Podcasts - Biography memoir

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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.

BRI LEE, author of Eggshell Skull, is furious about the Australian legal system (and chickpeas)

Please note: This podcast contains discussions of sexual abuse.

BRI LEE is the author of Eggshell Skull, a bestselling memoir about Bri's time as a Judge's Associate in Queensland, witnessing institutional injustices faced by women, children and minorities in sexual assault trials. The book is also a devastating coming-of-age story, as Bri’s recounts her own journey through the legal system as a plaintiff in her own case.

In this episode, Bri talks to Good Reading about the frustrations and triumphs of writing such a book, the ongoing fight for legislative change, and ‘f***ing chickpeas.’

FRAUKE BOLTEN-BOSHAMMER on pink diamonds and red dust

In 1981 Frauke Bolten-Boshammer left her beloved Germany to begin a farm with her husband, Frederich, in the isolated town of Kununurra in the Kimberley.

Tragedy soon followed, and Frauke was left alone to run a farm and raise a family in the Western Australian outback. But a discovery of global significance made by geologists nearby changed the course of Frauke's life forever.

A Diamond in the Dust is the story of how Frauke pioneered an outback diamond empire and put a tiny outback town on the world map. In this podcast, Frauke shares her experiences contending with crocodiles thrashing through Christmas lunch and offers the wisdom she has gleaned from a life marked by sadness, perseverance, and love in the outback.