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Welcome to the Good Reading Podcasts.
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LISTEN TO OUR MOST RECENT PODCASTS
Stephen Doyle arrives in Manchester from New York. He is an Irish-American veteran of the Civil War and a member of the Fenians, a secret society intent on ending British rule in Ireland, by any means necessary. Now he has come to seek vengeance.
James O'Connor has fled grief and drink in Dublin for a sober start in Manchester as Head Constable. His mission is to discover and thwart the Fenians’ plans. When his long-lost nephew arrives on his doorstep, he never could have foreseen how this would imperil his fragile new life – or how his and Doyle's fates would come to be intertwined.
In this episode, Booker Prize longlisted author Ian Mcguire joins Max Lewis to unpack his gritty new historical fiction novel, The Abstainer.
Leon Silver on the true family story of love and survival in his book The Miracle Typist
Conscripted into the Polish army as Hitler’s forces draw closer, Jewish soldier Tolek Klings vows to return to his wife, Klara, and son, Juliusz. However, the army is rife with anti-Semitism and Tolek is relentlessly tormented. As the Germans invade Poland, he is faced with a terrible dilemma: flee home to protect his family – and risk being shot as a deserter – or remain a soldier, hoping reports of women and children being spared by the occupying forces are true.
What follows is an extraordinary odyssey that will take Tolek – via a daring escape from a Hungarian internment camp – to Palestine, where his ability to type earns him the title of ‘The Miracle Typist’, then on to fight in Egypt, Tobruk and Italy. A broken telegram from Klara, ending with the haunting words, ‘We trouble’, makes Tolek even more determined to find his way home and fulfil his promise.
In this episode, Leon Silver joins Greg Dobbs to tell the true story of his father-in-law Tolek Klings that inspired his book The Miracle Typist.
Petronella McGovern unpacks her tense psychological thriller The Good Teacher
Every evening, Allison watches her husband's new house, desperate to find some answers. Every morning, she puts on a brave face to teach kindergarten. She's a good teacher, everyone says so - this stalking is just a tiny crack in her usual self-control.
A late enrolment into her class brings little Gracie. Allison takes the sick girl under her wing, smothering Gracie with the love she can't give her own son. When Gracie has a chance to go to America for treatment, Allison whips up the community into a frenzied fundraising drive.But as others start to question her judgement and the police arrive at her door, Allison wonders if she can trust herself. Has she crossed a line? How far will the good teacher go to save a life? And whose life will that be?
In this episode, Greg Dobbs joins Petronella McGovern to chat about her latest psychological thriller, The Good Teacher.
Kate Mildenhall talks dystopia, motherhood & the sailing trip of a lifetime in The Mother Fault
Mim’s husband is missing. No one knows where Ben is, but everyone wants to find him – especially The Department. And they should know, the all-seeing government body has fitted the entire population with a universal tracking chip to keep them ‘safe’.But suddenly Ben can’t be tracked. And Mim is questioned, made to surrender her passport and threatened with the unthinkable – her two children being taken into care at the notorious BestLife.
Cornered, Mim risks everything to go on the run to find her husband – and a part of herself, long gone, that is brave enough to tackle the journey ahead. From the stark backroads of the Australian outback to a terrifying sea voyage, Mim is forced to shuck off who she was – mother, daughter, wife, sister – and become the woman she needs to be to save her family and herself.
In this episode, Kate Mildenhall joins Max Lewis to chat about living in an almost-dystopia while writing 'The Mother Fault', the influences of her own motherhood on her writing, and almost dying while researching for the book.
S L Lim on desire, art and the power of resistance in Revenge: Murder in three parts
A family favour their son over their daughter ... Shan attends university before making his fortune in Australia while Yannie must find menial employment and care for her ageing parents. After her mother’s death, Yannie travels to Sydney to become enmeshed in her psychopathic brother’s new life, which she seeks to undermine from within …
Revenge is a novel that rages against capitalism, hetero-supremacy, mothers, fathers, families – the whole damn thing. It’s about what happens when you want to make art but are born in the wrong time and place. S L Lim brings to vivid life the frustrations of a talented daughter and vengeful sister in a nuanced and riveting novel that ends in the most unexpected way. It will not be easily forgotten.
In this episode Max Lewis joins S L Lim to talk the fiery follow up to 'Real Differences', the 'grubby compromises' we make in order to create art, and the inspiring work of the brit-pop band Pulp.
Meg Keneally on confronting (and escaping) the past in her colonial-era novel The Wreck
In 1820 Sarah McCaffrey, fleeing arrest for her part in a failed rebellion, thinks she has escaped when she finds herself aboard the Serpent, bound from London to the colony of New South Wales. But when the mercurial captain's actions drive the ship into a cliff, Sarah is the only survivor. Adopting a false identity, she becomes the right-hand woman of Molly Thistle, who has grown her late husband's business interests into a sprawling real estate and trade empire. As time passes, Sarah begins to believe she might have found a home - until her past follows her across the seas ...
In this episode, Meg Keneally joins Greg Dobbs to chat about her new historical fiction novel The Wreck.
Andrew Boe on Australia's flawed justice system in The Truth Hurts
Drawing on his experiences as a child of Burmese migrants fleeing a military junta and his evolution from a naive law clerk, too shy to speak, into a lawyer whose ponytailed flamboyance and unbridled willingness to speak truth to power riled many within the legal establishment, Andrew Boe delves into cases he found unable to leave behind. These cases have shaped who he has become.
