Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
Mr Blank - Dean Manning

Mr Blank

By: Dean Manning

Paperback | 1 March 2025

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $32.95

$28.75

13%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $7.19 with

In Stock and Ships in 1-2 business days

In 2017, artist and musician, Dean Manning, returned from his new home in Greece to visit family in Sydney. While on a morning walk in the rain, he noticed a green suitcase abandoned in a council clean-up. Full of newspaper clippings, photos and letters, it was a paper trail into the life of Mr David Blank, bon vivant, convicted criminal, heavy punter, hotel owner, theatre impresario, and rock'n'roll promoter. Investigating the contents became an obsession that kept Manning company through Covid lockdowns and being on tour. Women had written to Mr Blank from all over the world, and the photos were a testament to their beauty. He was a charismatic man much loved and much forgiven, and his story, brought to life by Manning from the fragments inside the suitcase, is a superbly idiosyncratic window onto mid-twentieth century Sydney; its glamour and hedonism, and the hard edges underpinning them.

About the Author

Dean Manning is an award-winning musician and visual artist. After completing a Bachelor of Visual Arts degree with honours at Newcastle University he joined Mojo Advertising as a copywriter. He left to form his first pop group Leonardo's Bride, achieving critical acclaim and commercial success. Mushroom Music Publishing administer his catalogue of over a hundred songs including the APRA Song of the Year Even When I'm Sleeping. Manning regularly exhibits his paintings and Super 8 films and has been a finalist in the Archibald, Sulman and Moran Portrait prizes.

More in Australasian & Pacific History

Looking from the North : Australian history from the top down - Henry Reynolds
What a Ripper! : 60 everyday objects that shaped Australia - Tim Ross
Dark Emu : Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture - Bruce Pascoe
Abandoned Women : Scottish Convicts Exiled Beyond the Seas - Lucy Frost
Australian Architecture : A history - Davina Jackson

RRP $45.00

$35.75

21%
OFF
True Girt : Unauthorised History of Australia : Volume 2 - David Hunt
The Catalpa Rescue - Peter FitzSimons

RRP $36.99

$29.75

20%
OFF
Finding Australian Birds : A Field Guide to Birding Locations - Tim Dolby
Prehistoric Australasia : Visions of Evolution and Extinction - Michael Archer
Girt Nation : The Unauthorised History of Australia Volume 3 - David Hunt
Inferno : Australians on the Western Front - Phillip Bradley

RRP $36.99

$29.75

20%
OFF
The Convict and The Compass : The Untold Story of James Meehan - Peter Bradley
Newcastle : The Lives and Times of a City - Scott Bevan

RRP $39.99

$33.75

16%
OFF
PIX : The Magazine that told Australia's Story - Margot Riley

RRP $59.99

$47.75

20%
OFF