Biographers in Conversation

Ian Hembrow: "Celsius: A Life and Death by Degrees"

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Ian Hembrow chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about his choices while crafting Celsius: A Life and Death by Degrees.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Celsius: A Life and Death by Degrees is the first full-length English biography of Anders Celsius, a modest Swedish astronomer who quietly revolutionised our understanding of the natural world.
Ian Hembrow’s accidental discovery of Celsius’s story in 2016 sparked a years’-long quest that led him to the Arctic Circle, retracing Celsius’s 1736–37 expedition to measure the shape of the Earth.
Celsius’s story is set against the backdrop of the European Enlightenment, illustrating how he thrived in the vibrant 18th-century scientific community while unlocking fundamental mysteries of nature.
Ian Hembrow draws connections to the present, noting that Celsius, who is best known for inventing the 100-point centigrade temperature scale, now lends his name to global climate targets as humanity strives to limit warming to 1.5°C.
How Ian Hembrow delves into Celsius’s human story, sharing the personal struggles and triumphs behind his scientific achievements and offering a poignant reminder that even great scientific minds face immense personal challenges.
The relevance of Celsius’s story today, reminding us of the crucial role of scientific inquiry and our shared responsibility to use knowledge wisely as we face urgent challenges like climate change.

Hester Kaplan: "Twice Born: Finding My Father In the Margins of Biography"

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Hester Kaplan chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about Twice Born: Finding My Father In the Margins of Biography.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode: 
The catalyst for crafting Twice Born was the death of Hester’s father, the biographer Justin Kaplan. Hester realised she had lost the chance to ask her father the questions that had always eluded her during his lifetime.
Rather than being a conventional biography, Twice Born blends biography, memoir, and fiction, a structure Kaplan chose deliberately to view her father from many different angles and points of view, enabling her to know him in ways impossible while he was alive.
Kaplan discovered that her father chose Mark Twain as his biographical subject because of deep personal parallels that included an early loss of parents, a traumatic childhood and an identity reinvented through writing. Hester insists that biographers inevitably choose subjects who mirror their own inner lives.
Kaplan reflects on how memory and fiction blur once put on the page.
Because Justin Kaplan always wrote behind closed study doors, his daughter uses fiction to imaginatively enter that space and reconstruct his writing process.

Helen Pitt: "The House" and "Luna Park"

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Helen Pitt chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about The House: The dramatic story of the Sydney Opera House and the people who made it and Luna Park: The extraordinary story of the showmen, shysters and schemers who built Sydney’s famous fun park.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
The catalyst for The House was hearing of the death of Sydney Opera House architect Jørn Utzon. Helen Pitt realised his tragic story deserved retelling for a new generation.
Helen restored the largely forgotten story of Peter Hall, the Australian architect who completed the interiors of Sydney Opera House after Utzon’s dramatic departure in 1966.
Luna Park began taking shape in 2019, driven by Helen’s desire to uncover the dark history lurking beneath one of Sydney’s most joyful facades.
The Ghost Train fire of 9 June 1979, which killed six children and one father, sits at the heart of Luna Park. Helen presents compelling evidence that the potential crime scene was bulldozed within 24 hours, making the truth perhaps permanently unknowable.
Helen cites Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City as her primary model for novelistic nonfiction, employing scene-setting, dialogue and granular detail to bring history viscerally alive.

Paul Kildea: "Chopin’s Piano: A Journey through Romanticism"

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Dr Paul Kildea chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about Chopin’s Piano: A Journey through Romanticism.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Paul Kildea’s inspiration for crafting Chopin’s Piano. A Journey through Romanticism.
The significance of the biography’s title.
The relevance of Chopin’s Piano: A Journey through Romanticism today.
Chopin’s primitive piano was crafted by Juan Bouwer, an amateur artisan in Palma, Majorca, in 1838.
Juan Bouwer had no inkling his humble instrument would become the catalyst for Chopin composing six of his 24 Preludes on the piano.
Why Chopin’s Piano’s 24-chapter structure mirrors Chopin’s two books of 12 Preludes.
Musica Viva adapted Chopin’s Piano as a national touring production in 2023, blending all 24 Preludes with storytelling.

Sara Fitzgerald "The Silenced Muse: Emily Hale, T. S. Eliot, and the Role of a Lifetime"

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Sara Fitzgerald chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about The Silenced Muse: Emily Hale, T. S. Eliot, and the Role of a Lifetime.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
How the secret letters T.S. Eliot wrote to Emily Hale revealed an intimate 27-year correspondence (1930-1957) that confirmed Hale’s profound influence on his poetry.
How Eliot’s destruction of Emily’s letters to him silenced her voice.
Despite being relegated to footnote status in Eliot’s life, Emily taught drama at prominent colleges such as Smith College, acted in amateur theatre with future Broadway stars and maintained a rich independent life.
How Eliot’s secret letter to Harvard revealed a nasty counter-narrative. Eliot’s pre-emptive statement dismissed his relationship.

