With special guest:
- Robert Hoge
…in conversation with Bill Kable and Ken Thompson
Robert Hoge has a daughter Imogen who sums it up best. She said about Robert’s book Ugly “It’s important to tell your story especially when you’re different.”
As one of the many roles that our guest today has filled with distinction he is an advocate for those with a disability and today we hear what it is like to grow up in a special club.
When Robert was 4 years old his parents decided on his behalf that because of his birth condition the best way forward was amputation on his legs and major operations on his face. While the operations were medical firsts and very successful they still left the young child with prosthetic legs and an unusual face that would draw sometimes unwanted attention. We hear from Robert today how he drew strength from his loving family and how his father responded when his youngest child needed support.
To hear Robert speak so engagingly is to be swept up into his world. How an extraordinary person originally just wanted to lead an ordinary life like his friends at school. He has now gone beyond those ambitions to be the first in his family with a University degree and with a career that includes being a speechwriter for the former Premier of Queensland. But most importantly Robert is a husband and father of two healthy daughters who give him the chance to pass on the family love and support that he enjoyed during his formative years.
Robert is a member of a club alright, not the Ugly Club he describes but one with a membership requirement that you know your own defining characteristics. It is a club that we can all join whatever we look like. Hearing from Robert will help all of us recognise the truth and the hope that springs from that knowing. Humour, courage, love and decency shine through in this interview that you do not want to miss.
Robert Hoge
Robert Hoge has worked as a journalist, a speechwriter, a science communicator for the CSIRO and a political adviser to the former Queensland Premier Anna Bligh. He has had numerous short stories, articles, interviews and other works published in Australia and overseas. Ugly is his first book and Ugly: A beaut story about one very ugly kid the version for younger readers.
Song selection by our guest: The Gambler by Kenny Rogers
Note: The program is a repeat of the one aired on 3 December 2015.