Exploring the unique literary scene on a tiny island at the edge of the world...
When ABC journalist and former royal correspondent, Rebecca Armitage, started writing her first novel for fun, after work, she had no expectations whatsoever. But once the manuscript was finished, she entered the Australian Society of Authors' Virtual Speed Dating event, landed a major publishing deal for The Heir Apparent, and then experienced the surreal joy of being chosen for Reese Witherspoon's Book Club.
Now lined up for a sumptuous TV series, Bec's debut is a glitzy, high concept romance set in London and Tasmania that follows Lexi, a British princess in pursuit of an ordinary life. When a multiple tragedy strikes in Europe, Lexi is recalled from her medical studies in Nipaluna/Hobart to the palace, where she's repositioned in a system of wealth and privilege that prohibits her personal freedom.
Topical, incisive, and politically astute, the novel is a whipsmart retort to anyone who's ever dismissed gripping commercial women's fiction as superficial fluff. Glamourous and compelling, it also interrogates issues of unearned power and colonialism, wealth, class and entitlement in a story that raises important questions about the currency of archaic cultural institutions and asks what happens to self-agency in the public eye.
In this episode, Liz and Bec discuss the novels' themes, the peculiar nature of the relationship between Britain's real-life royals and the media, the benefits and challenges of basing fictional characters on actual people, and what it's like to have your wildest author dreams be superseded by experience.
With Bec's fabulous success in mind, Kate and Liz take on the indecipherable mystery that is the publishing industry for this episode's Topical Chat. Most commonly described as 'opaque', publishing is a business that baffles the very people it relies on - authors. I've yet to meet a writer who understands the machinations of the publishing world. Tune in to see how far we get... !
And for this show's Cities of Literature Book Picks, Sophie of Fullers Bookshop chooses Kate's stunning, award-winning second novel, Heartsease, and Old God's Time by Dublin author, Sebastian Barry.
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