Teacher, writer and novelist R.W.R. McDonald joined me on the program to discuss the follow-up to his hugely-popular debut novel, ‘Nancy Business’.

Topics discussed include:

- The joys and potential challenges of returning to now beloved characters. How he always envisioned the series and how that’s been going.

- Balancing traumatic subject matter (suicide, tragic death, murder etc) with humour, the banter and spirit on the titular Nancys.

- Tippy growing older as a character – including engaging in acts of teenage rebellion – the authenticity of the character and how that was achieved. Also, her grief for her father – how the grief never goes away, but changes as time passes.

- From a whodunit to a whydunit – along with the difficulties, moral and logistical, faced with trying to depict something as innately chaotic as a bomb-blast.

- The media’s misogynistic tendency to describe victims in association with their male partners etc.

- And so much more!

Thanks so much to R.W.R. for joining me on the program, you can pick up ‘Nancy Business’ and the debut, ‘The Nancys’ from Allen and Unwin, here:

https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/fiction/Nancy-Business-RWR-McDonald-9781760878870