Simon & Schuster Australia, a major force in today’s publishing industry, is taking a book written by one of our own golfers to a global audience.
“The Boy from Long Gully” is Wilson McOrist’s latest book, the second for the Coffs Club golfer. It is a follow-on story from his 2015 release of his acclaimed book “Shackleton’s Heroes” which has been released in the UK, the USA and throughout Australia and New Zealand.
“The Boy from Long Gully” is a true story. It is a compelling narrative of how Richard Richards, a young man from the small rural town of Long Gully in central Victoria, takes on a momentous role with the famed explorer Ernest Shackleton in the early 1900s.
Tim Jarvis, the British-Australian environmental explorer and adventurer, has written the Foreword to the book and he states: “Wilson’s book brings to life a little-known survival story, from 100 years ago. It is an unrelenting tale that embodies the will-to-live of Douglas Mawson, the heroics of Ernest Shackleton and the tragedy of Captain Robert Scott.”
The gem of the idea for Wilson to write this book come about during a discussion with Phillip Adams in a 2016 interview on Radio National about Wilson’s first book “Shackleton’s Heroes”. Phillip told Wilson that he had wanted to produce a film on Shackleton, but Wilson saw an opportunity for a film revolving around this young Australian in the Antarctic, the boy from Long Gully. First, a book had to be written from which a film scrip could be written, hence “The Boy from Long Gully” book.
All Wilson has to do now is find a Russell Crowe somewhere to create a classic film based on the book.
The book is available on-line from Big Sky publishing:
https://www.bigskypublishing.com.au/books/the-boy-from-long-gully/ and from bookshops when they open up.