Francis Birtles - Australian Adventurer written by Warren Brown

[warren brown]

Thanks Howard and Rich. (Not to mention Jan and Richard!)It's funny - everyone asks whether Beeb Birtles (from Little River Band) is related and the answer is - probably! I interviewed Francis Birtles young niece Muriel Tait (aged around 96) and his whippersnapper nephew Calvert Birtles (who's about 86) - neither of whom knew each other btw - and learned that the Birtles clan is flung far and wide. Muriel's probably the only living person who actually remembers interacting with Frank Birtles - he'd pretty much burned his bridges with all his siblings, but her mother seemed to be the only one who tolerated him. Francis was one of nine kids -and even though he had no kids of his own - there were plenty of nieces and nephews who had been ingrained with the awareness he was a bit of a rogue and it filtered down through the generations. Last week I was interviewed on ABC News 24 - the producer who rang me to confirm beforehand's name was Bill Birtles! He'd always been of the understanding he was related, but apparently a recent family tree suggests he's not. Lots of Birtles relatives turned up at the book launch and surprisingly quite a few of them had no idea of the others' existence. It was great fun.