Taking us from a case of traditional punishment gone wrong in the Gibson Desert to deaths in police custody on Palm Island and in Yuendumu in the Northern Territory - places where race relations are often stalled in a colonial time warp - to an isolated rural home, and the question of what is self-defence after decades of domestic abuse; to cases of children abandoned, 'stolen' and then fought over; and into prison interview rooms and courthouses around the country where Boe defended serial killers, rapists, child sex offenders, murderers as well as the odd politician - he holds fast to the premise that either every one of us is entitled to the presumption of innocence or none of us are.
In this episode, Andrew joins Max Lewis to expand on The Truth Hurts - explaining our misconception that the justice system is designed to find the truth, and the effect of the Black Lives Matter movement on this country's tragedy of Indigenous deaths in custody.
Jess Scully on how a better world is possible in Glimpses of Utopia
It’s hard to be excited about the future right now. Jess Scully asks, What can we do? The answer is: plenty! All over the world, people are refusing the business-as-usual mindset and putting humans back into the civic equation, reimagining work and care, finance and government, urban planning and communication, to make them better and fairer for all.
Meet the care workers reclaiming control in India and Lebanon, the people turning slums into safe havens in Kenya and Bangladesh, and champions of people-powered digital democracy in Iceland and Taiwan. There are radical bankers funding renewable energy in the USA and architects redesigning real estate in Australia, new payment systems in Italy and the Philippines that keep money in local communities, and innovators redesigning taxation to cut pollution and incentivise creative solutions.
Glimpses of Utopia is a call for optimism. Humans everywhere are rising up to confront our challenges with creativity, resilience and compassion. Harnessing technology and imagination, we can reshape our world to be fair and sustainable. Jess Scully shows us how.
Rose Carlyle on exciting twists and evil twins
Beautiful twin sisters Iris and Summer are startlingly alike, but beyond what the eye can see lies a darkness that sets them apart. Cynical and insecure, Iris has long been envious of open-hearted Summer's seemingly never-ending good fortune, including her perfect husband, Adam. Called to Thailand to help sail the family yacht to the Seychelles, Iris nurtures her own secret hopes for what might happen on the journey. But when she unexpectedly finds herself alone in the middle of the Indian Ocean, everything changes.
Now is her chance to take what she's always wanted - the idyllic life she's always coveted. But just how far will she go to get the life she's dreamed about? And how will she make sure no one discovers the truth?
Written with the chilling suspense of The Girl on the Train and Before I Go to Sleep, The Girl in the Mirror is an addictive thriller about greed, lust, secrets and deadly lies.
In this episode, Rose joins Erin Christie to discuss what it's been like writing her first novel and releasing it during a pandemic, and how it was to create a family of siblings who share an intense rivalry, despite the lovely and supportive relationship she shares with her own sister.
AUGUST BOOK CLUB - A chat with Charlotte McConaghy
How far you would you go for love? Franny Stone is determined to go to the end of the earth, following the last of the Arctic terns on what may be their final migration to Antarctica.
As animal populations plummet and commercial fishing faces prohibition, Franny talks her way onto one of the few remaining boats heading south. But as she and the eccentric crew travel further from shore and safety, the dark secrets of Franny’s life begin to unspool. A daughter’s yearning search for her mother. An impulsive, passionate marriage. A shocking crime. Haunted by love and violence, Franny must confront what she is really running towards – and from.
In this episode, Erin Christie speaks to Charlotte McConaghy about The Last Migration - and the incredible amount of research that went into it - launching a book in a pandemic, and leaning into the climate crisis.
'Beyond the Pale': Adrian Tame on his time at Australia's most notorious paper in The Awful Truth
Hailed as ‘a fearless exposer of folly, vice and crime’ when it first hit the streets in the 1890s, Truth was later condemned by a High Court Judge as ‘a wretched little paper, reeking of filth, injurious to the health of house servants and young girls’.
Adrian Tame knows that better than anyone as he worked for Truth for more than a decade as a reporter and news editor. In the years it was owned by the Murdoch family he worked alongside young Rupert as he cut his teeth on the shock horror scandals that graced the pages of Truth when it was selling a whopping 400,000 copies a week.
Funny, often outrageous and always thoroughly entertaining, The Awful Truth is a rollercoaster ride through an colourful era of newspapers and larger-than-life reporters that we will never see the like of again.
In this episode, Adrian joins Max Lewis to chat about revisiting his scandalous time at 'Truth' (including a Bikie story too shocking for the book), and his opinions on journalism today.
Paddy Manning shares the human cost of climate change in Body Count
Suddenly, when the country caught fire, people realised what the government has not: that climate change is killing us. But climate deaths didn’t start in 2019. Medical officers have been warning of a health emergency as temperatures rise for years, and for at least a decade Australians have been dying from the plagues of climate change – from heat, flood, disease, smoke. And now, pandemic.
In this detailed, considered, compassionate book, Paddy Manning paints us the big picture. He revisits some headline events which might have faded in our memory, and brings to our attention less well-publicised killers. In each case, he has interviewed scientists to explore the link to climate change and asks how – indeed, whether – we can better prepare ourselves in the future.
In this episode, Paddy joins Max Lewis to open up about his experience in writing the book, and how the current climate disaster and COVID-19 pandemic have more in common than we might think.
Julie Sprigg on the life of a physiotherapist in Ethiopia in Small Steps
As a child, Julie dreamed of being somewhere else, of making a difference. Now, she can’t wait to meet the nuns she will live with and the children she will provide physiotherapy for in Ethiopia.
