Max Griffiths has worked in a variety of employment ranging from an inner city factory to the extreme isolation of outback Australia. He is a graduate of Melbourne University in Commerce, Arts and Divinity and in 1978 was awarded an MBE for services to the outback. In recent times he has been a consultant in medical ethics at a major Melbourne hospital and with the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator in Canberra.

Introduction; When Death Comes Too Soon; The Agonies of Adolescence; Moving into Manhood; Worldy Over Otherworldly: The Making of a Minister; Short-Term Appointments; Leaving Home; When Death is Never Far Away; A New Country, A New Life; Divorce; Labour's Love Lost; Suicide; The Art of Saying Goodbye; Darwin L: The City That Won't Say Goodbye; Losing the Lucidity of Language; The Broken Hearts Club; When the Wheels Fall Off; Recommended Reading; Index.