In 1984, celebrated painter Colin McCahon went missing for 24 hours in Sydney. On the way to a major exhibition opening, McCahon went in one door of the Botanical Garden toilets and slipped out the other side. He was discovered by police the next day in Centennial Park, far across Sydney, with no identification and no memory of who he was or where he had been. By all accounts McCahon was never quite the same from this night until his death three years later. In this work of creative non-fiction, Martin Edmond illuminates the life and work of Colin McCahon and his own relationship with the art and the man, by taking readers on an imagined (and real) journey as he traces a possible McCahon route across Edmond's adopted city. Wandering through pubs and flop houses, streets and churches, Edmond explores key issues for both author and subject - the attractions of the bottle, the role of faith and religion, the illuminating power of the imagination, the hold of family relationships.

About the Author

Born in Ohakune, New Zealand, in 1952, Martin Edmond is a writer of nonfiction, biography, poetry and screenplays including the Montana Award winning Chronicle of the Unsung. For Auckland University Press most recently, Edmond has written Waimarino County (2007), which was shortlisted for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, and Zone of the Marvellous: On the Idea of the Antipodes (2009) for which Edmond won the Copyright Licensing Ltd Writers Award and which is now in a second printing. When not writing, Edmond drives a taxi in Sydney, Australia.