Australian Encounters

Book excerpt: What happened when Bob Hawke locked horns with Frank Sinatra, when Errol Flynn interviewed Fidel Castro, and when Norman Gunston joined Frank Zappa on stage? Australian Encounters is a one - of - a - kind book, written by Shane Maloney and illustrated by Chris Grosz. With abundant humour, it tells of 50 true encounters - public or private, ill - fated or fortuitous - between a renowned Australian and an international mover and shaker. Featuring politicians, socialites, film stars, artists, entrepreneurs and sporting legends, these portraits capture their subjects in a single, fleeting moment, when paths crossed and personalities collided. Subjects include Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, Donald Bradman and Boris Karloff, Margaret Fulton and Elizabeth David, Michael Hutchence and Kylie Minogue, Nana Mouskouri and Frank Hardy, Martina Navratilova, Winston Churchill, Gandhi, Brian Burke, Henry Kissinger, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Menzies, Helena Rubinstein, and many more. These lively encounters appear regularly in the Monthly and are presented here as a collection for the first time.