Ageing Disgracefully – Rewriting the Script on Old Age. Peta Murray & David Carlin with Max Primmer
Description
Forget the golden years. Try the glitter years.
Writers Peta Murray and David Carlin, co-authors of How to Dress for Old Age talk with local legend Max Primmer – community broadcaster, founder of the “Ageing Disgracefully” movement and 2023 Ageing Well Award recipient.
This is not a quiet fireside chat. Expect a no-holds-barred conversation about late blooming, bespoke suits, the terror of aged care, community radio, secular Buddhism, and why the older you get, the bigger your wardrobe needs to be.
Together, they take aim at retirement villages, golf courses and society’s quiet demand that older people shrink. Their message? Flower, don’t fade.
Dress-ups encouraged. Disgraceful ageing required.
Lineup
Meet Peta
Peta Murray is known for plays Wallflowering, and Salt, as well as AWGIE-winning work The Keys to the Animal Room. Peta’s short fiction has been published in New Australian Stories and her essays in Sydney Review of Books and The Mekong Review. A Senior Lecturer at RMIT University in Melbourne. Peta Murray is a writer-performer, theatre-maker and cross-arts collaborator. Senior Lecturer at RMIT University, co-founder of The Groundswell Project. Works about life and death include Vigil/Wake and Missa Pro Venerabilibus.
Meet David
David Carlin is an award-winning writer, director, and creative artist who has worked across narrative nonfiction, theatre, film, and circus. His books include How to Dress for Old Age (2026), The After-Normal (2019), The Abyssinian Contortionist (2015), and Our Father Who Wasn’t There (2010). Emeritus Professor at RMIT University, co-founded WrICE cultural exchange program and non/fictionLab research group. Essays appeared in Overland, Meanjin, Griffith REVIEW, Sydney Review of Books.
Meet Max
Max Primmer is a community broadcaster, local legend, and founder of the "Ageing Disgracefully" movement. Growing up on a dairy farm near Koroit, he came out as gay at 15 to a supportive family. After a 30-year partnership with his late partner Ken, Max moved to Daylesford in 2003, drawn by its welcoming aura. He is known for his drag queen alter ego Di_Alysis—a name inspired by his experience with kidney failure—and for his volunteer work at Hepburn House, where he leads the Ageing with Pride committee. Following COVID, he launched Ageing Disgracefully to help residents and others connect through regular coffee mornings, bingo, and one-on-one visits. A recipient of the 2023 Ageing Well Award, Max champions the idea that instead of shrinking in later years, people should 'flower, not fade.'
Books
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