In conversation with Michael Williams, Steven discusses his award-winning book A World Of Other People, his celebrated career and some of the recurring subjects in his work, including literature, romantic love and T.S. Eliot.

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Gideon Haigh is one of the most widely recognised names in Australian freelance journalism. Celebrated for his diverse interests and enthusiasms (he’s written on everything from digital media to Shane Warne to office architecture) and his impressively regular output (including 30 books and contributions to more than 100 different newspapers and magazines), Haigh’s latest work ventures into the world of true crime.

In Certain Admissions: A Beach, A Body and a Lifetime of Secrets he explores the extraordinary story of John Bryan Kerr, the commercial radio star accused – and sentenced to hang – for the 1949 murder of typist Beth Williams.

Gideon Haigh and Tony Wilson in conversation

In conversation with Tony Wilson, Gideon Haigh discusses his new book, his wonderfully varied career, his versatility across genre – and, of course, his well-documented obsession with cricket.

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In conversation with Tony Wilson, Gideon Haigh discusses his new book, his wonderfully varied career, his versatility across genre – and, of course, his well-documented obsession with cricket.

Subscribe to the seriesPodcast seriesBooks and Ideas at Montalto  /  Australian stories

Ramona Koval is one of Australia’s most loved literary figures, thanks to her many years ruling the Radio National airwaves as the host of The Book Show. She’s famous for shining the spotlight on her bookish guests, at the ABC and as the host of The Monthly’s book club.

In her new book, Bloodhound, the interviewer extraordinaire gets personal, inviting us on an intimate journey to track down her father.

Ramona’s parents were Holocaust survivors who resettled in Melbourne. As a child, she suspected that the man who raised her was not her biological father. In the 1990s, long after her mother’s death, she decided to discover the truth – and a phone call led to a photograph in the mail, tea with strangers, and travel that spanned a meeting with a horse whisperer in tropical Queensland, rural Poland, and a Kafkaesque bureaucracy.

In conversation with Arnold Zable, discover how Ramona uncovered the truth, why it was so important to her.

Arnold Zable and Ramona Koval (photo: Oren Gerassi)

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In her new book, Bloodhound, literary journalist Ramona Koval gets personal, inviting us on an intimate journey to track down her father. In conversation with Arnold Zable, discover how Ramona uncovered the truth, why it was so important to her.

Kate Grenville is one of Australia’s most treasured writers. Her novels are internationally acclaimed: The Idea of Perfection won the Orange Prize in 2001 and her breakout bestseller The Secret River fired up debates on the uses of historical fiction – and the role novelists can play – in highlighting past injustices. The New York Times called it ‘exuberant, cruel, surprising, a triumphant evocation of a period and a people filled with both courage and ugliness’.

Her latest book combines her interest in the past with an enquiry into the personal: an intimate account of her mother’s life, drawing on the fragments of memoir she left behind. In many ways, Nance’s story echoes that of many mothers and grandmothers, for whom the spectacular shifts of the twentieth century offered a path to new freedoms and choices. In other ways, her story was exceptional: in an era when women were expected to have no ambitions beyond the domestic, she ran successful businesses as a registered pharmacist, laid the bricks for the family home, and discovered her husband’s secret life as a revolutionary.

Join Grenville in conversation with fellow writer Melissa Lucashenko as they explore the personal history of one of our most popular – and acclaimed – historical novelists, and reflect on how the life and times of this one woman both mirrored and defied what was happening for Australian women.

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Kate Grenville (The Secret River, The Idea of Perfection) discusses her latest book – an intimate account of her mother's life – with friend and fellow writer Melissa Lucashenko.

Playwright Hannie Rayson is a much-loved Australian institution. She made history when her stage hit Life After George became the first play to be shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, and her first major success, Hotel Sorrento was made into a feature film and is a staple of VCE reading lists. She has also written for television, including popular hit Sea Change.

In her long-awaited memoir, Hello Beautiful, Hannie presents scenes from her own life, with all the insight, wit and narrative flair she has perfected in her plays. In this conversation with writer, director and broadcaster Lorin Clarke, she shares insights from this hilarious (and often dramatic) behind-the-scenes look at the life of an Australian success story.

In partnership with Montalto Vineyard & Olive Grove.

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Hannah Kent’s debut novel Burial Rites has been shortlisted for the Stella Prize and the Bailey Women’s Prize for Fiction. Featuring the curious case of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last woman to be hanged in Iceland, it was one of the international success stories of 2013.

Join her as she recounts how she came to write the story of this misunderstood woman, in conversation with Jo Case.

Presented in partnership with Montalto Vineyard & Olive Grove.

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Favel Parrett burst onto the Australian literary scene in a flood of well-deserved praise (and comparisons to Tim Winton) with her darkly beautiful debut, Past the Shallows, shortlisted for the Miles Franklin. Her much-anticipated second novel is When the Night Comes – an evocative story about the power that fear and kindness have to change lives.

In partnership with Montalto Vineyard & Olive Grove.

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