Kate Grenville: The Country Schoolmaster

Kate Grenville in conversation with Nicole Abadee. Rummaging around in the archives one afternoon, Kate Grenville comes across an innocuous-looking file full of letters about a schoolteacher in country New South Wales. Intrigued, she keeps reading – and discovers a tale far more curious and complex than first appears. Was Joseph Connor savagely beating the students in his care? Or was he the victim of a small-town vendetta? And what went so terribly wrong between him and his daughter? Ultimately, Grenville simply has to know: was Connor a victim or a villain? Part colonial cold case, part locked-room mystery, part the dance of a writer's imagination among facts and semi-facts, The Country Schoolmaster is a book like no other. In it, the novelist comes to understand the seductive pleasure of story-making, but also its dangerous limitations. Kate Grenville is one of Australia's most celebrated writers. Her international bestseller The Secret River was awarded local and overseas prizes and is now a much-loved classic. Grenville's other novels include The Lieutenant, Lilian's Story, the Orange Prize–winner The Idea of Perfection and A Room Made of Leaves. Her works of non-fiction include One Life: My Mother's Story, Elizabeth Macarthur's Letters and, most recently, Unsettled: A Journey Through Time and Place. Nicole Abadee is an event moderator and journalist who writes for the Sydney Morning Herald and Harper’s Bazaar. She has been a literary judge, podcaster and a guest on ABC Radio. Nicole is a board member of the Eleanor Dark Foundation which runs Varuna and the Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival and the Sydney Women’s Fund Advisory Council. 6pm for 6:30pm