Biographers in Conversation

By GabriellaArts Books

Biographers in Conversation episodes

April 09, 2025Patchen Barss "The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius"
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Patchen Barss chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about his choices while crafting The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius, the biography of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Roger Penrose.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Patchen Barss’s painstaking research strategy
How Patchen grasped complicated information about quantum physics and mathematics
How he crafted erudite, poetic and propulsive narrative from seemingly incomprehensible scientific information and mathematical equations
How he balanced Roger Penrose’s scientific, public, personal and inner lives to craft a kaleidoscopic portrait of an extraordinary human being
How he represented Roger’s relationship difficulties truthfully and with sensitivity and dignity
How Patchen navigated the perils of writing about a 93-year-old living subject who has a strong autobiographical voice
Patchen’s response to the question: ‘Who gets to be a genius, and who makes the sacrifices that allow an individual to be one?’
48 min
April 02, 2025Brenda Niall's "Joan Lindsay: The Hidden Life of the Woman Who Wrote Picnic at Hanging Rock"
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Australia’s doyenne of biography, Brenda Niall, chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting: Joan Lindsay: The Hidden Life of the Woman Who Wrote Picnic at Hanging Rock.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Brenda Niall’s inspiration for crafting Joan Lindsay: The Hidden Life of the Woman Who Wrote Picnic at Hanging Rock
Brenda’s meticulous research strategy
How Joan Lindsay’s character drove the plot
How Brenda balanced Joan’s public persona with her human story
Why Brenda asked penetrating questions throughout the narrative about Joan’s inconsistencies and contradictions and the role these questions played in the narrative
Why Brenda left a trail of breadcrumbs and clues throughout the narrative
How Brenda contextualised Joan’s life and her choices within their broader historical, social and cultural landscape
How Brenda’s psychological acuity enabled her to illuminate the complexities of Joan’s character and personality
58 min
March 26, 2025Andrew Ford's "The Shortest History of Music"
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, the multi-award-winning broadcaster, composer and author Andrew Ford chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about his choices while crafting, The Shortest History of Music. A lively, authoritative tour through 4,000 years of music, this book explores music’s role in human society.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Andrew Ford explains how he balanced brevity and intellectual depth while crafting a 200-page book spanning 4,000 years of musical history
How he synthesised a multiplicity of musical traditions and cultures into a seamless narrative
How he balanced historical accuracy with masterful storytelling
Why he examined music from multiple angles: Its fundamental impulses; the impact of notation; music as a profession and commodity; the concept of modernism and the revolutionary effects of recording technology
How he skilfully weaved history, culture and personal insight into a tapestry that celebrates music in all its forms.
1 hr 2 min
March 19, 2025Kate Kennedy's "Cello: A Journey Through Silence to Sound"
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Dr Kate Kennedy, a distinguished cellist, musicologist, and Director of Oxford University’s Centre for Life Writing chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting Cello: A Journey Through Silence to Sound.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Kate Kennedy’s inspiration for crafting Cello: A Journey Through Silence to Sound
Why Kate chose Pál Hermann, Lise Cristiani, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and Amedeo Baldovino as her biographical subjects
Why Kate criss-crossed Europe by train with her cello strapped to her back to retrace the footsteps of the four extraordinary cellists
Why Kate wrote Cello as an experimental mix of memoir and object, collective and quest biography
Why Kate included fascinating interludes, sharing her personal experiences, musings, historical research and a cello’s physical and metaphysical characteristics
Why Kate introduced various voices into the interludes, including cello makers and dealers, a physicist whose garden houses a cello-turned-bee hive, and cellists such as Steven Isserlis and Christian Poltera
The literary devices Kate employed to craft poetic, evocative and at times, electrifying narrative
How Kate rediscovered her voice and identity as a cellist by crafting Cello.
1 hr 9 min
March 12, 2025Bernadette Brennan's "Leaping into Waterfalls: The Enigmatic Gillian Mears"
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, award-winning biographer Dr Bernadette Brennan chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting Leaping into Waterfalls: The Enigmatic Gillian Mears, a literary biography that explores the rich, tumultuous life of Gillian Mears, one of Australia’s most celebrated writers.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Gillian Mears’s lived and imaginative lives were rich with adventure, risk and often transgressive passion. Her sensuality and sexuality were the driving forces of her life and writing, and her personal and fictional worlds coalesce
Why Bernadette Brennan chose the title, Leaping into Waterfalls
Why she explored the meaning of the metaphors in Gillian’s writing, suggesting what they reveal about Gillian’s character
How Bernadette took control of the narrative despite Gillian’s valiant attempts to curate her image through her annotated archives of 123 boxes of letters, diaries’ manuscripts and other traces of her life
How Bernadette retraced Gillian’s footsteps to create an authentic sense of place
How Bernadette balanced Gillian’s life story with literary criticism of her oeuvre
How Bernadette kept the focus on Gillian while also portraying the historical, social and cultural context of her times, which included prominent authors such as Helen Garner, Tim Winton and Kate Grenville
Ethical decisions about what evidence to include, emphasise and suppress given that Gillian’s sensuality and sexuality were at the core of her identity and informed her writing.
1 hr 5 min
