Already optioned for a film, Meg Keneally's first solo novel, Fled - based on the extraordinary life of convict Mary Bryant - tells the historical adventure of the only female convict to successfully escape the colony. 

About the book, Fled 

Jenny Trelawney is no ordinary thief. Forced by poverty to live in the forest, she becomes a successful highwaywoman – until her luck runs out.

Transported to Australia, Jenny must tackle new challenges and growing responsibilities. When famine hits the new colony, Jenny becomes the leader in a grand plot of escape, but is survival any more certain in a small open boat on an unknown ocean?

In partnership with Echo Publishing Melbourne Australia.

Image: Meg Keneally, courtesy Brendan Fredericks Publicity & Management

Alasdair McGregor and Simon Nasht discuss the life and work of Frank Hurley, including his work in the Antarctic and his stunning visual archive of major events both at home and overseas over a dinner discussion at the National Library. 

The Library re-issued the book Frank Hurley: A Photographers Life, written by McGregor, portraying the life and career of Australia's first internationally recognised photographer and highlighting the sacrifices and risks to obtain the 'perfect' photo. 

Image: Frank Hurley (1885-1962), Frank Hurley and Maslyn Williams looking out over the Kidron Valley towards Jerusalem, Mount of Olives, Palestine, 1940? [picture], nla.cat-vn4901223

On what would be art dealer and collector Rex Nan Kivell's (1898 1977) 121st birthday, Treasures Curator Nat Williams reveals new insights into the Library's collection.

Using examples of cartoons displayed in the upcoming Inked exhibition, Exhibition Curator Dr Guy Hansen provides a short history of Australian cartooning over the last 200 years, sifting through examples of satirical prints from the 1780's, cartoons from the colonial period and the fleeting commentaries of the digital age.

Dr Guy Hansen will reference works from a range of cartooning superstars including Stan Cross, Livingston Hopkins, Judy Horacek, Michael Leunig, David Low, Phil May, Alan Moir, Bruce Petty, Geoff Pryor, Ron Tandberg and Cathy Wilcox.

Image: George Cruikshank, (1792-1878), Passing events, or, The tail of the comet of 1853 [picture], nla.obj-135582794

In her new book, You Daughters of Freedom, historian Associate Professor Clare Wright brings to life a time when Australian democracy was the standard bearer for progress and the envy of the world.

In conversation with Genevieve Jacobs, Wright tells the story of that victory—and of Australia’s role in the subsequent international struggle—through the eyes of five remarkable players: the redoubtable Vida Goldstein, the flamboyant Nellie Martel, indomitable Dora Montefiore, daring Muriel Matters, and artist Dora Meeson Coates, who painted the controversial Australian banner carried in the British suffragettes’ marches of 1908 and 1911.

La Trobe University historian Associate Professor Clare Wright has worked as an author, academic, political speechwriter, historical consultant, and radio and TV broadcaster.

In association with Text Publishing. 

Image: Clare Wright courtesy Text Publishing

The lifelong adventurer and famous photographer Frank Hurley travelled around the Middle East and North Africa from 1941 to 1946. His official mission was to Australian service members during the desert campaign of the Second World War.

This lecture focuses on how Hurley was entranced by the local cultures, architecture and landscape of the middle east and will be delivered by Exhibition Curator, Rosalind Clarke.

Image: Frank Hurley (1885-1962), Frank Hurley and Maslyn Williams looking out over the Kidron Valley towards Jerusalem, Mount of Olives, Palestine, 1940? [picture], nla.obj-151339245

Aphra Behn, the first professional female writer in English, was a successful London playwright in the 1670s and 1680s. Her early book Oroonoko, published in 1688, tells the story of a slave uprising in Surinam (Suriname). In this interesting talk, Professor Elaine Hobby will share how Behn's rare and precious books give insight into her life.

Professor Elaine Hobby is a researcher and professor of seventeenth-century studies at Loughborough University (United Kingdom) and is a 2019 National Library of Australia Fellow.

Image: Aphra Behn (1640–1689), The Histories and Novels of the Late Ingenious Mrs Behn (detail), 1696, nla.cat-vn2027753

Cartoonist and former Canberra resident Judy Horacek gives her perspective on the Library's cartoon exhibition, Inked: Australian Cartoons.She will also provide insight into her own work - what she loves about cartoons and the cartoons she loves, how the profession has changed in the three decades that she has been in it, and her musings about whether the medium will survive in this new age.

About Judy HoracekJudy Horacek's work has been published all over the world, which includes regular gigs in The Age, The Australian and The Canberra Times.Horacek also makes children’s picture books, both on her own and with Mem Fox.

Image: Judy Horacek, 2001, The unjolly swagman, [2], nla.obj-148725554

Author Bruce Gaunson discusses his third book, Fighting the Kaiserriech: Australia’s Epic within the Great War, exploring Australia’s involvement in the First World War. From a citizen army sailing across the globe to fight in a clash of superpowers, the Australians were transformed into a well-respected and formidable force.

Gaunson’s book provides a clear picture of the Great War and its key issues, as it draws on the sources of 13 countries, describing the struggle with the German Empire, Deutsches Kaiserreich, and the role of the Australian Imperial Force in one of the most immense struggles the world has ever seen.

In association with Hybrid Publishers and the Canberra Great War Study Group, the Estaminet.

Image: Frank Hurley (1885–1962), Infantry Moving Forward to Take up Front Line Positions at Evening, Their Images Reflected in a Rain-filled Crater at Hooge, October 1917 (detail), nla.cat-vn91190

Award-winning author Bruce Pascoe delivers a call to care for our earth through agriculture. As detailed in his book Dark Emu, he provides compelling evidence from the diaries of early explorers which suggests that systems of food production and land management have been blatantly understated in modern retellings of early Aboriginal history, and that a new look at Australia’s past is required.

Bruce Pascoe is Bunurong/Tasmanian Yuin man and an award winning author and story teller. His book Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident, a history of Aboriginal agriculture, was published by Magabala in 2014 and won both the Book of Year and the Indigenous Writers Prize (joint winner) in the 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.In 2018 Dark Emu was transformed into compelling contemporary dance performance by Bangarra Dance Theatre, touring nationally. Other books include Night Animals, Shark, Ocean, Bloke, Cape Otway, Convincing Ground, Little Red Yellow and Black Book. Bloke, Chainsaw File, Fog a Dox, and most recently Mrs Whitlam. In 2018 Bruce Pascoe was awarded the Lifetime Achievement in Literature Award by the Australia Council. 

The Eric Rolls Lecture was established in 2010 as a bi-annual lecture, organised by the Watermark Literary Society and funded by Elaine van Kempen, the widow of Eric Rolls and executor of his estate. The Eric Rolls Memorial Lecture is supported by Elaine Van Kempen in recognition of the contribution of poet, historian and naturalist, Eric Rolls. The lecture aims to continue the work of Eric Rolls, highlighting the work of Australia’s environmental scientists and writers.

Image: Bruce Pasoce, courtsey Linsey Rendell