Boy On Fire

The first volume of the long-awaited, near-mythical biography of Nick Cave, by award-winning writer, Mark Mordue.

A beautiful, profound, profane and poetic biography of the early formative years of the dark prince of Australian rock 'n' roll, Boy on Fire is Nick Cave's creation story. This is the story of the artist first as a boy, then as a young man. A deeply insightful work which charts his family, friends, influences, milieu and, most of all, his music, it reveals how Nick Cave shaped himself into the extraordinary artist he would become.

As well as a powerfully compelling biography of a singular, uncompromising artist, Boy on Fire is also a fascinating social and cultural biography, a vivid and evocative rendering of a time and place, from the fast-running dark river and ghost gums of Wangaratta, to the nascent punk scene which hit staid 1970s Melbourne like an atom bomb, right through to the torn wallpaper, sticky carpet and the manic, wild energy of nights at the Crystal Ballroom.

Boy on Fire is a stunning biographical achievement..

About the Author

Mark Mordue is an Australian writer, journalist and editor. He is a co-winner of the 2014 Peter Blazey Fellowship, which recognises an outstanding manuscript in the fields of biography, autobiography or life writing, and also the author of Dastgah: Diary of a Headtrip (Allen & Unwin, 2001), which was shortlisted for the 2002 Qantas/City of Brisbane Asia-Pacific Travel Writing Prize. His work has been published in Interview, Madison, Speak, The Nation and Salon, as well as Rolling Stone, Vogue, GQ, The Australian, and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Mark was the winner of a 1992 Human Rights Media Award and the 2010 Pascall Prize for Critical Writing. From 1992 to 1997, he was the founding editor of Australia's leading pop culture magazine, Australian Style. His poetry, fiction, essays and memoir work have appeared in literary journals such as HEAT, Meanjin, Griffith Review and Overland in Australia.