Anna Bligh was Queensland's first female premier in 2007, led her state through Australia’s greatest natural disaster, but was roundly routed in the 2012 election. And her battles were far from over. She was forced to call on her strength when she was diagnosed with cancer soon after leaving politics. Hear Anna speak about her memoir, Through the Wall, which is written with her trademark warmth, intelligence and humour.

After Anders Breivik’s murderous rampage in Norway, he stood and held up a finger asking for a Band-Aid. Psychiatrists described him as an extreme narcissist. Anne Manne explores excessive self-focus from mild to extreme manifestation and how the new narcissistic character-type emerging from our rampant consumer culture can distort relationships, sport, undermine empathy for the vulnerable, and even subvert democratic politics.

Last year was a ‘red year’, with massacres, beheadings, fallen cities and a decade of foreign policy and military strategy in tatters. In a world where foreign fighters are flowing into Syria at an alarming rate, David Kilcullen asks: what happened? Author of the forthcoming Quarterly Essay: On Islamic State and Global Jihad, David calls on his 25 years’ experience as a counterinsurgency expert to unpack the real roots of the global jihadi movement and advise how we can combat it. He speaks to James Brown, former Australian Army officer and Director of the Alliance 21 project at the University of Sydney.

Joan London is the author of two prize-winning collections of stories, 'Sister Ships' which won the Age Book of the Year in 1986, and 'Letter to Constantine' which won the Steele Rudd Award in 1994 and the West Australian Premier's Award for Fiction.The Sydney Review of Books writes that her latest, 'The Golden Age' "carries the quiet assurance of a classic, which it will most certainly become". Joan speaks to Charlotte Wood.

Liane Moriarty seemingly appeared from nowhere to deliver not one, but two New York Times bestsellers. Her latest, 'Big Little Lies', went straight to number one and now she has Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon optioning the novel. Liane opens up to Meredith Jaffe about her taste for ‘suburban noir’ and what it’s like to have struck a chord with readers worldwide.

A planet ravaged by climate change. A global population struck down by a fatal flu pandemic. The fictional future is a vision plagued with dystopian disaster. Why are so many of our finest novelists obsessed with the disquieting question: what next? Are these strange realities just sophisticated thought experiments or covert calls to action? Ashley Hay spoke with four writers who push the boundaries of imagined futures to reveal the anxieties of today: Emily St John Mandel, Jonathan Lethem, James Bradley and David Mitchell.

Kate Grenville is back with more moving stories about Australian lives. Her latest book is her most personal yet. Based on fragments of memoirs left by her mother, 'One Life' is an act of great imaginative sympathy. It is a daughter’s intimate account of a mother who mixed ambition with domesticity at a time of great change for women. Kate spoke to Tegan Bennett Daylight.

Every so often a book comes along that forces us to rethink our most basic assumptions. Don Watson’s latest work is one of those books. A poetic tour de force, 'The Bush: Travels in the Heart of Australia', is a celebratory exploration of the outback. Part historical rumination, part poetic yarn, it is filled with a rich sense of wonder. Don spoke with ABC Radio’s Eleanor Hall.

Author and Oxford scholar Jonathan Bate shared the stage with actor and director John Bell to talk about their love of The Bard. Few people are more intimate with the work of Shakespeare than these two gentlemen (not of Verona). Jonathan Bate wrote 'The Genius of Shakespeare' and a one-man play 'Being Shakespeare'. John Bell founded Bell Shakespeare and wrote 'On Shakespeare', his reminiscences of 50 years in Shakespeare’s company.

American memoirist and critic Daniel Mendelsohn and Australian writer and poet David Malouf share a deep appreciation for the classics. The pair sat down to muse on why ancient narratives hold such power, the key elements of artistic longevity, and what the classics teach us about life and literature today.