mr White T-Shirt Man
It’s 1978 and life is falling into place for Harry Barnes.
Tall, blonde and handsome, he works as a junior bank clerk in a remote Australian mining town. He has great mates, a beautiful girlfriend and drives a classic 1968 Holden Monaro GTS. Weekends are spent camping and dirt bike riding through the dusty bush, or cruising the town’s main street with windows down and the latest hits blaring. But then, one day, everything is thrown into turmoil.
An extraordinary event brings him fortune, but it also fractures his friendships and sends his romantic life into a spin. Now, Harry is torn by his secrets, which threaten to shatter his perfect world.
Mr White T-Shirt Man is an intriguing coming-of-age mystery, set in the freewheeling 1970s against a great red‑earth horizon.
If only Harry could remember what he did in the summer of 1978 …
Read the reviews
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Sterling Mitchell
Mr White T-Shirt Man is a heartfelt coming of age story set in 1970s rural Australia, following Harry Barnes as he navigates friendship, love, and the sudden certainty of the future, all while haunted by the mysterious four month gap in his memory. With warmth, humour, and nostalgia, Barraclough brings the town of Rasp and its characters to life, capturing the bittersweet tension between holding on to the present and moving forward. It’s an introspective, emotionally honest read that lingers long after the final page.
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Bryan Werner
The author introduces the many disparate characters that inhabit Harry’s suddenly complicated life, and captures the vast scale, distance, danger and remoteness of life in the Australian outback. Memories and emotions came flooding back as I was very happily transported to the carefree, passionate and simpler times of 1970s teenage life. This was an intriguing read that I thoroughly enjoyed and found very hard to put down, with twists and turns that kept me guessing until the end.
About Gary
Gary Barraclough grew up in far-west New South Wales in the 1960s and 1970s.
Today, he is a retired businessman whose wife Rosemary is constantly telling him to ‘Let go of the 70s!’ Still, Gary persists in listening to 70s rock classics on repeat while tinkering in his shed with his 1973 HQ Monaro GTS.
Thirty years ago, Gary was diagnosed with life threatening cancer. He grabbed life by the horns and hasn’t let go since. Gary has twice trekked to Mount Everest base camp, and together with Rosemary, has explored some of Australia’s most remote places.
Gary and Rosemary now live in Dubbo, in central NSW, in the same street as two of their three children. Gary’s cancer is still in remission. Intrepid travel is second only in importance to visits with their newly arrived first grandchild.