But Julie has trouble sticking to convent rules and soon finds herself wondering how much difference a single physio can make anyway.
When she takes a teaching role at a university, Julie finally feels closer to fulfilling her dreams – training Ethiopia’s first physiotherapists, treating paediatric patients, and losing her heart to a handsome colleague.
Then civil unrest reaches the university, forcing Julie’s students to choose between their safety and their future. When it comes to being a part of change, why do all steps feel like small steps?
In this episode, Max Lewis joins Julie as she reflects on her time in Ethiopia.
Greg James & Chris Smith on the exciting finale of the Kid Normal series
Murph Cooper is famous … and he's not happy about it.Kid Normal and the Super Zeroes used to save the day in secret. But suddenly everyone knows who they are.
Oily villain Nicholas Knox has told the public that superheroes are dangerous. He wants to lock them all up and take over the world! *Cue evil cackling*
Murph must expose Knox's evil plan, or the world of heroes is doomed forever!
In this episode, Max Lewis joins Greg and Chris to chat about the Kid Normal series, and its thrilling final book.
In 2015, Eva Holland was forced to confront her greatest fear when her mother unexpectedly had a stroke and passed away. After the shock and grief subsided, Holland was sent on a deep dive into the science of fear, digging into an array of universal and personal questions.
On her journey, Holland meets with scientists who are working to eliminate phobias with a single pill, she explores the lives of the few individuals who suffer from a rare disease that prevents them from ever feeling fear, and she immerses herself in her own fears, including hurling herself out of a plane.
In this episode, Max Lewis chats with Eva Holland about her debut Nerve, to find out more about her journey into her own fears, and how she came out the other side.
On a night of raging winds and rain, Captain Cook's Endeavour lies splintered on a coral reef off the coast of far north Australia. A small disparate band of survivors, fracturing already, huddle on the shore of this strange land - their pitiful salvage scant protection from the dangers of the unknown creatures and natives that live here.
Watching these mysterious white beings, the Guugu Yimidhirr people cannot decide if they are ancestor spirits to be welcomed - or hostile spirits to be speared. One headstrong young boy, Garrgiil, determines to do more than watch and to be the one to find out what exactly they are.
In On a Barbarous Coast, Craig Cormick and Harold Ludwick tell a story of what might have been if things went a little differently. The pair joined Max Lewis to chat about creating fiction from reality, and the importance of Indigenous perspective when it comes to the discovery of this land.
But this is no happy-ever-after tree change. Lecture halls, law reform and the arts are replaced with castrating calves, shovelling manure, fire-fighting and anti-gas blockades. In a place that attracts people who live by their own rules, Hayley must confront her limitations and preconceptions to forge her own identity.
Anna Austen has always been told she must marry rich. Her future depends upon it. While her dear cousin Fanny has a little more choice, she too is under pressure to find a suitor.
But how can either girl know what she wants? Is finding love even an option? The only person who seems to have answers is their Aunt Jane. She has never married. In fact, she's perfectly happy, so surely being single can't be such a bad thing?
The time will come for each of the Austen girls to become the heroines of their own stories. Will they follow in Jane's footsteps?
In this episode, historian Lucy Worsley chats to Erin Christie about her love of history and Jane Austen, and how she plans to pass this on to the next generation of young girls through her writing.
In the course of a lifetime, Jack will travel far, always caught between fleeing from and seeking those things he needs: a mother’s precious gift, a lover in a time of war, the loss of a child, a kind and steady woman.
And, across time and across continents, old Jack Muir will remember those who helped him become a decent man, a better father and a friend.
In this episode, Western Australian author Jon Doust chats with Greg Dobbs about Return Ticket, the final book in his trilogy that began with the Booker longlisted Boy on a Wire.
Beginning as a short-form web series, The Drop-Off by performing/writing duo Fiona Harris and Mike McLeish has been adapted to a full length novel. Max chatted about the journey from screen to page, and working together as a married couple.
The debut book of Sydney-based Journalist and reporter Shannon Molloy, Fourteen is a story about his fourteenth year of life as a gay kid at an all-boys rugby-mad Catholic school in regional Queensland. It was a year of torment, bullying and betrayal – not just at the hands of his peers, but by adults who were meant to protect him.
Shannon joined Max Lewis to chat about the cathartic process of writing the book, the unfortunate fate of Safe Schools and how it may have helped a teenager like him, and the best pop bangers of the late 90s.
From the author of 'The Lace Weaver' comes a new historical fiction novel, drawing from the unseen character of a Jonathan Swift's classic 'Gulliver's Travels'.
London, 1702. When her husband is lost at sea, Mary Burton Gulliver, midwife and herbalist, is forced to rebuild her life without him. But three years later when Lemuel Gulliver is brought home, fevered and communicating only in riddles, her ordered world is turned upside down.
'Australia saved me': Ayik Chut Deng on life as a Sudanese child soldier in 'The Lost Boy'
[CONTENT WARNING: This podcast contains descriptions of war and mental illness that may upset listeners. Discretion is advised. In addition, the intro contains descriptions of violence against a child; skip to 1:34 in the podcast if you'd like to avoid this.]
As a boy living in the Dinka tribe in what is now South Sudan, the youngest country in the world, Ayik Chut Deng was a member of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). During his time as a child soldier, he witnessed unspeakable violence and was regularly tortured by older boys. At age nineteen, he and his family escaped the conflict in Sudan and resettled in Toowoomba, Australia.
