In the mid-1980s, Paul Carter and I used to meet and talk from time to time. On a hot day just before the Ash Wednesday fires, I mentioned to Paul that I was becoming disappointed with the book of fiction that I was then writing. Paul said much in reply to this, but all I remembered afterwards was his opening sentence: ‘The only material any writer has is his thoughts and feelings.’ What Paul ... (read more)
Gerald Murnane
Gerald Murnane was born in Melbourne in 1939. His novels include The Plains and most recently Border Districts. In 1999 Murnane won the Patrick White Award and in 2009 he won the Melbourne Prize for Literature. He lives in western Victoria.
As I write these words, I have just read the first forty-five pages of Murray Bail’s novel. Those pages are mostly about the Shadbolt family of Adelaide.
I spent twenty-four hours in Adelaide during February 1986. 1 had never been there before, but instead of looking around the city I kept mostly to my room in the Grosvenor Hotel. I had only once before occupied a hotel room, and I found much t ... (read more)