Biographers in Conversation

Ashleigh Wilson's "Brett Whiteley: Art, Life and the Other Thing"

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Ashleigh Wilson chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies me about his choices while crafting Brett Whiteley: Art, Life and the Other Thing, his acclaimed biography of Brett Whiteley, one of Australia’s most iconic artists.
 
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
The meaning of The Other Thing in the biography’s title
Ashleigh’s surprise discoveries and how they shaped the narrative
How Ashleigh verified the many colourful anecdotes about Brett Whiteley
How he reconciled the layers of myth surrounding Whiteley’s art and life
Why he structured Whiteley’s biography chronologically
How Whiteley’s mercurial character drove the plot
How Ashleigh portrayed Whiteley’s complex relationship with Australia and his desire to be recognised on the international stage
How Ashleigh balanced Whiteley’s public persona and human story
Ashleigh’s ethical decisions when revealing Whiteley’s mental health issues and addictions
The literary devices Ashleigh employed to balance academic rigour with crafting a captivating and propulsive narrative
The extent to which Ashleigh believes he got to the truth of his biographical subject.

Amy Reading's "The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at The New Yorker"

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Dr Amy Reading chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at The New Yorker, the biography of Katharine Sergeant White, the first fiction editor of The New Yorker, an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Amy Reading’s inspiration for crafting The World She Edited
How The World She Edited provides a long overdue corrective to the male-dominated lens through which America’s literary history during the 20th century and the rise of The New Yorker have been portrayed
How Amy portrayed Katharine’s challenges, including sexism, misogyny, paternalism and backhanded insults
The extent to which Amy interpreted Katharine’s correspondence with her authors
How Amy narrowed the biographical scope given that the ‘finding aid’ to Katharine’s archival collection runs to 800 pages
How Amy crafted lucid, elegant narrative, evoking the style Katharine infused throughout The New Yorker
Why Amy argued for the importance of Katharine’s forgotten work and made a larger argument about female readers as the drivers of literary culture.

Patchen Barss "The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius"

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Patchen Barss chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about his choices while crafting The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius, the biography of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Roger Penrose.  
  
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:  
Patchen Barss’s painstaking research strategy  
How Patchen grasped complicated information about quantum physics and mathematics  
How he crafted erudite, poetic and propulsive narrative from seemingly incomprehensible scientific information and mathematical equations  
How he balanced Roger Penrose’s scientific, public, personal and inner lives to craft a kaleidoscopic portrait of an extraordinary human being  
How he represented Roger’s relationship difficulties truthfully and with sensitivity and dignity  
How Patchen navigated the perils of writing about a 93-year-old living subject who has a strong autobiographical voice  
Patchen’s response to the question: ‘Who gets to be a genius, and who makes the sacrifices that allow an individual to be one?’  

Brenda Niall's "Joan Lindsay: The Hidden Life of the Woman Who Wrote Picnic at Hanging Rock"

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Australia’s doyenne of biography, Brenda Niall, chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting: Joan Lindsay: The Hidden Life of the Woman Who Wrote Picnic at Hanging Rock.
 
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Brenda Niall’s inspiration for crafting Joan Lindsay: The Hidden Life of the Woman Who Wrote Picnic at Hanging Rock
Brenda’s meticulous research strategy
How Joan Lindsay’s character drove the plot
How Brenda balanced Joan’s public persona with her human story
Why Brenda asked penetrating questions throughout the narrative about Joan’s inconsistencies and contradictions and the role these questions played in the narrative
Why Brenda left a trail of breadcrumbs and clues throughout the narrative
How Brenda contextualised Joan’s life and her choices within their broader historical, social and cultural landscape
How Brenda’s psychological acuity enabled her to illuminate the complexities of Joan’s character and personality

Andrew Ford's "The Shortest History of Music"

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, the multi-award-winning broadcaster, composer and author Andrew Ford chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about his choices while crafting, The Shortest History of Music. A lively, authoritative tour through 4,000 years of music, this book explores music’s role in human society.
 
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Andrew Ford explains how he balanced brevity and intellectual depth while crafting a 200-page book spanning 4,000 years of musical history
How he synthesised a multiplicity of musical traditions and cultures into a seamless narrative
How he balanced historical accuracy with masterful storytelling
Why he examined music from multiple angles: Its fundamental impulses; the impact of notation; music as a profession and commodity; the concept of modernism and the revolutionary effects of recording technology
How he skilfully weaved history, culture and personal insight into a tapestry that celebrates music in all its forms.

Kate Kennedy's "Cello: A Journey Through Silence to Sound"

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Dr Kate Kennedy, a distinguished cellist, musicologist, and Director of Oxford University’s Centre for Life Writing chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting Cello: A Journey Through Silence to Sound.
 
