by Trevor Hogan

Upon knocking on their front door, the domestic tableau that greeted us included Pete sitting on the floor and leaning against a couch, pen and paper in hand, folder perched on his knee, surrounded by piles of books including an up-ended paperback of E.P. Thompson’s (1963) The Making of the English Working Class, or so my mind’s eye reconstructs the scene of our first meeting. He was preparing lecture notes for his first semester of teaching – first year sociology at La Trobe University. Our conversations moved quickly from beaches and bands to books, critical theory, and politics.