Robert Skinner was born and raised in South Australia. His accomplishments are too numerous to mention.


People will say he is Australia's Sedaris, but he's not. He's Robert Skinner and he's a bloody marvel.' —Anna Krien, author of Night Games and Act of Grace.

I'd Rather Not
Robert Skinner

"I was sleeping in what might reasonably be described as a ditch, though I tried not to think of it in those terms for morale reasons …"

Robert Skinner arrives in the city, searching for a richer life. Things begin badly and then, surprisingly, get slightly worse. Pretty soon he’s sleeping rough and trying to run a literary magazine out of a dog park. His quest for meaning keeps being thwarted, by endless jobs, beagles, house parties, ill-advised love affairs, camel trips and bureaucratic entanglements.

Sometimes a book catches the spirit of the times. I’d Rather Not is about work, escape and that something more we all need.

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Robert Skinner was born and raised on the Adelaide plains. 

He currently lives in Melbourne, where he works in a bookshop and plays football at the lowest level.