Steve Brook

Steve Brook (1 August 1934 – 13 August 2014^[1]) was a British-born Australian satirical writer with a history of involvement in progressive causes, following a period as a journalist with Polish Radio in Warsaw.

Brook was born in

.

Owing to his literary and historical talents, his writing, journalism, and biographical reflection is a significant source of documentation of the

insider.

He had a Master of Arts from Monash University in Melbourne.

His account of time spent with the English language service of Polish Radio (1966-1974) is a sympathetic, but not uncritical look at Poland under

.

He was also a key member of the

. His published writing, journalism, and frequent letters to the editor are an important source of otherwise undocumented political and social history of the Melbourne Left. In addition, he wrote frequent letters to the editor to the Australian Jewish News and the Newsletter of AJDS on Israel/Palestine issues.

In all his work he expressed a deep mistrust of official propaganda whether from the Left or the Right.

In "Strawberries with Everything" he said that this was why he went to live in Warsaw, "behind the Iron Curtain", to discover for himself the degree of truth in

and its accompanying propaganda, which painted life in those parts as a kind of hell on earth.

Communist propaganda was, of course, a mirror image of this. He says the reality was a bit of both—neither devils nor angels, but real people scarred and traumatised by the most horrific war in modern history which led to their political choices in the face of crisis, including communism in preference to the perception of continuing Fascism and Nazism during the Cold War. This factor, said Brook, is almost deliberately ignored in studies of the Soviet bloc.

Bibliography

Year	Title	Publisher	ISBN
2011	Death By Teatowel	Rawprawn Publishing	9780646555089
2009	Now Hit Enter: A Cyberspace Fantasy		9780646508115
2009	For Sam : A Fantasy in Three Acts		9780646508054
2005	Strawberries With Everything : A Polish Odyssey 1966-1974		0646450042
2004	Bali Sugar : A Tale of Tropical Love, God and Politicking		064643764X
2003	McQuail: A Likely Story		064642517X
1981	Poland Under Pressure	Red Pen Publications	0909913579

References

• Brook, S. (2005). Strawberries with everything : A Polish odyssey 1966–1974. St. Kilda, Vic., Rawprawn Publishing; Bali Sugar: A Tale of Tropical Love, God and Politicking (2004); McQuail: A Likely Story (2003). More recent: Now Hit Enter! (2009), For Sam (2009), Death by Teatowel (2111).
• Mendes, P. (1993). The new left, the Jews and the Vietnam war, 1965–1972. North Caulfield, Vic., Lazare.
• Mendes, P. and G. B. Levey (2004). Jews and Australian politics. Brighton ; Portland, OR, Sussex Academic Press.
• Sparrow, J. and J. Sparrow (2001). Radical melbourne. Carlton North, Vic., Vulgar Press.
• Taft, B. (1994). Crossing the party line : Memoirs of Bernie Taft. Newham, Vic., Scribe.

External links

• Blog