Overcoming a childhood filled with torture and war was a process of lifelong learning, choices and challenges that included a remarkable chance encounter with a figure from his past, and an appearance on national television.
In this episode, Ayik Chut Deng joined Max Lewis to chat about the writing of his memoir The Lost Boy: Tales of a Child Soldier, and how he overcame unimaginable trauma to become the man he is today.
'Are some deceptions necessary?': Suzanne Leal on betrayal and family secrets in 'The Deceptions'
Prague, 1943. Taken from her home in Prague, Hana Lederova finds herself imprisoned in the Jewish ghetto of Theresienstadt, where she is forced to endure appalling deprivation and the imminent threat of transportation to the east. When she attracts the attention of the Czech gendarme who becomes her guard, Hana reluctantly accepts his advances, hoping for the protection she so desperately needs.
Sydney, 2010. Manipulated into a liaison with her married boss, Tessa knows she needs to end it, but how? Tessa's grandmother, Irena, also has something to hide. Harkening back to the Second World War, hers is a carefully kept secret that, if revealed, would send shockwaves well beyond her own fractured family.
In this episode, Suzanne Leal joins Max Lewis to share the true story of wartime betrayal that inspired the decade-spanning twists and turns of her latest novel, The Deceptions.
Pip Williams on missing words and forgotten women in The Dictionary of Lost Words
In 1901, the word bondmaid was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.
Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of lexicographers are gathering words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary.
Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day, she sees a slip containing the word bondmaid flutter to the floor unclaimed. Esme seizes the word and hides it in an old wooden trunk that belongs to her friend, Lizzie, a young servant in the big house. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. She begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.
In this episode, Pip Williams joins Greg Dobbs to share the true stories (and real women) behind the first Oxford dictionary, and how they informed her latest book.
Laura Jean McKay on crafting a talking animal apocalypse in 'The Animals in That Country'
As disturbing news arrives of a pandemic sweeping the country, Jean realises this is no ordinary flu: its chief symptom is that its victims begin to understand the language of animals — first mammals, then birds and insects, too. As the flu progresses, the unstoppable voices become overwhelming, and many people begin to lose their minds, including Jean’s infected son, Lee. When he takes off with Kimberly, heading south, Jean feels the pull to follow her kin.
In this episode, Laura Jean McKay joins Max Lewis to chat about the process behind her apocalyptic/speculative fiction debut, and what animal she'd most like to talk to.
A face-off on the waterfront between the unions and big business is just the kind of story to get her career back on track. But after a dockworker who confided in her turns up dead, Chrissie becomes obsessed with unravelling the truth. When a gruesome threat lands on her desk, it's clear someone is prepared to do anything to stop her.
In this episode, Greg Dobbs chats to Karina Kilmore about how she weaved her decades of experience as a journalist, and her family history of unions and dock workers, into her debut crime novel 'Where the Truth Lies'. Out now via Simon & Schuster
Ariana Neumann joined Gregory Dobbs to chat about the process of uncovering her father's past.
In this episode, Greg Dobbs chats to Sophie about the themes of consent and reclaiming the body, and how her Synesthesia influenced the novel's vivid prose.
In his most intimate prose work to date, Kinsella never shies from writing about the violence and intolerance of those scared of difference, and the ways in which his ethics have sometimes been met with disdain or outright hostility. But with nuance and humour he also celebrates rural community and its willingness to lend a hand.
In this episode, John joins Max Lewis to chat about belonging, creating a dialogue, decolonisation and anti-consumerism, and the best vegan meal.
Returning to her home town of Pittenweem, fishwife and widow Sorcha McIntyre knows she faces both censure and mistrust. After all, this is a country where myth and legend are woven into the fabric of the everyday, a time when those who defy custom like Sorcha has are called to account.
Based on the shocking true story of the witch hunt of Pittenweem, The Darkest Shore is a beautifully written historical tale of the strength of women united against a common foe, by one of Australia's finest writers - Karen Brooks.
Emma Harvey chatted to Karen about how her history in the army inspired her love of maps, representing the women ignored by history, rude Scottish booksellers, and the novelty mug her step-mother hates.
Tanya Bretherton is the acclaimed author of The Suitcase Baby and The Suicide Bride, and her latest book The Killing Streets unpacks Australia's first serial murders and the panic that followed. In this episode, Max Lewis chats with Tanya about the social history of the case, and what gave her the true crime bug.
Anita Abriel on the true story of survival and hope in The Light After the War
Anita Abriel based The Light After The War on her mother Vera's experiences of surviving the holocaust and carving out a new life for herself in Naples, Venezuela and finally Sydney.
Max Lewis chatted to Anita about the personal story behind the book, her experiences in writing her first historical fiction novel, and the powers of love and fate in her writing.
Emily Clements on sex, self and travel in her memoir The Lotus Eaters
The Lotus Eaters is a sharply written story of self-redemption from an exciting young voice in Australian memoir that dissects the patterns of blame and shame women can form around their bodies and relationships.
In this episode, Emily chats with Emma Harvey about the process of re-visiting her tumultuous time in Vietnam, the intersection between beauty standards, self esteem, and language, and her favourite Vietnamese phrases.
How 25 years in the Victorian Police Force shaped D L Hicks' debut crime novel The Devil Inside
In a peaceful coastal town, a young woman is found brutally murdered, a piece of scripture held tightly in her hand. Local detective Charlotte Callaghan is put on the case, and she’s glad for the distraction – Gull Bay can be a hard place to keep a secret, and she’s holding on to a few.
