Frank Moorhouse was an author, journalist and essayist. He is best known for his Edith Trilogy chronicling the life of Edith Campbell Berry and her time as a diplomat around the formation of the League of Nations. Frank was a terrific chronicler and interrogator of Australia and our way of life. Frank died last week at the age of 83. This episode features a conversation with Frank from 2017 where he discussed his essay on the writers life. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

It’s a sad fact that tragedy brings us together. Dane, Jac, and Josh don’t get together as much as they should. Spread out across the country; Jac in Sydney, Josh all over the country as his TV work takes him and Dane, who never left Pent. It just never seems like there’s enough time. Now the siblings must converge on their hometown after their father is in a car accident that leaves him in a coma. It’s not just the accident. Each of the siblings has their own drama eating away at their peace. The reunion isn’t destined to go smoothly. Pent is no longer the same town they grew up in, but the ghosts of the past still rest there. While their father remains in a coma, questions emerge that have them wondering if there is more to his accident that they first assumed. What had been happening in their dad’s life that could lead him to do something desperate?

The Final Draft Great Conversations podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. In the next instalment of our irregular, ongoing series featuring incredible book podcasts Andrew is joined by Kate Mildenhall & Katherine Collette from The First Time. The First Time is a podcast about publishing a book for the first time. Kate and Katherine describe The First Time as one part reality show, one part writers’ master class, featuring Australian writers and industry insiders, exploring the logistics of publishing a debut.

In the community of Safetown residents live a comfortable life, secure in the knowledge they are protected by the wall. Within that concrete edifice security patrol their streets and drones surveil the airway to ensure even the smallest transgression is met with swift consequences. Christine has spent her entire life basking in the comfort her fathers wealth and Safetown’s security provide the daughter of an influential family. Sure her father is a distant figure, her mother a high functioning alcoholic, but they’ve just bought her an apartment and extended her a line of seeming unlimited credit. Safetown was built to protect families like Christine and she should be happy with this safety. Except her best friend Jack is missing and Christine has begun to notice her servants, people who don’t look quite like her…

Geo has returned to Tasmania following the death of his father to sell the family home. The triggers a reunion with his brother Wes who has followed in their father’s footsteps becoming a cop. Wes is not having any of Geo’s talk about selling, the house contains too many memories. Geo needs the money to fund his auditions and fulfill his dream of joining a Symphony Orchestra. That dream is Geo’s true a north, a journey that has taken him far from Tasmania. Geo’s arrival sets the stage for an untimely family conflict, one of supernatural proportions. Join me as we discover Brendan Colley’s The Signal Line...

Yassmin Abdel Magied is a Sudanese Australian writer, recovering mechanical engineer and award-winning social advocate. Yassmin was born in Khartoum, Sudan and her parents moved the family to Australia when Yassmin was a baby. Yassmin is a mechanical engineer who left her dream of working with formula one and worked on oil and gas rigs. Yassmin turned the story of her early life into the successful book Yassmin’s Story, and in some ways Talking About a Revolution is a successor of that book. Yassmin has also penned a middle grade series beginning with You Must Be Layla. Yassmin Abdel Magied is based in London these days after a social media post five years ago went viral for all the wrong reasons, leading to her receiving death threats and having to move house. Never mind the fact that she was raising an important social justice issue. Talking About a Revolution collects essays written around that time as well as across the intervening years, as well as original essays for the collections.

Adelaide in the 1930’s. Margaret, Esther and Phyllis are studying to be witches under the guidance of their friend Audrey. The friends have founded the Semaphore Supper Club with the dream of changing people’s minds and helping men and women dream of a more equal world. As the group finish school and enter the so-called ‘real world’ they find that society doesn’t want female adventurers and university graduates. It would rather see women at home; married and pregnant. The friends believe they can change their corner of the world, but they are not the only force that wants to manipulate the country's dreams. As a conservative force rises across Australia the people in power turn their attention to women’s place in the world. And these men have very dark dreams indeed about where women fit in. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Madeleine D’Leon is a crime novelist searching for her next big mystery to write. Ned McGinnity is a literary enfant terrible waiting for his muse to strike. Madeleine is intrigued by the voice in her head, could it be her next Detective? He’s a novelist, arrogant, the type who would only write so-called serious literature. Only he’s got himself embroiled in a murder, the sort he would never deem to write but one that he must solve in order to save his friend. Ned doesn’t do genre, wouldn’t stoop to conquer until he stumbles on the almost too delicious temptation of writing a protagonist crime author becoming embroiled in a mystery.

