NOW AN ABC TELEVISION DRAMA STARRING DAVID WENHAM AND REBEL WILSON You Wouldn't Be Dead For Quids is a series of adventures involving Les Norton, a big red-headed country boy from Queensland who is forced to move on the big smoke when things get a little hot for him in his hometown. Working as a bouncer at an illegal casino up at the Cross, Les gets to meet some fascinating characters who make up the seamier side of one of the most exciting cities in the world-gamblers, conmen, bookies, bouncers, hookers and hitmen, who ply their respective trades from the golden sands of Bondi to the tainted gutters of King's Cross. . . usually on the wrong side of the law. As raw as a greyhound's dinner, Les is nevertheless a top bloke-fond of a drink, loves a laugh and he's handy with his fists. And, just quietly, he's a bit of a ladies man too. . . Les Norton is undoubtedly an Australian cult figure.

The five stories in The Real Thing provide an entertaining mix of laughter and excitement, as well as an insight into the underworld of Sydney—an often violent and cynical world, but also with its fair share of rough humour and memorable characters.

NOW AN ABC TELEVISION DRAMA STARRING DAVID WENHAM AND REBEL WILSON There's no two ways about Les Norton-the carrot-topped country boy who works as a bouncer at Sydney's top illegal casino. He's tough and he's mean. He's got a granite jaw, fists like hams, and they say the last time he took a tenner from his wallet Henry Lawson blinked at the light.Lethal but loyal, he's always good for a laugh. In this, the third collection of Les Norton adventures, Les gets his boss off the hook. But not without the help of the boy from Binjiwunyawunya. Les then finds himself in a spot of bother in Long Bay Gaol then in a lot more bother on a St. Kilda tram in Melbourne.

Les Norton thought they were going to be the easiest two weeks of his life. Playing minder for a young member of the Royal Family called Peregrine Normanhurst III sounded like a dead-set snack. So what if he was a millionaire Hooray Henry and his godfather was the Attorney General? Les would keep Peregrine out of trouble... So what if he was on the run for the IRA? They'd never find him in Australia... The Godson moves at breakneck speed from the corridors of power in Canberra to the grimy tenements of Belfast, to climax in a nerve-shattering, blood-spattered shoot out on a survivalist fortress in the Tweed Valley. If you thought Australia's favourite son could get up to some outrageous capers in his previous adventures, until you've read The Godson, you ain't read nothin' yet!

Les Norton’s apartment block in Randwick was proving to be nothing but trouble, full of mayhem and murder. It seemed the longer he owned it the more money he lost. But while he’s trying to solve his financial problems, Les still has time to fight hate-crazed roadies, sort out a drug deal after fighting a gang of bikies, help a feminist Balmain writer with some research she won’t forget in a hurry, and get involved with Franulka, a super-sexy leadsinger of an all-girl rock band, The Heathen Harlots. And with the help of two ex-Romanian Securitate explosive experts, he might even be able to sort out his investment. But can Les pull off the perfect crime?

Book in the Les Norton Mystery Series set in Australia.All Norton wanted was a quiet coffee and Sacher cake at the Hakoah Club in Bondi, and to be left alone to sort out his troubled love life. How he let notorious conman Kelvin kramer talk him up to Surfers Paradise for five days, Les will never know.

They don’t call him Lucky Les for nothing. A ticket in a raffle and Norton was off to the US of A where it turned out hot, red hot, and it wasn’t just the weather. Night club brawls, mafia hitmen and too many girls called Lori, all in a sea of margaritas. Even for Les Norton it was just too hot to handle. So it was off to the Caribbean, where Millwood Downie—schoolteacher, historian and would-be stand-up comic—helps Les trace his family tree and possibly uncover the biggest earn ever.

Les Norton's Hawaiian holiday should have been just like in the tourist brochures. Balmy days, blue seas, palm trees swaying in the moonlight. And it would have been if Les had have minded his own business. But what are you supposed to do when a cop you know and an old friend are in trouble? Especially at Christmas?The detective was okay. But Norton's old friend turned out to be the biggest brothel owner in America, Madam to the Stars. Through her, Les met Mitzi Moonkiss; he also met the Japanese Yakuza, lesbian geisha girls and every time he put his head out the door some boofhead US marine was looking for a fight. Somewhere in the middle a crazed serial killer was on the loose with a bayonet. Aloha, Les. . .

Mystery, set in Bondi, featuring Les Norton. Two dead bodies are found buried beneath a handball court, and Major Garrick Lewis, aka The Gecko, teams up with Norton, and becomes involved in their removal. The men are hampered by Mossad hit squads, the KGB, ASIO and loose women.

This is Les Norton at his worst and Robert G. Barrett at his best—as a columnist, feature writer and short-story teller. In this collection, as well as more great Les Norton stories, Robert G. Barrett offers his views on getting published, getting famous, getting the dole, and getting a date.

NOW AN ABC TELEVISION DRAMA STARRING DAVID WENHAM AND REBEL WILSON Norton needed a holiday-anywhere-as long as it was out of Bondi. Price was only too willing to oblige-Les could have his house at Terrigal. All he had to do was look after George Brennan's nephew for a week while he was there. Sounded okay to Norton, and it was better than spending his own money.Jimmy Rosewater was young, cool and the original brown-eyed handsome man. He loved good wine, going to restaurants, going line-dancing, and the ladies loved him. This suited Les nicely. But, Jimmy was also supposed to be in jail. Before he knows it, Norton is fighting off the usual yobbos looking for trouble, sex-crazed feral aunties and getting shot at by feral bikies. That was during the quieter moments...and all the time Les has a feeling Jimmy's up to something...

