AustLit logo

AustLit

image of person or book cover 7610774832659017566.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon Holding the Man single work   autobiography  
Issue Details: First known date: 1995... 1995 Holding the Man
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The mid-seventies - and satin baggies and chunky platforms reigned supreme. Jethro Tull did battle with glam-rock for the airwaves. At an all-boys Catholic school in Melbourne Timothy Conigrave fell wildly and sweetly in love with the captain of the football team. So began a relationship that was to last for fifteen years, a love affair that weathered disapproval, separation and, ultimately, death. Holding the Man recreates that relationship. With honesty and insight it explore the highs and lows of any partnership: the intimacy, constraints, temptations. And the strength of heart both men had to find when they tested positive to HIV.' (Publisher's blurb)

Adaptations

y separately published work icon Holding the Man Tommy Murphy , 2006 London : Nick Hern Books , 2010 Z1232414 2006 single work drama
form y separately published work icon Holding the Man Tommy Murphy , ( dir. Neil Armfield ) Australia : Goalpost Pictures , 2015 7793845 2015 single work film/TV

'In the 1970s, a young Australian boy, Timothy, finds himself confused. He falls for the captain of the football team. What follows shows all aspects of a relationship, regardless of gender or sexual preference. Conflict, temptation, and a huge burden which will affect every aspect of their lives.' (Production summary: IMDB)

Notes

  • Epigraph: Life is nothing if not change. - my friend Laura

Affiliation Notes

  • Writing Disability in Australia:

    Type of disability HIV/AIDS.
    Type of character Primary.
    Point of view First person (autobiographical).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Ringwood, Ringwood - Croydon - Kilsyth area, Melbourne - East, Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 1998 .
      image of person or book cover 7610774832659017566.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 286p.
      Note/s:
      • On t.p. verso: Copyright Nick Enright, 1995
      • 'The publishers acknowledge the editorial contribution of Nick Enright.' - frontmatter
      ISBN: 9780140257847
    • Camberwell, Camberwell - Kew area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 2009 .
      image of person or book cover 2584391986499785005.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 300p.
      Note/s:
      • Publication date: 29 June 2009.
      ISBN: 9780143202820
      Series: y separately published work icon Popular Penguins Penguin (publisher), Camberwell : Penguin , 2008- Z1605341 2008 series - publisher novel essay short story
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Other Formats

  • Also sound recording.
  • Also e-book.
Find library holdings on Trove

Related Works

Smoke Screen Timothy Conigrave , 1997 extract autobiography (Holding the Man)
— Appears in: The Oxford Book of Australian Schooldays 1997; (p. 318-321)
Untitled Timothy Conigrave , 2002 extract autobiography (Holding the Man)
— Appears in: The Penguin Book of Gay Australian Writing 2002; (p. 340-357)
y separately published work icon Strangers in Between [and] Holding the Man : Two Plays Tommy Murphy , Sydney : Currency Press , 2006 Z1331184 2006 selected work drama
y separately published work icon Holding the Man Tommy Murphy , 2006 London : Nick Hern Books , 2010 Z1232414 2006 single work drama
VIEW ALL RELATED WORKS (4)

Works about this Work

What I’m Reading Nigel Featherstone , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2018;
Their Time in Memorial : Nickolas Bird and Eleanor Sharpe's Remembering the Man Laurence Barber , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: Metro Magazine , Winter vol. 189 no. 2016; (p. 110-115)

Released mere months after the premiere of Holding the Man – the lauded film adaptation of Timothy Conigrave's memoir of the same name – Remembering the Man offers new insights into Conigrave's relationship with John Caleo through interviews and archival footage. Beyond being a mere companion piece, the documentary provides a more compelling account by chronicling the wider world surrounding the couple's romance, writes Laurence Barber.
form y separately published work icon Remembering the Man Eleanor Sharpe , Nick Bird , ( dir. Nick Bird et. al. )agent 2015 9234059 2015 single work film/TV

'At an exclusive Catholic boys school in Melbourne 1976, Tim Conigrave and John Caleo fell madly in love. Their passionate, tempestuous, operatic romance lasted for 16 years, facing disapproval, temptation, separation, and the looming shadow of the Grim Reaper. Their relationship has been immortalised in Conigrave's posthumous autobiography Holding the Man (now a major Australian film directed by Neil Armfield). This is the true story of how Romeo met Romeo and how first love can not only last but endure.' (Source: Screen Australia website)
Shelf Life : Holding the Man Angus Dalton , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: Good Reading , October 2015; (p. 16-17)
Sam Holding Aussie Book Antimo Iannella , Anna Vlach , Matt Gilbertson , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 8 May 2015; (p. 30)
Holding the Man : Tragedy and the Literature of AIDS Alan Sandison , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: 'Unemployed at Last!' : Essays on Australian Literature to 2002 for Julian Croft 2002; (p. 187-209) The object of this article is 'to examine the possibility of a revival of tragedy manifested in a certain sector of contemporary writing': books that are the product fo the AIDS epidemic. After a general introductory section on tragedy and humanism, it extensively discusses Conigrave's autobiography Holding the Man (1995) under the aspect of the concept of tragedy.
Aids, Fragile Love and Dying Steve Dow , 2003 single work column
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 28 September 2003; (p. 10)
Pieces of a Life, in Their Hands Bryce Hallett , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 30 October 2006; (p. 14)
Playwright Hears Voice from the Past Lauren Williams , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Quarterly : Sydney PEN Centre , November no. 126 2006; (p. 12)
Australian HIV/AIDS Life Writing Geoff Allshorn , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Out Here : Gay and Lesbian Perspectives VI 2011; (p. 104-119) 'In Australia, AIDS life documents encompass a variety of forms and narrative styles,including quilt panels, interviews, articles by people living with HIV and AIDS, diaries, photographs and documentary film - as well as art, music and fiction. this study will only document and analyse a fraction of these materials, focusing on public writings. the texts examined here are mainly 'traditional' book-length life narratives, supplemented by one documentary film and two diaries. Other materials, including collections of interviews and shorter biographical works on people with HIV/AIDS, have not been excluded except when they directly contribute to the discourse as part of an emerging pattern during the last decade.' (From author's introduction p.105)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (11)

Awards

VIEW ALL AWARDS (2)
Last amended 26 Mar 2018 12:26:57
Subjects:
Settings:
  • Melbourne, Victoria,
  • Sydney, New South Wales,
  • ca. 1975-1995
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X