Jeanette Winterson's writing has earned her widespread and
international acclaim, establishing her as a widely original writer in
world literature. She is
intensely interested in world issues and contemporary values. This is
your chance to ask her ANYTHING.
Recorded live at the Sydney Theatre on 23 May 2008.
In a series of journeys Don Watson sets out to explore the nation that
has influenced him more than any other. American Journeys
investigates the meaning of the United States: its confidence, its
religion, its heroes, its violence, and its material obsessions. Don
Watson discusses. Chaired by Rowena Danziger.
Recorded live at the Sydney Theatre on 25 May 2008.
Helen Garner is one of Australia's most
respected writers of essays and nonfiction. The Spare Room,
her first novel in 15 years, tells a story of compassion and rage as
two friends - one sceptical, one stubbornly serene - negotiate their
way through the trials of terminal illness. She talks with Caroline Baum.
Recorded live at the Sydney Theatre on 24 May 2008.
Hermione Lee is known for her remarkably perceptive biographies of some
of the great modernist women writers of the past century including
Willa Cather and Virginia Woolf. Her latest work is a magisterial look
at the inner life of the grande dame of American letters, Edith Wharton. She talks to Faith Liddell.
Recorded live at the Sydney Theatre on 23 May 2008.
For many political junkies, Richard Nixon remains a mesmerising subject. In The Conviction of Richard Nixon,
James Reston Jr provides a fascinating, fly-on-the-wall account of his
involvement in the Nixon interviews as David Frost's Watergate adviser. He talks to Stephen Loosley.
Recorded live at the Sydney Theatre on 22 May 2008.
A fiercely intelligent writer, an astute observer of people and her
surroundings, a recent widow not ready to face her grief, an irascible
Australian with no time for indulgent New Yorkers and their pampered
pets, Kate Jennings falls hard for two border terriers. Stanley and Sophie
is a book about animals, but it is also about grief and grieving. She talks with Caroline Baum.
Recorded live at the Sydney Theatre on 25 May 2008.
Misery memoirs are the new black, but why look back in anger? Imran
Ahmad, Judith Lucy and Ryan Knighton infuse their memoirs with hefty
dose of humour and a gleeful delight in the ridiculous. They speak with
Anton Enus.
Recorded live at the Sydney Theatre on 22 May 2008.
Wibke Bruhns' father was executed for high treason for his
participation in the July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. Naldo Rei's
father was murdered for his work in the East Timorese resistance
movement and Naldo was nine years old when he was recruited by the
clandestine Fretilin network. Sandy Blackburn-Wright lived in South
Africa as a community development worker witnessing some of the most
tumultuous and significant events in the history of the nation,
including the release of Nelson Mandela. They discuss their personal
lives set against the backdrop of significant world events with Anton
Enus.
Recorded live at the Sydney Theatre on 22 May 2008.
German media identity Wibke Bruhns was just six years old
when her father was executed for his part in the plot
to assassinate Hitler. My Father's Country tells the story of her search for her father. The last glimpse we have of Susan Sontag is her son David Rieff's
intelligent, disordered account of his mother's final illness, Swimming in a Sea of Death. Craig Sherborne has written two provocative memoirs, Hoi Polloi and Muck, about life with two parents suffering from prodigious aspirations and considerable delusions. They discuss the agony and catharsis of writing about parents with Suzanne Leal.
Recorded live at the Sydney Theatre on 25 May 2008.
Simon Sebag Montefiore in Conversation with Bob Carr
Historian, novelist and television presenter Simon Sebag Montefiore is
the award winning and critically acclaimed author of the bestselling
books Young Stalin, Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar and Catherine the Great & Potemkin. His new novel is Sashenka and he is writing Jerusalem: the Biography, a fresh history of the Middle East. He talks with Bob Carr.
Recorded live at the City Recital Hall on 22 May 2008.
Andrew Bacevich is a veteran of the Vietnam
and Gulf wars, and a professor of history and international relations.
Paul Ham, is the author of a recent account of Australia's
participation in Vietnam. They discuss the war, the military as an
institution and of the path its leaders have taken since Vietnam. Facilitated by Tony Maniaty.
Recorded live at the Sydney Theatre on 22 May 2008.
Michael Pollan and Elizabeth Farrelly
consider why we find it so hard to abandon habits we know to be
destructive to not only our own and our children's health, but the
health of the environment that sustains life on earth. Facilitated by Jill Bran.
Recorded live at the Sydney Theatre on 23 May 2008.
In December 2005, adventure-writer Peter Heller joined the crew of the
flagship of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, on a quest through
the icy waters of Antarctica to find and stop a six-ship Japanese
fishing fleet from illegally killing hundreds of whales. The result of Heller's experience is his book The Whale Warriors,
a timely and expertly-written account of the anarchic battle between
the whalers and a committed crew's clear-eyed willingness to die to
save a whale. He speaks with Marian Wilkinson.
Recorded live at the Sydney Theatre on 24 May 2008.
