Richard Beckett

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Richard Beckett (1936 - 1987) was an Australian author and journalist.

Beckett was a founding staffer (Assistant Editor) of Nation Review, an irreverent and ground-breaking Sunday newspaper, nick-named 'The Ferret', launched in 1970 by Gordon Barton. Beckett was its irascible and entertaining food columnist for eight years, using the pseudonym Sam Orr. He wrote several books on food and wine, alternative life-style, and Australian history. Richard Beckett died at his home at Molong, New South Wales, in 1987.

[edit] Bibliography

  • See Ferretabilia: the life and times of Nation Review by Richard Walsh (St. Lucia: UQP, 1993 ISBN 0702224502) for more about Nation Review and—inter alia— Beckett himself.

A partial and sketchy Bibliography, obtained from the National Library of Australia catalogue:

  • Gourmet's garden (1975), Sam Orr
  • Commonsense gardening guide (1976), Richard Beckett
  • Guide to Australian gemstones (1976), Richard Beckett and Oliver Chalmers
  • What wine is that? the unique Australian wine guide by label identification (1977)
  • Sydney restaurant guide (1977), Sam Orr
  • Walks around Sydney (1978), Richard Beckett
  • Guide to Australian wine (1978), Richard Beckett
  • Sydney restaurant guide (1979), Sam Orr
  • Richard Beckett alias Sam Orr talks about food (1979), illustrated by Robert Pearce
  • Bulletin book of Australian wineries (1979), Richard Beckett & Donald Hogg
  • Hungry eye, Sydney restaurant guide (1980), Sam Orr; cartoons by Patrick Cook
  • Surviving in the eighties (1980), Michael Boddy and Richard Beckett; illustrated by Janet Dawson Boddy
  • Roll on brave new bloody world (1980), text by Sam Orr; cartoons by Michael Leunig
    • The introduction to this book explains the origin of Sam Orr; many of its articles are mildly autobiographical.
  • Hangman – The Life and Times of Alexander Green, Public Executioner to the Colony of New South Wales, Ray Beckett and Richard Beckett, Thomas Nelson Australia, Melbourne, 1980 ISBN 0-17-005261-3
  • Home grown: survive the recession from your own backyard (1983), Richard Beckett; illustrations by Dianne Bradley
  • Convicted tastes: food in Australia, (1984) Richard Beckett
  • Complete guide to Australian food, (1984), Sam Orr; with cover illustrations by Michael Leunig
  • Dinkum Aussie dictionary (1986), by Crooked Mick of the Speewa; illustrated by Brendan Akhurst ISBN 0 86777 154 2
  • Country grown (1987), Richard Beckett; illustrations by Richard Gray
  • Dinkum Queensland dictionary (1988), Crooked Mick of the Speewa; illustrated by Brendan Akhurst
  • Axemen, stand by your logs! (1988), Richard Beckett
  • New dinkum Aussie dictionary (2000), Crooked Mick of the Speewa, illustrated by Brendan Akhurst ISBN 9781864366457
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