A gripping crime novel about murder, betrayal and the monsters who hide in plain sight, The Devil Inside examines the line between good and evil, and how circumstance can alter a person’s life in the blink of an eye.
In this episode, Max Lewis chatted to D L Hicks about how his two-decades of service to the Victorian Police Force influenced the twists and turns of his debut novel.
Genevieve Gannon on the real case of an IVF mixup that inspired her family drama The Mothers
What if the baby you gave birth to belonged to someone else?
Grace and Dan are in their forties and have been on the IVF treadmill since the day they got married. Priya and her husband Nick are being treated at the same fertility clinic, and while they don't face the same pressure as the Ardens, the younger couple have their own problems.
A year on, one of the women learns her embryo was implanted in the other's uterus and must make a devastating choice: live a childless life knowing her son is being raised by strangers or seek custody of a baby who has been nurtured and loved by another couple.
Emma Harvey chatted to journalist and writer of The Mothers, Genevieve Gannon, about the real cases of IVF mixup that inspired her book, and how Australia's IVF policy stacks up with the rest of the world.
‘It’s not beyond us to achieve this’: Peter Singer's plan to eradicate world poverty
For the first time in history, it is now within our reach to eradicate extreme poverty on a global scale. In this episode, Peter Singer speaks to both the head and the heart, demonstrating how each of us has the opportunity to make a huge difference in the lives of others, without diminishing the quality of our own.
The 10th anniversary revised eBook and celebrity-read audiobook of The Life You Can Save is out today and completely FREE: thelifeyoucansave.org/the-book/
Get involved and start giving: www.thelifeyoucansave.org.au/
Benjamin Gilmour has been a paramedic for the past twenty years. He has seen his fair share of drama. But the summer of 2008 remains etched in his memory for the very worst reasons.
The Gap is a vivid portrait of the lead-up to Christmas; an unflinching, no-holds-barred look at what happens after the triple-zero call is made – the drugs, nightclubs, brothels, drunk rich kids, billionaires, domestic disputes, the elderly, emergency births, even a kidnapping.
In this episode, Max Lewis chats to Benjamin Gilmour about the arduous process of writing The Gap, and reflecting on his month from hell over a decade on.
'Journalists have license to put their nose where it's not wanted': Chris Hammer on 'Silver'
For half a lifetime, journalist Martin Scarsden has run from his past. But now there is no escaping.
In Silver the follow-up to the bestselling Scrublands, Chris Hammer continues the story of Martin Scarsden as he returns to his hometown of Port Silver. Soon he and his new partner Mandy Blonde are embroiled in a brutal murder and a media storm, bringing them face to face with their past.
In this episode, Greg Dobbs chats to Chris Hammer fresh from winning the Crime Writers' Association New Blood Dagger Award, to find out how his decades of experience as a journalist gives his crime writing a unique spin.
Back when Harry Bosch was just a rookie homicide detective he had an inspiring mentor, John Jack Thompson, who taught him to take the work personally and light the fire of relentlessness for every case. Now John Jack is dead and Harry inherits a murder book that Thompson took with him when he left the LAPD 20 years before — the unsolved killing of a troubled young man in an alley used for drug deals.Bosch brings the murder book to Renée Ballard and asks her to help him find what about the case lit Thompson’s fire all those years ago. That will be their starting point.
The bond between Bosch and Ballard tightens as they become a formidable investigative team. And they soon arrive at a worrying question: Did Thompson steal the murder book to work the case in retirement, or to make sure it never got solved?
In this episode, Greg Dobbs chats to best-selling author Michael Connelly about returning to the 'bleached noir' of LA with his latest book The Night Fire.
Heather Rose on sand, sunburn and building a bridge to Bruny
Award-winning author of The Museum of Modern Love, Heather Rose, is a sixth-generation Tasmanian. In this episode, Emma Harvey sits down with Heather to talk about the importance of engaging with those we disagree with, how she learned to rid ego and romanticism from her craft, and why her explosive new satire Bruny is proving more prophetic by the day.
'Dude, it was like an exorcism': Holden Sheppard on writing his YA LGBTQI+ novel Invisible Boys
[CONTENT WARNING: This podcast discusses issues of mental health and suicide]
In a small town, everyone thinks they know you: Charlie is a hardcore rocker, who's not as tough as he looks. Hammer is a footy jock with big AFL dreams, and an even bigger ego. Zeke is a shy over-achiever, never macho enough for his family. But all three boys hide who they really are. When the truth is revealed, will it set them free or blow them apart?
Invisible Boys is the debut novel of WA author Holden Sheppard, which draws upon his adolescence growing up as a gay man in the regional town of Geraldton. In this episode, Holden chats to Max Lewis about the trials and tribulations of writing such a personal book, looking back on the same-sex marriage plebiscite two years on, and what he would say to a young man struggling with his sexuality.
'I will always be sad when I read those chapters': Mary Moody on cancer, compost and cracking on
If you'd told Mary Moody when she was 21 that she was going to grow up writing columns about compost, she would have thrown her hands up in horror.
In 1971, off the back of a cadetship at Women's Weekly, Mary wanted to become a TV news reporter. Unfortunately for her, in those days, only men were afforded that gig. Instead she forged a diverse career as a 'show-biz' journalist, a 'hippy-dippy' stay-at-home mum, host of ABC TV’s Gardening Australia, bestselling memoirist and finally, an 'accidental tour guide.'
The latter is the inspiration for her latest book, a memoir and adventure story about leading botanical treks in France, Morocco, Spain, Mongolia and the Himalayas. In this episode, Mary talks to Gregory Dobbs about learning, loving and losing a life partner.
