Last month in Brisbane, my friend Greg Rogers died. A couple of days later, many of his friends-unfortunately I could not be there because, naturally, we were sitting-gathered together in Brisbane to share stories and memories about this extraordinary human being. In her sensitive and very informative obituary in the Sydney Morning Herald, Robyn Sheahan-Bright quoted Greg's literary agent, Margaret Connolly, and said:
Working with Greg felt more like play than work. His curiosity about the arts and the world, and his sense of the ridiculous, made me look forward to every conversation.
I think what Margaret wrote reflects the thoughts of many people who knew Greg.
In the statements made after we lost Greg, many people talked about his wonderful career as a book illustrator and artist-and indeed Greg was an artist. He was born in Brisbane and, as he put it himself many times, he survived Villanova College and then went on to the Queensland College of Art. He trained in graphic art. Then so much of the discussion jumped right to his wonderful career as an illustrator.
My first memories of Greg are of working with him in the then Department of Social Security in the Community Liaison Unit in Brisbane. Greg and an extraordinary bunch of people-Jeannette Trefle, Ian Barry and many others-worked together in this unit dedicated to ensuring that people in our community knew about their entitlements from and their responsibilities to Social Security. It was a challenging task and one that we enjoyed so much. I would think Greg Rogers was indeed a reluctant public servant. I do not believe that he felt he was born to work in the public service. But while he was there he brought his talent and his creativity to a team that worked together to ensure that we celebrated a much underrated issue-plain English in government correspondence. There were so many ways that that happened-in newsletters, and in the way we worked with regional offices.
I want to mention one example of that before I go on to talk about Greg's sterling career in art. We had a program to ensure that people knew about how the service operated-how you made a claim, how you worked for the system and then how your responsibilities would operate when you were working with the then Department of Social Security. Someone, and I would imagine it was Jeannette Trefle, came up with the idea of having an illustrated book-not something bound down with text but a book. After a number of discussions we came up with the idea of Spot the dog. A small puppy was illustrated working through the government system. Greg spent hours working with a beautiful puppy, a small terrier, who is now famous as Spot, and this product was then produced in Brisbane and put out through the social security network. As my friend Jeanette said, the true test of this booklet was that we did not find any in the rubbish bins. The product was used. It reflected the way a team could work together-share talent, share frustration, but come up with something that worked.
Greg finally escaped the public service and went on to work as a freelance illustrator. That was really where his heart was. From then on his talent was acknowledged. He had worked for UQ Press for a number of years with authors doing work on covers and using his distinctive style of art to get messages across. I believe he found his true skill in illustrating children's books. He said, 'Pictures are my first language.' Since his first picture book was published more than 20 years ago, he has pioneered the picture book for older readers as well as for young readers. In 1995, Greg was the first Australian winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal, which is a British award, for his wonderful illustrations of a book called Way Home, written by Libby Hathorn. When Greg won this award his picture and his story were put in The Courier-Mail. That was a magic moment for Greg-he had broken through and his talent was being acknowledged not just worldwide but in his home town of Brisbane. While he was born in Brisbane, in Coorparoo, in 1957, the youngest in a large family, I think his heart was always somewhere else-and I am pretty sure it was New York. I think if Greg could pick where his spirit lived, it would be in the US and probably the great city of New York.
After working with other artists on books, he made a distinctive breakthrough in his own career when he started his trilogy, a series of books that began with a wonderful book called The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard. This was published in 2004 and received the following accolades: one of the New York Times's 10 Best Illustrated Picture Books of 2005; an American Library Association Notable Children's Book of the Year; a 2004 Illustrators Australia award; an Australian and New Zealand Illustration Award for best book; and 2005 shortlist for the Australian Publishers Association Book Design award. That is an amazing list of accolades for this extraordinarily beautiful book. Greg, I want you to know that my nieces, for whom I bought this book and which you autographed, loved it. It was so innovative and exciting. There were no words, just a series of beautifully illustrated pictures. The children then could use their own imagination to work through this extraordinary book. Then the other ones came along.
These books-the other two are Midsummer Knight and Hero of Little Street-brought together a lot of Greg's interests. He was truly interested in all things beautiful and historical. These books showed his great love of the arts and especially his extensive knowledge of the 16th and 17th centuries. The trilogy weaved together imagination, art history, Shakespeare and general history in a way that truly captivated young readers. I think that work will continue to live on in the future.
Greg also had an absolute passion about early music. He was very generous with this, as well as with his art, because he worked closely with the Queensland Arts Council in travelling to remote areas and encouraging the love and knowledge of beautiful antique music. He widened many of our eyes when we worked with him in this area. Greg was an exciting and wonderful person to be with. He then moved on to produce many other books and work exclusively in art. He came back to Brisbane and set up his own studio, and it was an experience to go to that studio because it was where he lived. Everything around him showed his interest in beauty, his interest in exotic music and arts, and also in teddy bears-he had almost more teddy bears than any one man could ever own.
When Greg was diagnosed with cancer three years ago he did not so much work through the process as deny that the problem existed. We laughed together because he referred to the quite extensive treatments that he had to go through as his spa attendance, and he claimed he was the only person ever to put on weight under chemotherapy. Again, he had this joy about life, which he shared although we knew he was working through such pain. It has been said that he had another burst of creativity, and there are unfinished manuscripts which will be published in the future, again showing this wonderful talent for art that he had, nurtured in Brisbane and now shared with the world.
Greg is survived by his partner Matt, an American-part of that love for the US-and his brothers Ross and Denis. He has left so much behind as a result of his sharing of so much joy. Not too long before he died, he was humbled by the number of friends who were around him. I said to him, 'You have friends because you deserve them and you make us happy', and he smiled. That was an extraordinarily special moment for me. I hope Greg enjoys that his name has been mentioned in parliament. He always wanted it to happen. I know that he liked having this interest in his work. From all of us, thank you, Greg Rogers. You made our lives better and you will never be forgotten.
