The Stained Man: A Crime, a Scandal, and the Making of a Nation, by Patrick Mullins
Book launch
The Stained Man: A Crime, a Scandal, and the Making of a Nation (Scribe, 2026) tells the story of Richard 'Dick' Meagher, the Sydney solicitor who incited a campaign to free a man he knew was guilty of attempted murder and subsequently lost it all, including his reputation and ability to…
Relationality, Movement and Transnationality in Biographies across PNG and Australia: Stories through Nahau and Wesley Rooney
Seminar
It seems straightforward: for years now, I’ve been saying that I’m working on Papua New Guinean politician Nahau Rooney’s biography. But really, I’ve been trying to make sense of telling a story that moves across epistemic spheres and transnationally across PNG and Australia. I experience movement…
The House of Blue Glass: A life of Penelope Lucas, by Alan Atkinson
Book launch
Join award-winning historian Alan Atkinson in conversation with Catherine Gay about his latest book The House of Blue Glass: A life of Penelope Lucas (NewSouth, 2026).Following on from his acclaimed joint biography of Elizabeth and John Macarthur, in his latest work Alan pieces together the life of…
Enchantment and Apocalypse: The Lives and Art of Twin Prodigies, Edward Julius and Charles Maurice Detmold
Seminar
The twin artists Charles Maurice (1883–1908) and Edward Julius (1883–1957) Detmold have been described as ‘two of the most extraordinary figures in the annals of early modern art’. Largely self-taught artistic prodigies, they first exhibited at the Royal Academy at the age of thirteen. But, as…
Mary Booth: The Woman Who Shaped the Anzac Legend, by Rae Frances and Bruce Scates
Book launch
Join Rae Frances and Bruce Scates in conversation with the National Centre of Biography's Michelle Staff as they discuss their latest jointly written book Mary Booth: The Woman Who Shaped the Anzac Legend (Miegunyah, 2026).Drawing on newly uncovered personal correspondence, the authors delve into…
Spying on a Spy: A Dutch Agent for the British, Marguerite Wolters, 1723–1800
Seminar
This workshop is on entirely new work for me, a biography of an unknown Dutch woman called Marguerite Wolters who headed a Europe-wide spy agency for nearly twenty years (1771–1790). She sold her intelligence exclusively to the British government, who used it to consolidate its rising superpower…
Lebanon Days to Les Murray: The Memoirist Turned Biographer
Seminar
How do we ensure that writing about the personal past illustrates something beyond the person? How do we emphasise the salient fact in a tangle of intimately recorded details? And how do we achieve this when writing from memory, as opposed to when writing from evidence? This discussion will…