Cassie McCullough

And on the ABC Book Club Facebook group, one listener, Margaret Maguire, said, does anyone else love Malcolm Knox's writing?

I think he's a brilliant writer and can't resist him, even though the characters are horrible people.

And she went on to describe him as one of the hidden geniuses of Australian fiction.

And this house that overlooks Bluebird Beach is not simply a house.

It has become a sort of default clubhouse for old Bluebird.

for the men who Johan described, who are still surfing every day, who look out to sea, who know each other, who've known each other since they were kids.

And so there's Gordon and Kelly and their son Ben,

there's a god daughter or an oh my god daughter as she's referred to called lou who's staying there as well and all these other characters who come in and out who expect to be fed who want to get a coffee who stop and get changed there and so as much as it's a house it's also an institution but we not only meet them in the house we meet them in the car park overlooking the beach

sussing out the waves.

And as they congregate, these characters have names like Snake and Chook and Redcap, Fiery Sam, Japan Ned.

Yes, we're going to have to be very careful whenever we refer to him that we get his name right.

I think we do know what you mean, Cassie, and we're going to have to be careful that we don't slip up in our references.

But, Johan, what do you make of these characters and their names?

but if we turn to to gordon the central figure of this book i mean he wants to he wants to stay connected to the surf but it's very specific it's bluebird beach and it's this particular part of the coast that means so much to him he loves the place he loves the building he never wants to leave and it's described by knox as a living museum to the milestones of his adolescence

And he goes on to say, old blue birders generally looked at each other with a fundamental aesthetic forgiveness.

Having known each other all their lives, they still saw the youthful beauty, the prime of life, buried under the wrinkles and sun damage and double chins.

So Gordon wants to stay where he is.

He was a print journalist.

His marriage has fallen apart.

So what else, what's keeping him there, do you think, Cassie?