Peter Fitzpatrick

Mayo Street is Peter Fitzpatrick’s third novel. Its predecessors, Death in the Back Pocket (with Barbara Wenzel) and Promontory, set respectively in an AFL football club and on a bushwalk in the 1920s, are similarly crime-novels-with-a- twist; all three share a keen eye for the complexities – and the humour – of
human behaviour. Peter’s writing spans a number of genres: in feature film, his credits include screenplays for Hotel Sorrento (for which he won an AFI Award) and Brilliant Lies; as a biographer, he has published two dual biographies, Pioneer Players: the lives of Louis and Hilda Esson, and The Two Frank Thrings (for which he won the National Biography Award in 2013); and in musical theatre, three of
his shows have been professionally staged – flowerchildren: the Mamas and Papas Story, Life’s a Circus and CrossXroads (both with composer Anthony Costanzo). Another musical, Castro’s Children (for which Peter has written book and lyrics in collaboration with composer Simon Stone) will have its
premiere in 2024.

In a previous life, Peter taught English and Drama at Monash University, where he was Foundation Head and Professor of Performing Arts. He directed some thirty productions during that period, at Monash and beyond, and published three books and many articles in the field of twentieth-century Australian theatre.

Peter lives in Melbourne (and sometimes in Port Douglas) with his wife, Gabrielle Baldwin.