The book tells the story of Tim's life, and centrally of his relationship with his husband and love of fifteen years, John Caleo. They met in the mid-1970s at Xavier College, an all-boys Jesuit Catholic school in Melbourne. The term "holding the man" refers to a transgression that incurs a penalty in Australian rules football. Caleo was a star footballer at high school, captaining the school's team and winning the APS Best and Fairest trophy in 1976. He was also an avid supporter of the Essendon Football Club, one of the reasons Conigrave appropriated the term as the book's title.

Holding the Man was published in February 1995 by Penguin Books in Australia just a few months after Conigrave's death, and has since been published in Spain and North America. It has been reprinted fourteen times. Holding the Man won the Human Rights Award for Non-Fiction in 1995 from Australian Human Rights Commission[1] and was listed as one of the "100 Favourite Australian Books" by the Australian Society of Authors for its 40th anniversary in 2003.

Sending to Victoria for recipient of the Australasian Wishlist Tag Game. Enjoy!

Arrived safely!
Thanks for granting my wish!

To the finder of this book:

Please journal that you’ve found me, read and re-release. I’d love to follow the book’s journey. Bookcrossing is free & fun and let’s face it, not much is these days! :)

Found at McDonald's Book Exchange Shelf in Nunawading

I read this back in 2021 and loved it. Promptly forgot to write a journal entry. Just found it on my bookshelf and thought to myself "Ooo, I've been wanting to read this" and started reading it again. Realised IMMEDIATELY, and remembered the whole thing. Decided to keep going as I thoroughly enjoyed it the first time and loved it just as much the second time. Even went so far as to borrow the movie from the library which was lovely and sweet and heart-achingly tender.
Right up there amongst my most loved books. 10/10 stars

To the finder of this book:
Hello and congratulations! You have not only found yourself a good book, but a whole community of booklovers dedicated to sharing books with each other and the world at large. I hope you'll stick around a bit and get to know BookCrossing --maybe even make a journal entry on this book. You may choose to remain anonymous or to join (its free!)
Feel free to read and keep this book, or to pass it on to a friend or even set it out "in the wild" for someone else to find like you did. If you do choose to join and journal, then you can watch the book as it travels- You'll be alerted by email each time someone makes another journal entry. It's all confidential (you're known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address), free, and spam-free. Happy reading!

Found

Find me!