‘We just knew him as Slim … we didn’t know he escaped from Boggo Rd prison’

Brisbane author and journalist Trent Dalton talks about his new book, Boy Swallows Universe, and the startling discovery that inspired his writing.

Trent Dalton goes back to Darra, the source of inspiration for his new book. IMAGE:AAP/Steve Pohlner

Trent Dalton always knew he had a novel inside of him but he just needed a deadline to get him started on it.

“I’ve always really wanted to write about a Brisbane you don’t hear about much,’’ says the award-winning journalist who started his career 18 years ago with Brisbane News before moving on to the Courier-Mail and his current role at The Australian Magazine.

“Ever since I was a child I wanted to explore the city and get amongst it. It was part of the reason I became a journalist and a reporter.’’

Author Trent Dalton. IMAGE: AAP/Steve Pohlner

Trent was researching a story when he found “the springboard’’ for his debut novel Boy Swallows Universe, set in Brisbane in 1983.

By chance he came across stories about Arthur Halliday (1910-1987), nicknamed the Houdini of Boggo Road prison for his escape attempts from the 1940s.

Trent was shocked to realise the ex-criminal was the same “sweet and kind old man’’ who was a family friend when Trent was a child.

“We just knew him as Slim, he was like a father figure to us and he often came around to our house and did odd jobs,’’ Trent says.

“We didn’t know he was Arthur Halliday and was well known for escaping from Boggo Rd.’’

In Boy Swallows Universe Trent draws on his own child-self for the curious, bright and narrative-loving Eli, while melding his three older brothers into Eli’s beloved and protective elder sibling, August.

Boy Swallow Universe by Trent Dalton

With Eli and August’s mum in jail, the wily and wise ex-con Slim often acts as their babysitter especially when their stepfather, a small-time drug dealer, is tormented by legendary Brisbane drug-dealer Tytus Broz.

Eli grows up determined to be a journalist and to expose corruption, and falls in love with photographer Caitlyn Spies.

“I realised with the novel I had questions I wanted answered about my own memories,’’ he says.

“Every character from the book has come from something I’ve seen or a person I’ve interviewed or met along the way of my life in Brisbane.”

Trent not only started his writing career on January 10, 2000, at Brisbane News — he also met his future wife Fiona, then a journalist on the magazine and now a media advisor for Arts Queensland.

They have two daughters, aged nine and 11.

Trent, who mainly grew up in Bracken Ridge, has always been interested in the darker and colourful side of Brisbane.

“When I was small I was silent for a long time, people probably thought I had mental development problems, but then when I was eight or nine years old I came out of my shell and became interested in stories.”

Meet Trent Dalton at a Boy Swallows Universe author talk, Carindale Library, Carindale, July 5, 6pm, free.