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…
Finding Sanity: John Cade, lithium and the taming of bipolar disorder
Seminar
For most of human history, mental illness has been largely untreatable. Sufferers spent their lives—if they survived—in and out of asylums, accumulating life's wreckage around them.In 1948, all that changed when an Australian doctor and recently returned prisoner of war, working alone in a disused…
Shining a Light: A Group Biography of the Women of Mackay, Queensland
Seminar
This book is about a group of thirty-seven women who made a significant contribution to the Mackay district from the 1860s to 2023. Their stories reflect the changing role of women in Australia from early settlement days to the present. These women came from all walks of life to make a mark on…
Book Launch: Playtime, by Emily Gallagher
Book launch
Please join us for the launch of Dr Emily Gallagher’s first book Playtime: A History of Australian Childhood (Black Inc). It will be launched by the renowned Australian actress, singer, author and children's television host, Justine Clarke.About The BookThis groundbreaking book is a history of…