of Earls success as a writer is that his books are as popular overseas as they are here in Australia. His sharp, witty style of observational humour in reality cradles down to earth stories about the most basic of human conditions (getting dumped, trying to get a date, embarrassing yourself at the pub and accidentally stepping on somebody's pet, to name a few) and not surprisingly they have struck a chord with twenty-something and thirty-something readers around the globe. From India to Indianapolis, Paris to Perth, Earls is hot literary property.

Considering his international appeal (it is not unusual for Earls to receive daily emails from fans in Germany, India, Papua New Guinea or Britain), you can't help but wonder if Earls believes that writers need to travel in order to gain proper insight into human nature. Or can a writer stay in their own little patch of the world and still write something that appeals equally to a 26 year old Melbourne university student as it does to a 26 year old South African office worker?

'I now think this more than I ever did. I write about people, and there's a lot about people that's universal. When I toured India with the show based on my book Headgames, I had plenty of people coming up to me telling me they had - like one of the characters - embarrassed themselves seriously with a coloured drink at some stage of their late adolescence. But stories happen in a place, so you should try to get the place right too.

With the popularity of the internet on the rise, does Earls worry that television, film and the internet will eventually kill off the need for books?

'I love film and I love TV, but the novel's got something special going for it ... it's place is too distinct. TV didn't kill film and the internet won't kill the novel. People will go to a novel when they want a narrative experience that is selfish and intense and personal. When they don't want all the pictures given to them, but they want a whole big story to explore, when they want to devote hours or more to working their way into characters and a journey they're on.'

With this in mind, you can't help but wonder if Earls thinks that books more than film can fuel someone's curiosity about what's outside their own backyard.

'Books are a different experience,' he says thoughtfully. 'You put the pictures together in your head and I think if that's working for you it can take you deeper into a place.'

When it comes to going outside his own backyard, Earls has to leave little to his imagination, there are few countries he hasn't visited. In accordance with his international popularity the author, who has been married to his wife Sarah for nine years, can spend up to half the year on the road. He is a big drawcard for both national and international writer's festivals and public speaking engagements and then there's the world-wide promotional tours and the annual meetings with producers and casting agents who have been known to squabble over securing film rights to his books. So for someone who seems to have his bags permanently packed, does he have any travel tips to share?

'One thing I do is have a toilet bag permanently packed for travelling with duplicates of everything I use at home .... For jetlag I recommend melatonin but the timing has to be right and you also have to think your way into the time zone of your destination (shut down, relax, don't fight it and don't get stressed if you don't get an unbroken sleep). And drink water and go easy on the free alcohol. There are some ancient records set by Australian cricket teams that should be left unbroken.'

Earls fondness for his hometown of Brisbane is obvious when you meet him and he lists Queensland's Sunshine Coast as one of his favourite holiday spots. On an international scale the places that Earls chooses as his favourites couldn't be more contrasting ... the Big Apple and a small Alpine village in Europe.

'New York's Central Park in spring is a favourite because you can sit there eating cheap bagels and watching mediocre baseball after having put in a few hours at one of the world's great galleries... and my other favourite place is the village of Triesenberg in Lichtenstein, because goat bells wake you in the morning and you look out your window and suddenly realise you are perched on the side of an Alp and can see three countries.'

Yet when it comes to Earls' most unusual travel experience it becomes evident that it's not just humour that is universal ... so to are the sets of morning television shows around the world ...

'When I toured India last year, doing Good Morning India was weird,' he laughs. 'I'd arrived in the country the afternoon before, got woken up before dawn and taken to what looked like an empty shopping mall. They led me up two flights of stairs and onto a set that looked just like our 'Today Show' set (the terracotta things on the wall, the bulging sets of reference books no-one ever refers to) ... it was all too surreal. I think we even crossed to a mildly zany weather guy after the news.'

Speaking to Nick Earls in person you can understand why he is so popular. Earls seems deliberately anti-celebrity and instead enthuses about his readers saying 'From the feedback I get, it seems like my readers are a lot like me, they share my view of the world!' His formidable talent aside, Earls offers a refreshing sincerity and humour rarely seen by authors of his status. One Australian book critic, captivated by Earls' writing, even went so far as to say that there would be no party worth having, if Nick Earls wasn't invited.

And that sounds about right .... just don't let him in your kitchen.

Nick's Novel Life is © Bec Sparrow and is used with permission.

Disclaimer:
Sunny Garden is designed, written and maintained by Liz Perkins, in cooperation with Nick Earls, Penguin Books and Random House Australia. Any questions about Sunny Garden should be directed to Liz

All original contents are © Liz Perkins.