BLOG: Not a dream come true

I can't say winning a Victorian Premier's Literary Award was a dream come true because, in all honesty, it was beyond my dreams.

When I fell in love with an Italian woman several years ago, I put my life in a bag and headed off to what D. H. Lawrence and other Modernist writers described as The World's Finishing School. And that's what Italy was to me - an eccentric education. Although I flunked certain subjects, particularly in the linguistics department when I asked a Milanese butcher for a kilometre of sausages, and a Sicilian man on a beach if I could hire a paedophile for an hour rather than a pedal-boat.

Lapses such as those, and other unusual experiences, prompted me to write HEAD OVER HEEL, which wouldn't have made it to Melbourne without the support of many people.

My heartfelt thanks go to his Excellency, the Premier of Victoria, Mr. Brumby; the judges of the award - Robert Pascoe, Piero Genovesi and Adriana Nelli; the delightful staff at the State Library of Victoria; the talented team at Murdoch Books - Juliet Rogers, Colette Vella and especially Kay Scarlett who thrilled me by accompanying me to the presentation dinner; my agent - Isobel Dixon at Blake Friedmann in London; my parents and, above all, my wife, Daniela, the woman who lured me to Italy in the first place. If the evening could have been more special, she would have been there.

I must also thank the sponsors, especially The Grollo Ruzzene Foundation for encouraging people to write about the cultural schizophrenia which many people - including me and Daniela - suffer and share between Italy and Australia. The downside of knowing two worlds intimately is feeling totally at home in neither.

It's a valuable topic because, as my favourite Italian writer, Luigi Barzini, said: In the heart of everyone, wherever they are from, whatever their education and tastes, there is one small corner that is Italian.

I can't thank the judges enough for reading about, and rewarding, my little corner.