Katherine Johnson on the hidden history of 19th century human zoos
Paris Savages is a fictional account of events from the late 19th century when human zoos were big business across Europe. It follows the journey of three Indigenous Australians from the Badtjala tribe of Fraser Island who make the perilous journey to Germany and France where they are admired, feared and exploited for mass entertainment masquerading as science and education.
In this complex and powerful story, layers of history are carefully peeled back to reveal a hidden world driven by profit and racism. Gregory Dobbs talks to award-winning author Katherine Johnson about the real people behind the story of Paris Savages.
Heather Morris on the woman who survived Auschwitz and a Siberian Gulag
Cilka Klein is just sixteen years old when she is sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Constantly in the shadow of death she quickly learns that survival comes at a price. She eventually finds herself imprisoned in the Russian gulag where survival is no less easy.
In this sequel to the international best-seller The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris explains how this heart-breaking story came to be. Gregory Dobbs talks to Heather about the research, how she found the story and the real person behind Cilka's Journey.
Jamil Jivani on why young men are being turned to violence, and what we can do to stop it
The day after the 2015 Paris terror attacks, twenty-eight-year-old Canadian Jamil Jivani opened the newspaper to find that the men responsible were familiar to him. He didn’t know them, but the communities they grew up in and the challenges they faced mirrored the circumstances of his own life.
His book, Why Young Men traces Jivani’s education as an activist fighting one of today’s most dangerous and intractable problems: acts of violence by angry young men. Jivani relates his personal story, his work with disenfranchised people of colour in North America and at risk youth in the Middle East and Africa, and his experiences with the white working class. He profiles a diverse array of young men – and those trying to help them – drawing parallels between these groups, refuting the popular belief that they are radically different from each other, and offering concrete steps towards countering this global trend.
Jamil joined Max Lewis to chat about the process of writing the book and revisiting his adolescence, the role of the media in shaping identity, and what parents can do to make sure their sons aren't going down a dangerous path.
'We had no idea what life was going to be': Bernadette Agius on raising a son with Down syndrome
‘It was cathartic, it was sad, it was humbling, it was joyful. I feel very exposed. But I don’t regret it.’ – Bernadette Agius on writing I’m Staying at Richard’s, a heartwarming memoir on the joys and challenges of raising a son with Down syndrome.
In this episode, Bernadette breaks down misconceptions, shares some hilarious memories (like that time Richard unwrapped the entire family’s Christmas presents) and recalls how Richard reacted when he first read the book.
Ondine Sherman on Alaskan hunters, bad grammar and a bustling backyard zoo
When she was a young girl, author and animal rights advocate Ondine Sherman wrote a letter to the editor of Animal Liberation magazine vowing that she would dedicate her life and career to improving the lives of animals. In 2019, she has more than made good on that promise, having co-founded the Australian animal protection institute, Voiceless, and published the Animal Allies series, a collection of young adult novels that inspire teenagers to question essential ethical issues. In this episode, Ondine talks with Emma Harvey about the incredible Alaskan wilderness, her favourite animal encounters, and the father-daughter relationship at the heart of her latest book, Snow.
Philippa Gregory: 'It’s extraordinary how little ordinary women have been recorded in history.'
Join Emma Harvey as she chats with the cover star of our September issue, Philippa Gregory, about her spectacular new series that exchanges the prosperity of the royal courts for the tidal marshes of 15th century Southern England.
Paullina Simons: 'This isn't a romance. It's a love story.'
Paullina Simons fans have been waiting in eager anticipation for another book from the prolific and internationally bestselling author of the Tatiana and Alexander series. Now she’s rolling out three at once.
In this episode, hosted by Emma Harvey, Paullina shares memories of growing up in Leningrad, drinking raspberry moonshine, and challenging readers' expectations in her genre-defying new trilogy, The End of Forever series.
'This man was broken': Tony Buti on Australia's only successful Stolen Generations claimant
On Christmas Day in 1957, Ngarrindjeri man Joe Trevorrow admitted his 13-month old son, Bruce, to Adelaide Hospital. Within days, Bruce was living with another family, and Joe would never see his son again. In his new book A Stolen Life: The Bruce Trevorrow Case, writer and politician Tony Buti meticulously and empathetically chronicles the story of Australia’s first and only successful Stolen Generations claimant, the irreversible anguish of a broken family, and a 13-year battle for justice.
In this episode of the Good Reading podcast, Tony chats with Pip Leason about the harrowing life of Bruce Trevorrow, the reverberations of his case, and the work that remains to be done.
Melbourne co-authors Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus have never had an argument
Last year, Melbourne co-authors Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus enchanted readers everywhere with their hilarious debut rom-com The Book Ninja. Now the powerpair are back to chat about their new book, While You Were Reading, a warm and witty tale of friendship, first dates and beloved second-hand books.
In this episode, Ali and Michelle talk to gr's Emma Harvey about balancing friendship with co-authorship, sharing a Kindle account, and sneaking their new novel onto Melbourne's public transport.
JAMES DUNK on illness, chaos and delusion in Australia's early colonies
What was life really like in the early years of the colony of Botany Bay?
Upon arrival, convicts and free settlers faced the perils of an unknown continent, thousands of miles from home and with a very uncertain future. This new Australian history shines a light on the illness, the chaos, the delusion and the terror experienced by everyone who arrived on these shores.