Dr Theodore Ell "Lebanon Days: Memories of an ancient land through economic meltdown, a revolution of hope and surviving the 2020 Beirut explosion"

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Dr Theodore Ell chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about Lebanon Days:  Memories of an ancient land through economic meltdown, a revolution of hope and surviving the 2020 Beirut explosion. 
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Theodore Ell reveals how the blended style of Lebanon Days—weaving memoir, cultural history, travel writing, journalism and political analysis—was an organic response to the multi-layered forces he witnessed in Lebanon between 2018 and 2021.
Theo explores the five-part chronological structure of Lebanon Days and the key pivot points that shaped it: arriving as a newcomer, the 2019 revolution, COVID lockdown, the 2020 port explosion, and a sombre farewell.
Theo explains the counterintuitive decision to draft Lebanon Days backwards, beginning with the explosion and working towards his arrival, as an archaeological method for keeping Lebanon, rather than himself, at the centre of the narrative.
Theo introduces his forthcoming authorised biography of the acclaimed poet Les Murray, This Country Is My Mind. It involves studying 65 boxes of archival material he is studying at the National Library of Australia and interviews with over 50 people.

Deborah FitzGerald "Her Sunburnt Country: The Extraordinary Literary Life of Dorothea Mackellar"

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Dr Deborah FitzGerald chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about Her Sunburnt Country: The Extraordinary Literary Life of Dorothea Mackellar.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode: 
Why Dorothea Mackellar crafted her iconic poem: ‘I Love a Sunburnt Country’.
Deborah FitzGerald’s inspiration for crafting Her Sunburnt Country.
Why Mackellar was invisible in the historical record, despite the enduring fame of her poem.
How Deborah balanced Mackellar’s literary life with her human story.
How Deborah reconciled Mackellar’s contradictions.
How Deborah balanced imaginative storytelling and historical rigour.
The contemporary relevance of Dorothea Mackellar’s life story.

Lucy Sussex & Megan Brown "Outrageous Fortunes: A Double Life of Crime"

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Lucy Jane Sussex and Megan Brown chat with Gabriella Kelly-Davies about Outrageous Fortunes: The Adventures of Mary Fortune, Crime-Writer, and Her Criminal Son George
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Outrageous Fortunes was co-authored after a 25-year conversation, combining Lucy’s 35 years of research with Megan’s PhD research.
Lucy and Megan employed a revisionist approach to correct the record about Mary Fortune, arguing that women’s voices are undervalued.
Why Mary Fortune’s and George Fortune’s stories were blended as ‘one story’.
How Lucy and Megan employed ‘sideways research’ when direct evidence was missing.
How Lucy and Megan resisted dramatisation and fictionalisation, instead relying on contemporary newspaper accounts and court records.
How Lucy and Megan borrowed the title Outrageous Fortunes from Shakespeare to reflect scandalous lives and the Victorian ‘topsy-turvy’ puzzle metaphor that shaped their narrative structure

Dava Sobel "The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science"

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Dava Sobel chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Dava Sobel used the periodic table as the structural framework, with each chapter keyed to an element that represents a period of Curie’s life or scientific work.
Dava selected the title The Elements of Marie Curie to emphasise how the chemical elements shaped her discoveries and personal life.
Dava wrote in the first person as Marie Curie, translating her letters into English though preserving her voice and perspective to create an immersive narrative.
Dava traced the path for women in science by highlighting generations of women mentored by Curie, showing her enduring influence beyond her own research.
Dava created a chemical chronology that parallels scientific discoveries with biography, such as linking radium extraction to gruelling lab work.
Dava ended with ‘Carbon’ to reflect on Curie’s legacy and the organic, interconnected nature of her scientific and humanitarian impact.

Jacqueline Kent "Inconvenient Women: Australian Radical Writers 1900-1970"

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Jacqueline Kent chats with Gabriella Kelly-Davies about Inconvenient Women: Australian Radical Writers 1900-1970.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Jacqueline Kent traces the ‘missing generation’ of Australian radical women writers, who bridged the gap between suffragists and second-wave feminism.
These writers were politically active and formally transgressive, challenging norms in both their activism and subject matter.
The collective-biography form enables Kent to show how these women intersected through organisations like the Fellowship of Australian Writers, the Society of Women Writers and the Commonwealth Literary Fund, creating fragile but vital support networks in otherwise isolated domestic lives.
Kent insists these ‘inconvenient women’ speak directly to the present, reminding listeners that structural sexism, economic inequality and workplace predation persist, even as a new generation of women refuses to accept discrimination as the norm.