Les Norton catches the extreme water polo semi-final on TV and is amazed to see that the man behind the game is his old mate Neville Nizegy Nixon. So when Neville calls and asks Les to drive the Murrumbidgee Mud Crabs to the final, Les takes him on. But things are never as simple as they appear.

Goodoo Goodoo Robert G Barrett $14.95 0732267374 Les Norton is back! This time he's off to Far North Queensland. What should have been a quick gig on a radio station followed by a white-water rafting holiday in North Queensland becomes a four-wheel drive trip to Cooktown with Norton looking for two missing SCUBA divers. The army, the air force and half the Queensland water police couldn't find Jade Biscayne and Horden Genting. What chance does Les have? Along the way Les finds the Rainbow Princess, out chasing UFOs and predicting the future. He also finds man-eating crocodiles, heat and humidity, and everywhere he goes ratbags have it in for him. Then, in a place of indescribable beauty, Norton uncovers unimaginable terror...

A week's holiday in Shoal Bay courtesy of Price Galese? Sweet. Help Eddie Salita pop a bent copper named Fishcake Fyshbyrne while you're up there? No worries. Solve a mystery on Virgin Island with a sweet little girl named Digger? You beauty! Les Norton, the lovable larrikin from the sunshine state, is back and is heading north, with a little bit of work and a hell of a lot of play in mind. But he had better watch out for hungry sharks and local louts with no manners; and gung-ho federal police with no bloody idea! As the saying goes, he don't go looking for trouble, trouble comes looking for him.

Les figured by tossing $50,000 into the Gull's movie he'd become the next Sam Goldwyn. Only someone put a bomb on the film set. And who gets the blame? Now Norton's a fugitive from the law, desperate to prove his innocence. Satanists, drug dealers, nutty poets, blabbermouth disc jockeys - everybody between Sydney, the Blue Mountains and South Australia wants a piece of Les Norton. So what are Norton's chances of clearing his name and coming up smelling of roses? VFO. But rely on Les to come up smelling of something. The next instalment in the Les Norton adventure series.

Les Norton travels to a quiet little seaside town on the south coast of New South Wales and uncovers what seems to be some very unsavoury goings-on. Can Les solve the mystery of Mystery Bay? Or will trouble, once again, find him first?

Robert G. Barrett's latest Les Norton adventure is action, humour, and intrigue with a diabolical twist, proving once again why Barrett is called the king of Australian popular fiction. If it wasn't for a letter lost in the system for decades landing on his lap, Les would never have known he wasn't the only Norton to gain notoriety thanks to Kings Cross. There was another - even worse than him: devil - worshipping artist and occultist Rosa-Marie Norton, the Witch of Kings Cross. Rosa was so bad the police arrested her for lewd behaviour and obscenity, and the customs department burnt her paintings - paintings now worth thousands of dollars. Yet according to the lost letter, a bundle of her paintings had been secreted at an old church in Victoria. By sheer coincidence, Les is asked to help with a hit in Melbourne on a shonky art dealer named 'Latte' Lindsey. After the hit, Les decides to take a trip down the Great Ocean Road, call in to the Church of the Blessed Madonna, and see if he can finds 'mum's' painting. Along with plenty of trouble, Les finds sexy Sonia and staunch Stepha. He also finds there's a lot of deja vu getting around in Victoria. And when it comes to violence south of the border, there are no Mexican stand-offs.

All it took was a summer's day and a flat tyre on his push-bike, and Les is out on bail and on the run from a gun-happy street gang intent on a drive-by. So, with Warren's help, Les Norton defendant, becomes Len Gordon film director, safely ensconced at the ultra-swish Opal Springs Health Resort till Eddie can sort things out back in Sydney. Unfortunately, the first thing Les finds on arrival is motivational guru Alexander Holden dead at the front gate. Before he knows it, Les is up to his neck in a land of a thousand acronyms, fighting off steroid-happy body builders, sex-crazed socialites, violent greyhound owners and, worst of all, caffeine withdrawals.

Set in Bondi and the Central Coast, this is vintage Les Norton - who has been called in to help Albanian would-be filmmaker, Bodine Menjou locate a missing script. Les is giving advice to Bodine, dealing with an enraged ice addict who won't stay down, and confronting a shot gun and an exploding building. Les is quite happy resting up after the flu, when Warren has to tip him into an earn. Norton's mate from the Albanian Mafia, Bodene Menjou, is planning to make the most politically correct movie ever made in Australia, Gone With the Willy Willy, and has a script stolen. If Les can find it, a lazy $50,000 could fall in. How can Norton say no? After almost getting his head blown off in a drug lab, being attacked by crazed women with broomsticks, and beaten up by monstrous drag queens, Les is wondering if it is all worth it. The trip to Terrigal and the magical mystery tour with Marla is good. And Topaz with her chicken soup is an unexpected delight. But apart from that, Les doesn't find much joy at all in his search for the missing film script. Especially not trapped in a fight for his life with a sadistic giant, where only one thing can save the Mongolian Death Lock.

What could Les Norton possibly be doing in Nimbin, the hippie capital of Australia? And how did the little green tree-frog in Les' backyard start it all? This novel, is a cracking new tale for this Christmas, and another unputdownable adventure from Australia's popular fiction king.