Gregory Dobbs talks to JAMES DUNK about his new book Bedlam at Botany Bay which traces the history of madness in the early colony of Sydney and how the early settlers grappled with the challenges of a new country, taken from its Indigenous inhabitants, and ruled by the weight of imperial justice.
The death-defying adventures of KATHERINE RUNDELL
KATHERINE RUNDELL has tiptoed along tightropes, piloted small planes, illegally strutted across the rooftops of Oxford, galloped through herds of zebras in Zimbabwe and hunted for tasty piranhas in the Amazon. The Costa Award-winning author tells Angus Dalton how her daring adventures inspire her children’s novels including The Explorer and her new book about a daring heist in 1920s New York, The Good Thieves.
'We prefer to forget': Armando Lucas Correa on the doomed voyage of the S S St Louis
When he was ten years old, Armando Lucas Correa’s grandmother told him: ‘Cuba is going to pay very dearly for what they did to the Jewish refugees.’
She was referring specifically to the 1939 voyage of the St. Louis, an ocean liner that transported 937 Jewish refugees out of Nazi Germany to Havana, Cuba. Upon their arrival, the Cuban government refused to accept the passengers, and the United States and Canada also denied them entry. When the war broke out, 254 St. Louis passengers were killed in the Holocaust.
In this podcast, award-winning journalist and writer Armando Lucas Correa talks to Gregory Dobbs about the second instalment in his bestselling historical fiction trilogy, The Daughter’s Tale, which continues to chronicle one of the most harrowing atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis during World War II.
Alli Sinclair on how scaling mountains turned her into a storyteller
In 1994, location scout Claire Montgomery is trying to secure permission to shoot a TV show at a historic art deco cinema near a country town in Northern Queensland. In 1950, we meet Lena Lee, an ambitious Hollywood actress holding out for bigger roles and better characters, who is challenged by the male-dominated film industry and a scandalous affair.
In her decade-spanning new novel The Cinema at Starlight Creek, author Alli Sinclair asks one question: 'How far would you go to follow your dream?' In conversation with Angus Dalton, Alli tells us about exploring Hollywood in two different decades, scaling mountains, and writing romance.
Craig Ensor's literary love story set in an Australia ravaged by climate change
Two hundred years from now, people are migrating en masse to the poles to escape soaring temperatures. Fifteen-year-old Finch lives with his father in a near-deserted coasted town south of Sydney. Soon they must follow the great migration south, but before they go, a newly arrived couple become a point of infatuation for young Finch.
Craig Ensor's The Warming is a beautifully written story about love and migration, set in an overheated world we could very well be heading towards. The author joins Angus Dalton.
ALEX LANDRAGIN didn’t write the most daring debut novel in decades – he stole it
Crossings, the novel billed as the most daring debut in decades, is made up of three compelling stories: a letter written by lyric poet Charles Baudelaire to an illiterate young girl, a noir romance story in wartime Paris that begins in a graveyard and a tale about a woman with paranormal powers. They all weave together to create a stunningly imaginative story about seven lifetimes and two souls.
Author Alex Landragin joins Angus Dalton to tell us about his travel writing days in Africa, how he 'stole' this stunning story, and why literature is 'a form of recorded empathy’.
PENNY OLSEN and LYNETTE RUSSELL on how Aboriginal peoples brought Australian animals to the attention of the world
The so-called 'discovery' of Australia's world famous fauna is overwhelmingly associated with European men like John Gould and Joseph Banks. But Indigenous Australians had been living alongside these animals for tens of thousands of years, and it was their sophisticated zoological knowledge that allowed European naturalists to bring the attention of the world to Australia's bizarre and brilliant wildlife.
Penny Olsen and Lynette Russell join Angus Dalton to chat about their new book, Australia's First Naturalists.
‘Majestic, murky, malevolent and magnificent’: Irishman JAMES DELARGY on the outback
When nomadic Irish author James Delargy experienced the Western Australian outback, something about the landscape enthralled and terrified him.
He channelled that awe into 55, a new thriller with a terrifying premise. Two men turn up to a police station with the exact same story of being kidnapped by a serial killer - and each accuses the other of being the murderer.
Angus Dalton chats with James to find out how he came to imagine this gripping story.
FINN BRUNTON on what you need to know about cryptocurrency
If you’ve ever wondered just what Bitcoin is and why you should care about it then Finn Brunton’s new book, Digital Cash: The Unknown History of the Anarchists, Utopians, And Technologists Who Built Cryptocurrency, is essential reading for the modern citizen.
Gregory Dobbs talks to Finn about the genius and the madness behind the development of cryptocurrency.
MARKUS ZUSAK: 'We are all made of stories'
In Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak, there are five Dunbar brothers living a chaotic suburban existence alongside a border collie, a cat, a pigeon, a mule and a furious goldfish named after the King of Men. Their father, the Murderer, has fled, and their mother, the Mistake Maker, is dead.
The Book Thief author joins Angus Dalton to talk about the decade it took to write Bridge of Clay, his reverence for books, and the stories that have made him.
FELICITY MCLEAN on Australian Gothic, missing children and Jatz Crackers
The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone is a sharply written literary mystery infused with nostalgia that leaves its readers guessing.
Journalist and author Felicity McLean joins Angus Dalton to talk 90s cuisine, the art of ghostwriting, Australian Gothic, and which iconic Aussie actor accidentally catalysed the writing of her novel.
MATT HOWARD's accidental life in books
Now the author of four novels who works in one of Australia's biggest publishing houses among blockbuster titles like Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and Boy Swallows Universe, Matt Howard never planned to make a life surrounded by books.
