Recommended by
6.30pm 31st May 2018 Dutch Trading Company, 243 Albany Hwy, Victoria Park
Crow Books is proudly hosting an evening with Gregory Smith, author of the compelling memoir, Out of the Forest.
His father was a violent alcoholic, his mother hardly the maternal type. As children, Gregory and his four sisters
were told they were going to visit ‘Aunty Muriel’. Instead they were taken to an orphanage in Armidale, where they
remained for the next two years until reclaimed by their parents. While there, like others in care, Gregory was the
victim of physical, psychological and sexual abuse – now known as Forgotten Australians.
Gregory spent years wandering the east coast of Australia, fluctuating between employment and homelessness dealing with drug addiction, alcoholism and battle with mental health. He struggled to make human connection.
In around (circa) 1990, Gregory decided to give it all up and retreated into the forest outside of Mullumbimby, just north of Byron Bay. He lived on the fringes of society in the dense, green wilderness, foraging for food, always mindful of his impact on the environment. People in neighbouring towns knew of this mystery man, yet knew
nothing about him.
When he emerged from the forest ten years later, emaciated and close to death, Gregory decided it was time to turn his life around. The boy who left school at the age of fourteen became a man who worked to get a university admission, and ultimately earned a PhD in Sociology – Forgotten Australians was the subject of it – and today teaches at Southern Cross University.
Out of the Forest is the uplifting and touching memoir of a man who demonstrates in the most profound way that while our lives can go way off track, we can still find our way back.
Join us at The Dutch Trading Company to listen to Gregory’s amazing story!
Copies of Out of the Forest will be available for purchase and signing.
Light nibbles provided. Drinks available to purchase at the bar.
RSVP: books@crowbooks.com.au
