Anthony Sharwood: You Talkin' to Me?

By BARBARA HARRIS

This book is by Anthony Sharwood, a savvy copywriter working in Sydney who was going to flee the Games madness but then thought better of it.

"Maybe, in the true spirit of the modern Olympics, I can perhaps profit from the whole ordeal."

And when in doubt a hack turns to the BBC. Not the august broadcasting institution but the code of barmen, barbers and cabbies, that select band who the media know are always good for a quote.

Okay, so Sharwood skips the barmen and the barbers and he does a novel variation on the cabbie. Instead of talking to one, he becomes one. Six weeks before the opening ceremony he forks out $1100 and enlists in a taxi school where he must do the knowledge on the 80 sq miles (207 sq km) that make up Sydney (according to the author, a London cabbie's patch is just six sq miles).

What emerges is a raconteur who talks and writes at the speed of a racing commentator to give us a breezy, entertaining souvenir of the games behind the Games.

Allen & Unwin
$22.95