Today Andrew is joined by Ben McKenzie & Elizabeth Flux the hosts of Pratchat

Geo has returned to Tasmania following the death of his father. Geo’s back to sell the family home, little realizing that his brother Wes is living there while his marriage breaks down. Wes followed in their father’s footsteps becoming a cop. He’s more like their father than Geo is comfortable with and he’s not having any of Geo’s talk about selling. Geo needs the money to fund his auditions and fulfill his dream of joining a Symphony Orchestra. Their whole family have musical talent but Geo is the one trying to realize his. Geo feels no attachment to Hobart and wants to be rid of the ghosts of his father and the way he treated him. Geo’s arrival sets the stage for an ultimately family conflict… and then a ghost train appears followed closely by an eccentric ghost train hunter.

Daisy & Woolf works itself into the spaces between the seminal Virginia Woolf novel Mrs Dalloway. Woolf’s novel expands across a single day in London society. Clarissa Dalloway embarks to order the flowers. She will host a party that night and she must be prepared. Across the city characters intersect and nearly miss each other in a web of events and reminiscences. One character, remarked upon but who never speaks in Daisy Simmons. It is Daisy who Michelle Cahill rescues from her literary silence to explore her lot and inner world. In doing so Cahill is opening up her novel to the silenced voices of Anglo Indian character who very much occupied Woolf’s mind but failed to feature in her novel. 1924 - Daisy Simmons works to arrange passage from Calcutta to London. She must leave her family, desperate to be reunited with her lover Peter Walsh. It is a journey that demands much from her and will extract a price. What can she expect on the other side of the world and is it worth her exercising this reckless freedom? 2017 - Mina is a writer trying to pull together the threads of Virginia Woolf’s work into a unique novel. Mina wants to restore agency and voice to Daisy, giving her the story Woolf glossed over. As Mina works to free Daisy from her fictional invisibility she must also reconcile herself to the bonds of her own world

Losing Face is a story about Family… Joey’s nineteen; young and directionless. His Tayta Elaine feels old and wonders at the directions her life has taken her in. Elaine worries about where Joey is heading. The friends Joey hangs out with aren’t the sort you bring home to meet your parents, his job isn’t taking him anywhere and his true friends are busy with uni. Joey feels like he has more to offer but he’s a spectator in his own life and that’s about to lead him into a terrible situation, one that will change many lives, a moment that he won’t be able to take back… Discover George Haddad’s Losing Face... Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Deklan Archer, Dek to his friends, arrives at school to news that has shocked the community. Old Mr Henry, infamous for selling sly grog to locals, has been found drowned. To make matters worse, the bus returning the Year Twelve camp is running late. This has got Dek stressed because he and his mates were mucking around near the bus. The cops are talking to everyone and Dek is one of the first students called up. Could Mr Henry’s death be murder, and if so what does that mean for the busload of missing students?

1924 - Daisy Simmons works to arrange passage from Calcutta to London. She will leave her family, her life to be reunited with her lover Peter Walsh. 2017 - Mina is trying to write a novel. She will restore agency and voice to Daisy, a woman who was never even given a voice in Virginia Woolf’s seminal novel Mrs Dalloway. As Mina works to free Daisy from her fictional invisibility Mina must also reconcile herself to the bonds of career, family and duty to make peace with the responsibility of a writer bringing life onto the page…

Sydney Writers Festival Artistic Director Michael Williams joins Andrew on this special bonus episode Michael has been the director of the Wheeler Centre, a presenter on Radio National and RRR down in Melbourne. Michael joined SWF during the pandemic and has been instrumental in sheparding the festival through that turbulent time Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

The Final Draft Great Conversations podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!