March 05, 2025Helen Ennis' 'Max Dupain: A Portrait'
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, the acclaimed author and art historian Dr Helen Ennis chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting Max Dupain: A Portrait, the first biography of the photographer Max Dupain, Australia’s most influential photographer of the 20th century.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Helen Ennis’s inspiration for crafting Max Dupain: A Portrait
How Max Dupain’s photograph ‘The floater’ influenced Helen’s narrative strategy and the biography’s tone
How Dupain’s character drove the plot
How the women in Dupain’s life and work were instrumental to his success
How Helen achieved a fine balance between Dupain’s professional and public life and his human story
How she reconciled Dupain’s contradictions and complexity to craft a biography characterised by intense psychological closeness
How she ensured her voice as the narrator didn’t overshadow Dupain’s voice and artistic vision
The extent to which Helen interpreted Dupain’s character and behaviour versus providing clues and leaving it up to readers to draw their own conclusions.
1 hr 12 min
February 28, 2025Anna Funder’s ‘Wifedom’: Restoring Visibility & Voice
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies chats with multi-award-winning author Anna Funder about her choices while crafting Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life. Wifedom resurrects Eileen O’Shaughnessy, a brilliant Oxford graduate who married George Orwell in 1936.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Anna Funder’s inspiration for writing Wifedom
Why and how Eileen O’Shaughnessy was written out of George Orwell’s life story
How Anna restored Eileen’s voice and visibility
How Anna challenged the traditional biographical form by blending memoir, biography, literary criticism and feminist polemic
The literary devices Anna employed to craft compelling and at times, gripping, narrative
How Anna retraced Eileen’s footsteps through World War Two London and the trenches of the Spanish Civil War
How Anna revealed the systemic biases that have historically silenced women’s contributions, especially those of a wife or female partner
Why Wifedom stands as a testament to the importance of re-examining history through a more inclusive lens, ensuring voices like Eileen’s are heard and remembered.
1 hr
August 29, 2024Jacqueline Kent. A Certain Style: Beatrice Davis, A Literary Life
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Jacqueline Kent chats with Gabriella about the choices she made while writing A Certain Style: Beatrice Davis, A Literary Life, the biography of Australia’s doyenne of publishing.
.Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Jacqueline Kent’s inspiration for writing a second edition of A Certain Style after her first edition won the National Biography Award in 2002.
How Jacqueline structured A Certain Style by bringing together three strands of narrative.
How Jacqueline retraced Beatrice Davis’s footsteps when so much of the 1940s and 1950s Sydney landscape Davis knew has been replaced by glass towers and automatic teller machines.
Jacqueline’s views on why biographers must avoid making things up.
How Jacqueline navigated the rumours about Davis that flew around Sydney’s close- knit publishing circles.
How Jacqueline reconciled contradictions in Davis’s character and behaviour.
The literary devices Jacqueline employed to craft witty, captivating narrative.
The extent to which Jacqueline felt she captured the truth of her subject.
https://biographersinconversation.com
Facebook: Share Your Life Story
Linkedin: Gabriella Kelly Davies
Instagram: biographersinconversation
28 min
August 27, 2024Ashleigh Wilson: A Year with Wendy Whiteley: Conversations About Art, Life and Gardening
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation Ashleigh Wilson chats with Gabriella about his book: A Year with Wendy Whiteley: Conversations About Art, Life and Gardening.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Ashleigh Wilson shares his inspiration for writing A Year with Wendy Whiteley: Conversations About Art, Life and Gardening and why he refers to the book as a conversational portrait rather than as a biography.
Ashleigh explains why he opened the book with a detailed description of Wendy Whiteley’s kitchen table.
He discloses why he framed each chapter around a particular topic and why he kept returning to the kitchen table as the central anchor.
Ashleigh reveals how knowing Wendy Whiteley influenced how he portrayed her and the complexities of writing about a living subject.
He also outlines the novelistic devices he employed to evoke an authentic portrayal of Australia’s art world in the 1960s and 70s, and the extent to which he interpreted Wendy’s character and behaviour versus providing facts and clues and leaving it to readers to form their own interpretations.
https://biographersinconversation.com
Facebook: Share Your Life Story
Linkedin: Gabriella Kelly Davies
Instagram: Biographersinconversation
38 min
August 26, 2024Christie Lowrance: Nature’s Ambassador
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Christie Lowrance chats with Gabriella about her strategy for writing Nature’s Ambassador: The Legacy of Thornton W. Burgess, the children’s author and naturalist. Christie’s book is the first complete biography of Thornton W. Burgess, the preeminent 20th century naturalist, wildlife advocate, children’s author and pioneer in environmental education and radio programming.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Christie Lowrance shares her inspiration for writing Nature’s Ambassador.
Christie also reveals why she lives in the house in which Thornton Burgess was born.
Christie explains her research strategy, which includes a trove of primary source material, with extensive quotations from Thorton’s correspondence and interviews with a multiplicity of people.
Christie described how she narrowed the biographical scope to prevent writing a tome, given Thorton’s extensive archives.
Christie discloses her strategy for balancing Thorton’s professional, personal and inner lives.
https://biographersinconversation.com
Facebook: Share Your Life Story
Linkedin: Gabriella Kelly Davies
Instagram: Biographersinconversation
34 min

About Biographers in Conversation

From the publisher's feed

Biographer Gabriella Kelly-Davies chats with biographers across the world about the myriad of choices they make while researching, writing and publishing life stories. In every episode, she explores…