They're a Weird Mob

This article is about the 1957 novel. For the 1966 film, see They're a Weird Mob (film).

First edition (publ. Ure Smith)

They're a Weird Mob is a popular 1957 Australian comic novel written by John O'Grady under the pseudonym "Nino Culotta", the name of the main character of the book. The book was the first published novel by O'Grady, with an initial print run of 6,000 hardback copies.[1] In less than six months, the book had been reprinted eight times and sold 74,000 copies.[2] In the first year of publication, over 130,000 copies were sold.[3] By the time of O'Grady's death in 1981, They're A Weird Mob was in its forty-seventh impression, with sales approaching the one million mark.[2] Published by Ure Smith, the manuscript had been earlier rejected by publisher Angus & Robertson, and is reputedly the result of a ten pound bet between O'Grady and his brother, novelist Frank O'Grady.[2]

  1. ^ "Nino is doin' orright!". The Australian Women's Weekly. National Library of Australia. 25 June 1958. p. 3. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  2. ^ a b c "O'Grady, John see 'Culotta, Nino': popular authorship, duplicity and celebrity". Australian Literary Studies (extract). Extract from The Gale Group. 1 October 2004. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
  3. ^ Tynan, Jacinta (13 September 2008). "Weird how my rello won his fame". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 5 November 2010.