George Haddad is an award winning writer from Western Sydney. He won the Viva la Novella for his story Populate or Perish and is a doctoral candidate at the Writing and Society Research Centre, Western Sydney University. Losing Face is told between the narrative perspectives of Joey and his Tayta Elaine. Elaine came to Australia as a young wife from her village in Lebanon. Through years of work and raising a family she has confronted the expectations and disdain her adoptive country has heaped on her. Now with her husband gone she lives for her grandsons, although she is not quite sure what Joey is doing with his life. Joey’s nineteen; young enough to feel bulletproof but far enough away from school to wonder if he should be doing more. His friends aren’t everything to him, his job is even less than that but Joey feels like he has more to offer. As Joey drifts from music festivals to cafes and barbershops he wonders whether his life should be more. In doing nothing he is setting himself on a path that finds him in a car full of young men like himself. Men who want more from the world, and in one horrific chain of events try to take it.

Nell is going through a lot right now. She’s in Year Six and next everything was going to change anyway, but now her mum has a new boyfriend and they are planning on moving in together, her best friendship is feeling a little cold and her new friend is sometimes mean. Nell’s used to planning for catastrophe’s but now her life is feeling a little out of control and that’s before she starts to look at what’s going on with climate change. Nell is facing down one of the first big changes most younger people face; the transition from primary to high school and she’s doing it in a world with a very uncertain future… Join us as we discover Fiona Wood’s How to Spell Catastrophe...

In Climb we meet Ashley Davies. Ashely has a talent for climbing but so far it’s only proven useful finding the best tree at lunch time and escaping from bullies who insult her brother. Ashley loves her family and her town but now she’s in High school she realises there’s a lot she doesn’t understand. There’s too many secrets in Ashley’s life and no one wants to trust her with the truth. So when a rock-climbing competition offers her the chance to (maybe) get some answers, Ashley decides it might be worth keeping a few secrets of her own…

Callan is a writer of Science Fiction and Thrillers. He’s joining me today with his latest novel Astraeus. Astraeus takes us on board the eponymous world settler starship, where one hundred thousand people are traveling on a one way trip into the Milky Way. When an engineer is murdered the Astraeus finds itself at a turning point. Join me as we discover Callan J Mulligan’s Astaraeus...

Ashley Davies has a talent for climbing but so far it’s only useful for hiding out at lunch time and beating bullies who insult her brother. There’s too many secrets in Ashley’s life and no one wants to trust her with the truth. So when a rock-climbing competition offers her the chance to, maybe, get some answers, Ashley decides it might be worth keeping a few secrets of her own… Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Andrew Roff is an award winning writer of short stories including the 2020 Peter Carey Short Story Award for his story Bock Bock as well as the 2018 Margaret River Press Short Story Competition for his story Pigface. Both of which appear in his debut collection The Teeth of a Slow Machine. “Sometimes the only way to make things clear is to rearrange the story” The Teeth of a Slow Machine is a delightfully unsettling collection. Offering a kaleidoscopic view, the stories in The Teeth of a Slow Machine seem to exist in a dark underworld with a funhouse mirror view of life. Join Andrew (and Andrew) as they discuss The Teeth of a Slow Machine

Yumna Kassab is a writer from Western Sydney. Her work has been featured in, Kill Your Darlings, Meanjin and the Sydney Morning Herald amongst. He debut book is the critically acclaimed and much prize listed, The House of Youssef. Yumna's her debut novel is Australiana. Australiana writes itself into the fabric of modern Australia. In a town of drought and flood the people have learned to ebb and flow with the whims of nature. Where every face is familiar it is in the details that the stories of life and death occur. Australiana takes the reader to the towns where we live and explores the voices that populate each corner. Yumna Kassab joins Andrew to discuss her new novel Australiana... Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Ben Walter is an award winning writer of stories, essays and poems. He is the fiction editor of Island magazine and is joining me today with his debut collection of short stories What Fear Was. What Fear Was takes the reader through a diverse set of landscapes and into strange yet familiar spaces. From our relationship to the natural world to natures barely withheld disdain for our mistreatment, and abuse. This collection is a surreal exploration… What Fear Was constantly challenges our sense of where we fit in the world we too-often think we own. Ben Walter joins Andrew to discuss his debut collection of short fiction What Fear Was...