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Posts tagged ‘Melbourne Writers Festival’

Jul 31

Festivalorama

BBWF2015_07_WebsiteHeader3I’ve had my head down working for a while, but over the next few months I’m doing a number of events around the country. First up is the weekend after next, when I’ll be at Byron Bay Writers’ Festival, where I’ll be in conversation with Wendy Were at midday on Saturday 8 August, and will be speaking about the limits of forgiveness alongside Sarah Armstrong, David Vann and Anneli Knight at 12:15pm on Sunday 9 August and about Climate Fiction with Mireille Juchau (whose much-anticipated new novel, The World Without  Us, has just been released) and Anneli Knight at 2:15pm. Tickets are available from the Festival office, by calling 02 6685 5115 or online.

A few weeks after Byron I’ll be at Melbourne Writers’ Festival, where the scarily smart Jane Rawson, Michael Green and I will be discussing whether climate change is the new apocalypse at 11:00am on Friday 28 August and Mireille Juchau and I will be talking about novels of ideas at 2:30pm on the same day. Tickets are available via the pages for the individual events.

And finally, the week after Melbourne I’ll be in Brisbane for Brisbane Writers’ Festival, where I’ll be appearing at the Cooper Plains Library as part of the Festival’s BWF in the Burbs program at 10:00am on Friday 4 September, reading at 2:00pm on Saturday 5 September as part of the R[E]AD Box series, discussing climate fiction with Deb Fitzpatrick at 4:00pm on Saturday 5 September, appearing alongside the brilliant Sjón (if you haven’t read The Blue Fox run, don’t walk, and grab a copy), the multi-talented Debra Oswald and others as part of the Letter To My Future Self event at 8:00pm on Saturday 5 September and speaking about Clade at 4:00pm on Sunday 6 September. Tickets for all events are available online.

I’ll have details for a couple more events soon, but hopefully I’ll see some of you somewhere in the meantime. 

 

Sep 1

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Midnight in Peking

I’ve been meaning to write something about Paul French’s fabulous new book Midnight in Peking for a while, but because I’ve been too busy to finish it I haven’t quite got round to it. What I have read of it is fantastic, not just because the story of the brutal and perplexing murder of a young British woman in Peking in 1937 the book investigates is so fascinating, but because Paul brings the world he is exploring so vividly and grippingly to life. I often suspect the sheer complexity of early 20th century Chinese history is rather lost on Anglophone audiences, but I’m not sure I’ve read a better illustration of those complexities, or the tenseness of the moment preceding the Japanese occupation than Paul’s book.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that if you’re in Melbourne this weekend you should definitely make time to catch one of Paul’s sessions at Melbourne Writers’ Festival. I’ve seen Paul (who I got to know during my time in Shanghai in 2005) on panels before, and he’s just compulsively interesting, not just about the China of the 1920s and 1930s, but about contemporary China as well.

Details of Paul’s sessions are available on the MWF website, but I reckon the one to catch would be the conversation with Paul at 4:00pm on Sunday. I really do recommend you make time to catch it because if his past performances are anything to go by it’ll be great. And if you’d like to read the book you can check prices on Booko.