Episodes

  • Garth Nix on his new novel for kids, 'We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord'
    Nov 18 2024

    All Kim wants to do is play Dungeons & Dragons with his friends and ride his bike around the local lake. But he has always lived in the shadow of his younger sister. Eila is a prodigy, and everyone talks about how smart she is, though in Kim's eyes, she has no common sense. So when Eila finds an enigmatic, otherworldly globe which gives her astonishing powers, Kim not only has to save his sister from herself, he might also have to save the world from his sister!

    In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Garth Nix about his childhood obsession with the Dungeons and Dragons board game, how that game was fundamental to his development as an author, and the snippets of his own childhood growing up in Canberra that have crept into this story.

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    17 mins
  • Isobelle Carmody on a reluctant hero on an epic quest into an alternative dream world in 'Comes the Night'
    Nov 17 2024

    Will Helloran is sixteen years old and lives with his father in the Canberra dome complex that protects its inhabitants from the corrosive atmosphere outside. At night his dreams are haunted by his beloved uncle Adam, who unexpectedly died in his sleep almost a year ago. As the nightmares grow increasingly disturbing, Will comes to believe that his uncle's death may have been suspicious - and he begins investigating. Meanwhile, his best friend Ender is becoming concerned about her brilliant, troubled twin Magda, who has a top-secret intelligence role. When Magda disappears, Will is drawn into a web bigger than he can imagine. If he and his friends are to survive, he must navigate his way out of the treacherous dreamscape while staying safe in the waking world.

    In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Isobelle Carmody about why the city of Canberra became the setting for 'Comes the Night', why dreams can be the catalyst for action in the real world, and why it was important to introduce a political dimension into the story.

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    21 mins
  • Chris Baker on life, love, memory and taking the plunge in 'Swimming Sydney'
    Nov 2 2024

    Swimming Sydney is a tale of 52 swims in and around Sydney that take place over a calendar year. From Palm Beach to Cronulla, Mount Druitt to Bondi, Chris Baker swims at iconic beaches, municipal pools, harbour baths, tidal rock pools, bushland lakes and a backyard pool. Taking his weekly plunges, Baker reflects on friendship, history and family, and how swimming can help us better understand ourselves.

    Swimming Sydney is a valentine to the beautiful obsession of swimming in the world’s most beautiful city. It’s a book for everyone who loves swimming, who loves Sydney, and who understands that storytelling is the best way to navigate life’s emotional currents.

    In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Chris Baker about what swimming means to him, how swimming connects us to people, place, community and history, and why his favourite swim is a place of memory and remembrance.

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    29 mins
  • Chris Hammer on small town crime and blood relatives in 'The Valley'
    Oct 31 2024

    A controversial entrepreneur is murdered in a remote mountain valley, but this is no ordinary case. Ivan and Nell are soon contending with cowboy lawyers, conmen, bullion thieves and grave robbers. But it's when Nell discovers the victim is a close blood relative that the past begins to take on a looming significance.

    What did take place in The Valley all those years ago? What was Nell's mother doing there, and what was her connection to troubled young police officer Simmons Burnside? And why do the police hierarchy insist Ivan and Nell stay with the case despite an obvious conflict of interest?

    In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Chris Hammer about how his early non-fiction became the foundation for his crime thrillers, how his landscapes in rural Australia give rise to his characters and plots, and why small towns are great places for setting crime fiction.


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    19 mins
  • Melissa Lucashenko on her 2024 Historical Novel Society award-winning novel, 'Edenglassie'
    Oct 23 2024

    When Mulanyin meets the beautiful Nita in Edenglassie, their saltwater people still outnumber the British. As colonial unrest peaks, Mulanyin dreams of taking his bride home to Yugambeh Country, but his plans for independence collide with white justice. Two centuries later, fiery activist Winona meets Dr Johnny. Together they care for obstinate centenarian Granny Eddie, and sparks fly, but not always in the right direction. What nobody knows is how far the legacies of the past will reach into their modern lives.

    In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Melissa Lucashenko about what historical fiction stories can they tell us about our past and our present, the sources Melissa draws on to create her carefully drawn characters, and the hope she harbours for the future of First Nations storytelling and the nation as a whole.

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    17 mins
  • Beverley McWilliams on her 2024 Historical Novel Society prize-winning novel for children, 'Spies in the Sky'
    Oct 23 2024

    Royal Blue is a royal racing pigeon from a long line of champions. Every morning he wakes in his comfortable loft at Sandringham House, eats the very best seeds and spends the day training with his best friend to be the fastest and strongest pigeon in Britain.

    But there’s a war going on, and things are changing. Then one day the King himself comes to the loft and chooses Blue for a very special assignment. As Blue goes on missions, helping with rescues, carrying secret messages and facing dangers he never could have imagined, one thing will become clear: never underestimate a pigeon.

    In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Beverley McWilliams about how she came to know so much about pigeons, why telling s story from a pigeon's point of view was so much fun, and how her love of history helps her create great stories for children.

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    19 mins
  • Kathy Mexted on the incredible stories of Australian women who reach for the sky in 'Take Flight'
    Oct 15 2024

    From balancing on a wingtip to circling with eagles, Take Flight tells the stories of Australian women who have leapt, tumbled and dived, and reached for the stars. Helicopter pilot Alida Soemawinata ascends over Kata Tjuṯa. Paramotor pilot Sacha Dench follows migrating swans from the Arctic tundra to the English countryside. Birdwoman Stef Walter wing walks. Hot air balloonist Donna Tasker glides over Bristol, Myanmar and much of Australia. Gomeroi astrophysicist Krystal De Napoli studies the Seven Sisters in the dark night sky. Aerobatic pilot Emma McDonald debuts her solo routine at an airshow high above the glittering Gold Coast. In Take Flight, author and pilot Kathy Mexted celebrates the determination, skill and expertise of ten women who have beaten the odds to find success and joy in our skies.

    In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Kathy Mexted about how to build a flying family, the passion and inspiration that has driven Australian women to take to the sky, and what it takes to address the risks and overcome the fear of flying in all its manifestations.

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    19 mins
  • Emily Rodda on her epic three part fantasy adventure, 'Landovel'
    Oct 13 2024

    Derry knows no other life than that of a captive on Cram's Rock, shunned by the other young prisoners for being Cram's poison taster. Until the day everything changes, when a traveller arrives, on the run from the sinister El executioners. She leaves Derry with a magical notebook full of secrets, secrets that might hold the key to Derry's destiny – and his past.

    In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Emily Rodda about the joy she still finds in writing fantasy fiction for young people, the fascination she feels for all her characters, and the importance of cultivating imagination in all aspects of our lives.

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    19 mins