Eighty percent of men who reach the age of 80 have prostate cancer. But the disease prevents many more from ever reaching that age. Mike Riddell was diagnosed with the disease when he was 64 and he died from it five years later. His story of those years, told in a wry, blokish way, is packed full of hilarious encounters with the medical world and a total lack of self-pity. Full of determination to grab every day, he lived the rest of his life to the full, adamant that he would suck the marrow out of that proverbial lemon.
His pithy observations about life in general and the disease itself are an engaging account of navigating prostate cancer, complemented with brilliantly drawn cartoons. The title of the book comes from the mother of a close family friend who, despite raising eight children, referred to intimate bodily issues as ‘wonky ponk down under’.
Mike Riddell was a prolific writer of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, screenplays and plays. Born and bred in New Zealand, he was, in addition to his work as a writer, a lecturer in theology at New Zealand’s southernmost university, a regular columnist for Third Way magazine, a filmmaker, an environmentalist, and a mentor to others in many ways.
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