Ever since I was a small boy, I have collected published information that has amused me. This continued when I became a cub reporter on the Hobart Mercury in 1955 (which makes me quite old) I have hoarded clippings and odd and unusual sayings or unfortunate headlines. Some are old and yellowed with age.

No Plucking! is by no means an autobiography, but I have drawn on my varied experiences as a newspaper journalist, and current affairs reporter and foreign correspondent for the ABC in North America and Asia in the 1960s, as well as hosting the ABC's viewer reaction program BackChat for nine years from 1986.