A quick note to let you know the podcast of my conversation with Alex Miller is now up. You can find it at the 720 ABC Perth website, here, or you can search in the iTunes store and download it to your computer, or iPod/iPhone for listening on the go. If you get a chance, let … Continue reading From Miller to McKellen
Perth Writers Festival 2010
Perth Writers Festival 2010 diary, part three: ‘I have just three questions…’
The last three days just slipped by. I thought I felt the Earth rotating beneath my feet on Monday night as I watched the sun set on Cottesloe Beach. My first sunset. A pink ribbon with little ships in it. Some people paused and others continued splashing and squawking like the rainbow birds. On the University campus, … Continue reading Perth Writers Festival 2010 diary, part three: ‘I have just three questions…’
Perth Writers Fest 2010 diary, part two: re-reading Alex Miller’s Prochownik’s Dream
Yesterday was my Q&A with Alex Miller, mainly focusing on his new novel Lovesong. I'm happy to report the session (where we actually covered a lot of ground, and got some great audience questions) will be available as a podcast on 720 ABC Perth. Watch this space. I'll write more about my sessions and general … Continue reading Perth Writers Fest 2010 diary, part two: re-reading Alex Miller’s Prochownik’s Dream
Perth Writers Festival 2010 diary, part one: ‘mint’ ideas
We live 'by and through and for ideas' said AC Grayling at last night's opening address. But the majority of ideas that we possess, that have shaped us - the way we see and react to the world - are unconscious or at least unexamined. Spinoza said that freedom came from making the 'inadequate' ideas 'adequate', that … Continue reading Perth Writers Festival 2010 diary, part one: ‘mint’ ideas
Eleanor Catton’s The Rehearsal
Granta 2009 (Aus/NZ, US) 9781847081162 All the world’s a stage… A novel as a performance, more – a novel as flirtation (the performance of flirting): self-conscious, inviting yet exclusive. The reader is all the roles, all the characters and all the actors – for in The Rehearsal there are layers of fictional existence – blended, … Continue reading Eleanor Catton’s The Rehearsal
Go west! Perth Writers Fest 2010 program released
I've never been to Western Australia. Isn't that nuts? I've been to Europe, I've been to the USA and I've been to Asia, but never the other side of my own country. Lucky for me, the lovely organisers of Perth Writers Festival have invited me along this year. Besides my sessions, I am expecting to catch … Continue reading Go west! Perth Writers Fest 2010 program released