Traces of a Life Second Edition Revised & Updated

Brad Drew was born and raised during the early post-war years in Brisbane, Queensland. A secondary school education at Brisbane State High School was, in its turn, followed by the gaining of a Bachelor Degree in Architecture at the University of Queensland. Tentative forays into amateur theatre during those years led into a relatively-short-lived marriage, followed in its turn by more thespian skirmishes and eventual departure to London during the swinging seventies, where...
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Brad Drew was born and raised during the early post-war years in Brisbane, Queensland. A secondary school education at Brisbane State High School was, in its turn, followed by the gaining of a Bachelor Degree in Architecture at the University of Queensland. Tentative forays into amateur theatre during those years led into a relatively-short-lived marriage, followed in its turn by more thespian skirmishes and eventual departure to London during the swinging seventies, where architecture and theatre fought it out with the former finally emerging as victor in the annals of history. Somewhere along the way, poetry happened - as often does in many a life ? and London herself brought also, a different love, in the form of fine-printmaking at the Sir John Cass School of Art in Whitechapel - a study which increased from one to three evenings each week and finally, Saturday afternoons ? all the result of a chance encounter with a friend. So passed three years of architecture spent on the Barbican Arts Centre with evenings pursuing etching and screen-printing. Ii time, came reluctantly, time to return home, leaving behind a great city which would forever resonate in the background, as true home. Life takes over and other paths were followed. London was never regained but held its heartfelt place as the path eventually led onwards and upwards to the Blackall Range and a new Elysium of poetry, art and music ? as close as one might come to paradise in a sunburnt country. Five years have passed since the first edition of 'Traces' ? many new poems have made their way into the light of day and a few old pieces re-discovered; new drawings executed and some re-evaluation of the whole work, leading to this revised and updated second edition.