Armistead Maupin spoke at the Octagon Theatre at the University of Western Australia tonight. I have a new set of coloured pencils, so I took along a sketch pad and drew as he talked. He read for 10 minutes or so from Michael Tolliver Lives – a passage that mentioned blogging, and Catholic schoolgirls and unionised strip joints and one way to obtain a distaste for cinnabuns.

Armistead Maupin wrote the “Tales of the City” novels, which captured a generation of straight, gay and otherwise people in San Francisco when they were originally serialised in the San Francisco Chronicle. Before we had kids, the Co-Pilot and I read his first six novels aloud to each other. As Armistead said tonight – at the end of Sure of You, everyone thought that Michael Tolliver and his generation of positive friends were condemned. He woke up one day, many years later and realised that many of his friends has survived.

If a few swear words offend you, you should avert your eyes now.