Peter FitzSimons

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Peter John FitzSimons (born 29 June 1961, Wahroonga, New South Wales) is an Australian journalist, radio and television presenter and author. He is a former national representative rugby union player.

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Early life

FitzSimons grew up in Peats Ridge, in the Central Coast of New South Wales. He was one of seven children. He attended Peats Ridge Primary School, and Knox Grammar School before going in 1978 to Findlay High School, Ohio, for a year as an exchange student on an American Field Service Scholarship. He then completed an arts degree at the University of Sydney, residing at Wesley College from 1980 to 1982.

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Career

Rugby

FitzSimons' club rugby was played first with the Sydney University Football Club and then with the Manly RUFC in Sydney in the 1980s under the coaching of Alan Jones. Between 1985 and 1989 he played with CA Brive in France for four seasons as the club's first foreign player. He played seven Tests at lock for Australia between 1989 and 1990, debuting against France in Strasbourg in November 1989, on the Wallabies 1989 tour of Europe. His final Test match was against New Zealand in Christchurch.

Former Wallabies winger David Campese has criticised FitzSimons for starting a brawl in Australia's first Test against France in 1990. Campese labelled FitzSimons' actions "a disgrace to the good name of rugby" and asserted that "he was doing the game and its reputation enormous damage." Campese cautioned that if such fights "turn even one family away from the game, then they have been too costly."

Journalist

FitzSimons has written for The Sydney Morning Herald since 1988, and has been a sports columnist for that publication since 1987. He regularly appears on the Australian Foxtel programme, The Back Page, formerly hosted by rugby league journalist Mike Gibson and now Tony Squires. For the Saturday edition of the Sydney Morning Herald, FitzSimons writes a column titled "The Fitz Files" which looks at all the happenings over the past seven days in sport. He writes a more general version of "The Fitz Files" in The Sun-Herald on Sundays, focusing on community activities and events in Sydney. Andrew Denton has called him "Australia's finest sports journalist".

Radio

In January 2006 FitzSimons began co-hosting a breakfast radio program with Mike Carlton on Sydney radio station 2UE. He was brought onto the 2UE breakfast show in an attempt to boost the program's dwindling ratings. However, the Mike and Fitz Breakfast Show still trailed a long way behind the number one program on 2GB, hosted by FitzSimons' former coach Alan Jones. After two years, FitzSimons hung up the headphones to become a stay-at-home dad and focus on his writing.

Books

FitzSimons' published works include:

• Basking in Beirut and other adventures with Peter FitzSimons. Allen & Unwin. 1991. ISBN 978-1-86373-052-5. 
• with; Kogler, Brian (1991). Little theories of life. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-86373-109-6. 
• Rugby stories: some rucking good yarns. Allen & Unwin. 1993. ISBN 978-1-86373-440-0. 
• Nick Farr-Jones: the authorised biography. Random House Australia. 1993. ISBN 978-0-09-182758-8. 
• Hitchhiking for ugly people: and other life experiences. Random House Australia. 1994. ISBN 978-0-09-182967-4. 
• The rugby war. HarperSports. 1996. ISBN 978-0-7322-5687-6. 
• Everyone but Phar Lap: face to face with the best of Australian sport. HarperCollins. 1997. ISBN 978-0-7322-6409-3. 
• with; Blair, Tony (1998). Beazley: a biography. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-7322-6521-2. 
• FitzSimons on rugby: loose in the tight five. Allen & Unwin. 1999. ISBN 978-1-86508-132-8. 
• Nancy Wake: a biography of our greatest war heroine. HarperCollins. 2001. ISBN 978-0-7322-6919-7. 
• John Eales: the biography. ABC Books for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2001. ISBN 978-1-85291-644-2. 
• Nene. HarperCollins. 2002. ISBN 978-0-7322-7565-5. 
• Steve Waugh. HarperCollins. 2004. ISBN 978-0-7322-7647-8. 
• Tobruk. Pymble: HarperCollins Publishers. 2006. ISBN 9780732291563. 
• Great Australian sports champions. HarperSports. 2006. ISBN 978-0-7322-8517-3. 
• The ballad of Les Darcy. HarperCollins Publishers. 2007. ISBN 978-0-7322-8636-1. 
• And now for some light relief: the genuinely funny joke book. Ebury. 2009. ISBN 978-1-74166-901-5. 
• Kokoda. Hachette UK. 2010. ISBN 9780733626067. 
• Charles Kingsford Smith and those magnificent men. Pymble: HarperCollins. 2010. ISBN 9780732288198. 
• A Simpler Time. Pymble: HarperCollins Publishers. 2010. ISBN 9780730492511. 
• Mawson. North Sydney: William Heinemann. 2011. ISBN 9781742754581. 
• Batavia. North Sydney: Random House Australia. 2012. ISBN 9781864711349. 
• Eureka: the unfinished revolution. Random House Australia. 2013. ISBN 9780857981271. 
• Growden, Greg; FitzSimons, Peter, eds. (2013). More important than life or death: inside the best of Australian sport. Crows Nest: Fairfax Books. ISBN 978-1-74331-319-0. 
• Ned Kelly. Random House Australia. 2013. ISBN 9781742758916. 
• Gallipoli. Random House Australia. 2014. ISBN 9780857984562. 
• Fromelles and Pozières: In the trenches of Hell. Random House Australia. 2015. ISBN 9781742759517. 
• Gotta love this country!. Allen & Unwin. 2015. ISBN 978-1-76029-048-1. 
• The Great Aussie Bloke Slim-Down: How an Over-50 Former Footballer Went From Fat to Fit... and Lost 45 Kilos. Penguin Books Australia. 2016. ISBN 9780143781868. 
• Victory at Villers-Bretonneux: Why a French town will never forget the Anzacs. Random House Australia. 2016. ISBN 9781742759531. 
• with; Lynch, Reg, (illustrator.) (2016). Seriously ... you have to laugh: great yarns and tall tales from the sporting fields, dressing rooms and commentary boxes of Australia. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-76029-399-4. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
• Burke and Wills: The Triumph and Tragedy of Australia's Most Famous Explorers. Hachette Australia. 2017. ISBN 9780733634109. 
• Monash's masterpiece: the battle of Le Hamel and the 93 minutes that changed the world. Hachette Australia. 2018. ISBN 978-0-7336-4008-7. 

Communal activity

FitzSimons is or was involved with a range of community organisations. He was a fellow of the Senate of University of Sydney from 2009 to 2013, a patron of The Russell Prize for Humour Writing, State Library of New South Wales, since 2015 and chairman of the Australian Republic Movement since 2015.

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Personal life

FitzSimons is married to Australian journalist and TV presenter Lisa Wilkinson. They have three children: sons Jake and Louis, and daughter Billi.

FitzSimons has identified himself as an atheist and a republican.

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Honours

On 13 June 2011 FitzSimons was named a Member of the Order of Australia for service to literature as a biographer, sports journalist and commentator, and to the community through contributions to conservation, disability care, social welfare and sporting organisations.

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References

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External links

• Homepage for FitzSimons' columns in The Sydney Morning Herald
• Official website

Source of article : Wikipedia