Archie Weller - the author

Archie Weller's first novel, The Day of the Dog, was written and submitted to the inaugural Australian/Vogel award within a period of six weeks in a spirit of anger after his release from Broome jail for what he regarded as a wrongful conviction. The book was highly commended by the judges and won the fiction award in the literature section of the prestigious Western Australia Week Art Awards.

Weller was 23 when he wrote The Day of the Dog and a number of his short stories had already been published. Some of those earlier published stories are included in this collection, together with more recent unpublished works. His style is characteristic and definite. Staccato conversational sections reveal characters or tell the story, supported by scenes of sudden violence which yield just as suddenly to lyrical passages. His sympathies are plainly with the underdogs of the world. Although his stories are disturbing, they are not depressing, for, as Nancy Keesing said of the novel, he 'tells his tale stylishly and with compassion, striking imagery and humour'. - Book cover review

Archie Weller has an impressive understanding of the anguish and realities of his characters… what is impressive… is the clarity and cool observing power of Archie Weller's writing. - Thomas Shapcott, Courier Mail 1981

About the author:

Archie Weller was brought up on a farm in the south-east of Western Australia. His early years were isolated until his parents divorced when he was twelve and he went with his mother to live in East Perth - in those days a semi-slum district inhabited by migrants, Aborigines and poor whites. He attended one of Western Australia's exclusive boarding schools on a scholarship, but says he always felt 'disadvantaged' because of the relevant poverty in which he and his mother lived. His real friends became the 'street kids' and petty criminals with whom he associated during school holidays and who are so finely pictured in his stories.

An observer and a wanderer, he has earned a living at such diverse occupations as dishwasher in the UK and Europe, printer's assistant in Perth, wharfie in Broome, hospital orderly in Derby, writer in residence at the ANU in Canberra, through occasional broadcasts and lecturers, and through publication of his stories.