I looked down the list of inmates and unfortunately only recognized a few of the bi-lines. You might not even recall mine, even though I did six-years! After leaving Grammar, I spent fifteen years in Canberra working for the ANU, clambering through photography school, discovering that I was highly dyslexic. However, I did a year around the world in 1974, ran into Geoff Brown in London by chance and never saw him again until he recalled it just recently in an e-mail. I returned to Canberra, passed the photography school in 1976 – one of the three to graduate out of the 35 who started five years earlier. After that I went on to study at several art schools, but didn’t hit my stride until the mid-eighties.

I’ve worked out of California for the past 25 years as journalist and photographer, specializing in automotive stories for magazines, TV, books and art. If you’ve read Street Machine or Modern Motor or two-dozen other Yank car magazines in the past 25 years, you’ve seen my bi-line. My work appeared monthly in the US, Australia, England, France and Japan. I’ve written, and or published 60+ automotive history books, including Automotive Book of the Year in 1999 (American Woodys). Not bad for the kid who nearly got kicked out of English!

I love living in California, yet I get great pleasure out of my return trips to Australia and the friendships I have with a handful of close Grammar mates. I have four kids, now 32, 34, 35 and 40, who are now my adult friends and enjoy a fine life with the perfect gal. It’s been a bit of male-fantasy life for the kid from the bush – I’ve met or become friends with so many of my childhood racing heroes and you name it, I’ve driven it or owned one, and I got paid to do it all!
Then I went back to college or university and studied marketing on and off, for four years. This lead to me producing TV commercials and a vast array of marketing programs and materials. This in turn helped me launch several reality TV show celebrities including Guy Fieri, the Food Network who today is their most popular host. Lot of fun there!

Today, I run Fetherston Publishing LLC and have published titles which have won numerous book awards. As an aside, I have written a series of short story books which include some narrative about Grammar adventures and the gang I hung with. Some of the stories are quite extraordinary and funny. They are published as a series in both digital and print format. Forty Short Stories to Read on a Plane – Volumes I & II, Car Stories and The Great Australian Bite! These are now available on AMAZON.AU

Before I retired I spent five years as the Marketing Director for Flowmaster Inc, the largest performance exhaust parts company in the U.S. I have since returned to running my publishing company and hanging with my kids. See some of my books at davidfetherston.com