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Kate Kennedy’s inspiration for crafting Cello: A Journey Through Silence to Sound
Why Kate chose Pál Hermann, Lise Cristiani, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and Amedeo Baldovino as her biographical subjects
Why Kate criss-crossed Europe by train with her cello strapped to her back to retrace the footsteps of the four extraordinary cellists
Why Kate wrote Cello as an experimental mix of memoir and object, collective and quest biography
Why Kate included fascinating interludes, sharing her personal experiences, musings, historical research and a cello’s physical and metaphysical characteristics
Why Kate introduced various voices into the interludes, including cello makers and dealers, a physicist whose garden houses a cello-turned-bee hive, and cellists such as Steven Isserlis and Christian Poltera
The literary devices Kate employed to craft poetic, evocative and at times, electrifying narrative
How Kate rediscovered her voice and identity as a cellist by crafting Cello.

Bernadette Brennan's "Leaping into Waterfalls: The Enigmatic Gillian Mears"

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, award-winning biographer Dr Bernadette Brennan chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting Leaping into Waterfalls: The Enigmatic Gillian Mears, a literary biography that explores the rich, tumultuous life of Gillian Mears, one of Australia’s most celebrated writers.
 
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode: 
Gillian Mears’s lived and imaginative lives were rich with adventure, risk and often transgressive passion. Her sensuality and sexuality were the driving forces of her life and writing, and her personal and fictional worlds coalesce
Why Bernadette Brennan chose the title, Leaping into Waterfalls
Why she explored the meaning of the metaphors in Gillian’s writing, suggesting what they reveal about Gillian’s character
How Bernadette took control of the narrative despite Gillian’s valiant attempts to curate her image through her annotated archives of 123 boxes of letters, diaries’ manuscripts and other traces of her life
How Bernadette retraced Gillian’s footsteps to create an authentic sense of place
How Bernadette balanced Gillian’s life story with literary criticism of her oeuvre
How Bernadette kept the focus on Gillian while also portraying the historical, social and cultural context of her times, which included prominent authors such as Helen Garner, Tim Winton and Kate Grenville
Ethical decisions about what evidence to include, emphasise and suppress given that Gillian’s sensuality and sexuality were at the core of her identity and informed her writing.

Helen Ennis' 'Max Dupain: A Portrait'

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, the acclaimed author and art historian Dr Helen Ennis chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting Max Dupain: A Portrait, the first biography of the photographer Max Dupain, Australia’s most influential photographer of the 20th century.  
 
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:  
Helen Ennis’s inspiration for crafting Max Dupain: A Portrait  
How Max Dupain’s photograph ‘The floater’ influenced Helen’s narrative strategy and the biography’s tone  
How Dupain’s character drove the plot  
How the women in Dupain’s life and work were instrumental to his success  
How Helen achieved a fine balance between Dupain’s professional and public life and his human story  
How she reconciled Dupain’s contradictions and complexity to craft a biography characterised by intense psychological closeness  
How she ensured her voice as the narrator didn’t overshadow Dupain’s voice and artistic vision  
The extent to which Helen interpreted Dupain’s character and behaviour versus providing clues and leaving it up to readers to draw their own   conclusions.

Anna Funder’s ‘Wifedom’: Restoring Visibility & Voice

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies chats with multi-award-winning author Anna Funder about her choices while crafting Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life. Wifedom resurrects Eileen O’Shaughnessy, a brilliant Oxford graduate who married George Orwell in 1936.  
   
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:   
Anna Funder’s inspiration for writing Wifedom  
Why and how Eileen O’Shaughnessy was written out of George Orwell’s life story  
How Anna restored Eileen’s voice and visibility  
How Anna challenged the traditional biographical form by blending memoir, biography, literary criticism and feminist polemic  
The literary devices Anna employed to craft compelling and at times, gripping, narrative  
How Anna retraced Eileen’s footsteps through World War Two London and the trenches of the Spanish Civil War  
How Anna revealed the systemic biases that have historically silenced women’s contributions, especially those of a wife or female partner  
Why Wifedom stands as a testament to the importance of re-examining history through a more inclusive lens, ensuring voices like Eileen’s are heard and remembered.  

Jacqueline Kent. A Certain Style: Beatrice Davis, A Literary Life

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Jacqueline Kent chats with Gabriella about the choices she made while writing A Certain Style: Beatrice Davis, A Literary Life, the biography of Australia’s doyenne of publishing.
.Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode: 
Jacqueline Kent’s inspiration for writing a second edition of A Certain Style after her first edition won the National Biography Award in 2002. 
How Jacqueline structured A Certain Style by bringing together three strands of narrative. 
How Jacqueline retraced Beatrice Davis’s footsteps when so much of the 1940s and 1950s Sydney landscape Davis knew has been replaced by glass towers and automatic teller machines. 
Jacqueline’s views on why biographers must avoid making things up. 
How Jacqueline navigated the rumours about Davis that flew around Sydney’s close- knit publishing circles.
How Jacqueline reconciled contradictions in Davis’s character and behaviour.
The literary devices Jacqueline employed to craft witty, captivating narrative.
The extent to which Jacqueline felt she captured the truth of her subject.
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