In this episode of the Good Reading podcast, Angus Dalton pays a visit to Matt's office to talk about his latest novel, The Time is Now Monica Sparrow, which centres on an aspiring writer, an accidental death, and a guy who takes Marie Kondo way too seriously.
STEPHEN DAVIS on how we can win the War on Truth
There's a war on truth, and the liars are winning.
So goes the warning of veteran investigative journalist Stephen Davis about the state of our media landscape. In his new book, Truthteller, Stephen reveals the 'toolbox' of methods used by governments and corporations to mislead the public and dodge accountability.
Here he tells Angus Dalton fascinating stories from his life as a journalist, from M16 agents and Russian threats to an unresolved case of alleged murder in Sydney, and how we foot-soldiers can contribute to the War on Truth.
JACLYN MORIARTY: 'I think I'm a bit hopeless at life'
In her first book for adults since 2004, Gravity is the Thing, treasured children's author Jaclyn Moriarty writes about a mysterious self-help book called 'The Guidebook' that is sent to selected mailboxes one chapter at a time.
Jaclyn joins Angus Dalton in this episode to talk about getting sucked in to self-help, why she would like an external committee to be in control of her life, and why she has a bone to pick with her sister, Liane Moriarty.
Would JACK HEATH mind being eaten?
In his first series for adults, Canberra writer Jack Heath has created a compelling character who works as a consultant for the FBI and has a very peculiar palate ...
In this episode, Jack sits down with Angus Dalton to talk about Hangman and its new sequel, Hunter, getting published as a teenager, the ethical questions that surround cannibalism, and whether he'd mind being devoured upon dying. Yeah, things get weird.
CAPTURING NATURE: How photography at the Australian Museum aided Darwin's theories
Archivist and curator Vanessa Finney unearths Australia's earliest natural history photographs in Capturing Nature, her new book that reveals how scientific photography began at the Australian museum.
From tiny inch-long fish to whale skeletons as long as buses, the museum's camera captured thousands of extraordinary images that have never been seen by the public.
Angus Dalton heads to the museum to meet Vanessa and find out how photography revolutionised scientific understanding of nature and influenced the ideas of Charles Darwin.
SIMON CLEARY on the artistry of tattoos and Australia's longest war
As a writer, Simon Cleary brings art and creativity up alongside experiences of war. In his latest novel, The War Artist, a Brigadier called James Phelan escorts the body of a young soldier home from Afghanistan. Struggling to adapt back to civilian life, an encounter with a tattoo artist named Kira changes Phelan permanently - both inside and out.
Simon joined Angus Dalton to talk about the legacy of the Afghanistan War, PTSD, and the significance of tattoos in this episode of the Good Reading Podcast.
PEGGY FREW on the novel she began as a teenager 
Peggy Frew's Hope Farm was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Stella Prize. The Melbourne writer and ARIA Award-winning musician is back with Islands, a novel about a family in crisis that covers many generations, viewpoints and timelines.
In this episode, Peggy tells Angus Dalton about creative doubt, running into the ocean in her undies, and 'the big, enormous, sprawling mess' of family.
JEREMY N SMITH on befriending a powerful hacker called Alien
At a local playground where his daughter was playing, writer Jeremy N Smith met a woman who turned out to be a cybersecurity expert and a seasoned hacker. They got talking about her life and Jeremy quickly became fascinated.
His new book, Breaking and Entering: The extraordinary story of a hacker called Alien, is the result of that chance meeting. It's a fascinating profile of a daring hacker, a deep-dive into the history of cybersecurity, and a troubling wake-up call for those of us who'd rather not think about how vulnerable we are to hackers in our hyper-connected world.
Here Jeremy tells Angus Dalton about the death-defying form of hacking Alien was introduced to at MIT, and reveals why he's ditched using Google as a result of hanging out with hackers.
JENNIFER SPENCE on slipping back into your own past
If given the chance, would you adjust the past to avoid a terrible tragedy in the future? And if you went back in time 20 years and tracked down a younger version of yourself, what kind of person would you find?
These questions are central to Jennifer Spence's new novel, The Lost Girls. Stella slips back in time to 1997 and must disguise herself in the past, resist changing her family's fate, and attempt to get back to the present.
We spoke to the author about time travel, the innocence of 1997, and gleaning writing advice from a famous parable.
JACQUELINE KENT on falling in love with the man behind Wake in Fright
Jacqueline Kent was working as a book editor when she was assigned a set of humorous short stories by Kenneth Cook, author of the classic horror novel Wake in Fright.
Her dealings with Cook resulted in a 'volcanic' relationship and a brief marriage between two lovers of words. Jacqueline writes beautifully about her time with Ken in her new memoir, Beyond Words.
In this episode, Angus Dalton asks Jacqueline about the enduring legacy of Wake in Fright, a butterfly farm, and the changes she's watched unfold across the Australian book industry.
YOTAM OTTOLENGHI on why writing Simple was ‘excruciatingly difficult’
Yotam Ottolenghi is universally admired for a cooking style that is complex, layered, and brimming with freshness and colour. Unfortunately that can sometimes lead to a lot of preparation and even more washing up.
In his latest book, Simple, Ottolenghi proves that cooking his way doesn’t have to be so challenging. On the advice of his sister, Ottolenghi has created a book of recipes for the time poor or the outright lazy using a set of 10 fundamental ingredients.
Gregory Dobbs asks about the perils and pleasures of cooking Ottolenghi style and how Simple can help you get there.
