Robin Bailey: 'Flamingos aren't born pink'

Bookings required. To reserve your place, visit Eventbrite or call the library.

Overview

Join media personality Robin Bailey in conversation with Christine Jackman, as they discuss Robyn's memoir 'Flamingos aren't born pink'.

About the book Robin Bailey’s memoir is filled with deep insights into grieving, parenting, working and living, all told with verve and transparency, including how each of her sons found their own ways through grief, from anger, sorrow and acceptance and into the light of love and hope.

Flamingos aren’t pink at birth. Instead, their distinctive vibrant hue is the result of a gradual process of interaction with their environment. A similar steady transformation, from darkness to vivid light [or a world of vivid colour], enabled Robin and her family to endure unthinkable grief.

Robin’s world fell apart when her husband and father of their three boys, Tony Smart, died by suicide, and she was left to parent alone through her grief in the most public of ways, on commercial radio. Years later, she found deep happiness again with radio executive Sean Pickwell, only for him to die from an aggressive cancer just eleven months after their wedding.

But Robin’s transformation through the great loves and losses of her life has only made her stronger, more vibrant and a more loving and capable woman and mother. Her honest, brave storytelling holds nothing back – from her sense of guilt at Tony’s suicide and the terrible impact it had on their young boys, Fin, Lewin and Piper, to the fallout with work, family and more, then the saving grace of falling in love with Sean – and the heartbreaking journey they all made through his death from liver cancer.

Robin’s story grapples with the darkness of her experience, but it’s also about joy, love, hope and a family forged in the fire of grief to become stronger, more vibrant, more loving humans – colourful and proud.

About the author Robin Bailey is one of Australia’s longest serving commercial radio personalities. The Brisbane media star and thirty-five-year radio veteran began her career as a journalist in Sydney and has worked in broadcasting roles in every major capital city in Australia, across print, TV, radio and podcasting, including for KIIS FM, The Project, Nine News Now, Mamamia and Triple M.

Robin will be joined in conversation with Christine Jackman. Christine is a journalist, communications consultant and author of Turning Down The Noise: The Quiet Power of Silence in a Busy World and Inside Kevin07.

Books will be available for purchase, or bring your copy from home to be signed. Presented as part of the Lord Mayor’s Writers in Residence series.

Bookings

Bookings required. Phone Brisbane Square Library on 07 3403 4166 to reserve your place.

Venue address

Brisbane Square Library, 266 George Street, Brisbane City