The Secret of Success is a Secret:
and other wise words from Sean Condon

Hardie Grant. August 2005. Collected humor.

A collection of columns and collected wisdom. A very funny book, but a failure nonetheless. Despite the fact that the book wouldn’t exist without Good Weekend, in which much of the material had been first published, the magazine did not give it so much as a mention (and boy, do I regret thanking current editrix Judith Whelan in the acknowledgements; she took six weeks to reply to my half dozen emails asking if she might run something – anything – in GW about or from the book, only to say she ‘couldn’t work out how to’). Even more vexingly, because the book was perceived by newspaper editors as a ‘Fairfax’ thing, no rival News Limited papers reviewed it; consequently it received just two reviews in this country – one good one in The Age, and one very bad one in the Sydney Morning Herald. Australia’s media, I salute you!

“An authentically hilarious writer – and, it has to be said,
a genuine smart-arse – this collection of thoughts and
faux narratives works seamlessly.” ~ The Age

“The columns I read [were] very very funny,
especially the one about Willem Dafoe.” ~ David Sedaris

+ buy it here