Satan's Little Helpers

by John Kelly

While watching the demolition of his old school Placidus College, Simon Hickey looks back on ten turbulent, life defining years, when the first crop of Australia's baby boomers were awakening to their sexuality. Seduced by the power of the pulpit, the Aquinine Brothers, and an ever-present fear that Satan would snare him in an unguarded moment, Simon's attention is directed toward a religious vocation. At the vocational training college, he encounters a serial paedophile, with far reaching and shocking consequences. A few years later, Simon becomes one of the 'unlucky ones', balloted into the Army for two years National Service in 1965.

A heartfelt, humorous, and poignant story, these two vastly different experiences are linked by a tender romance that defies Catholic conventions of the day, and reveals how two people who choose not to be conformist, cope with the social, religious and political nature of their time.

334 pages softcover

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"Satan's Little Helpers effortlessly captures the 1950's and 1960's in suburban Australia. Catholics will laugh and cry, non-catholics will laugh and laugh. Anyone who grew up in this period will share the laughs and exasperation, will envy and be touched by the teenage love story. An engaging plot with surprising twists and turns and all the horrors of school, families, teenage and first love... and all the laughs."
John Derum

"With some generous assistance from the vibrant and unpredictable Megan, Simon Hickey faces the challenges and social turmoil of the 1960's. As the story unfolds, Catholic culture, a love affair, and the threat of being shipped off to Vietnam, combine to provide all the elements of a best seller. Humour, pathos, sexual awakenings, tragedies and a surprise or two¬Ö There is a real feeling of 'being there' in this story. Living History."
Margaret Brody