UP CLOSE WITH ADMIRABLE PETER BURLEIGH AND ASSORTED SEADOGS

  

Captured  here  on  Magnetic  Island , looking through a  rare  bound in volume  of  the  l969 Melbourne   magazine Broadside , edited by the late  Pete  Steedman,  is  talented  wordsmith and  illustrator, Peter   Burleigh. 

Burleigh contributed  much  to  Broadside . Later  on , after many  adventures overseas , some almost death defying with  Steedman ,  he   wrote  the  rollicking  Bulldust  Diary  for  Little  Darwin .

This illustrated  gem  was composed  as  he  drove  about  Australia  ,  listening  to  dashboard Talking  Books  tapes , including  sailing  aboard  His  Majesty’s ship Surprise in 1815, fighting  the  perfidious Bonaparte.

A great fan of  maritime  yarns  , once owning a yacht  in France,  he wrote that  Pat Mickey O’Brien  had written  20 of them (including Master & Commander) about a Captain and his friend Stephen, a surgeon-spy. Brilliant. The best books about the English Navy  I’ve never read – or  listened  to, he stated .

One of the   great  drawings   he produced  for  Little Darwin  while  engaged   in  long  running   naval  battles  in  the  Aussie outback  was  the   fabulous   one   we  rerun  below   because  of   its  sheer   brilliance.    

(Burleigh, Steedman, Napoleon .)