Cassie McCullagh

Peter Allen's childhood remembered by Cassie McCullagh's mother and uncles.

In the "golden age" of TV, sorting the good from the great can be difficult work. TV Club's Cassie McCullagh does her best to choose the best from the class of 2016.

Louis Nowra's new history of the Sydney neighbourhood of Woolloomooloo is affectionate but shines light in some dark corners.

Sydney commuters were confronted with high surge prices on ride-share apps when trains were cancelled this week. Here are some tips to avoid paying top dollar for your ride-share journeys.

The 2023 Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch and bestselling authors Celeste Ng and Christos Tsiolkas reveal the secrets of their reading and writing lives.

Former ABC journalist Richard Creswick was stationed at the Darwin bureau during Cyclone Tracy, he reflects on the events before and after and plans for the 50th anniversary commemoration. 

At Adelaide Writers Week, Jonathan Rosen speaks to Radio National’s Sarah Kanowski about this recent book The Best Minds: a story of friendship, madness, and the tragedy of good intentions.  His childhood best friend Michael Laudor was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and failed by a dysfunctional system, went on to kill the person he loved most. The book chronicles their different life paths. TW: This conversation contains sensitive themes, including domestic violence and mental illness.

A guide to James Joyce from Irish writer Mary Morrissy, ahead of Bloomsday (16 June); New Zealand writer Becky Manawatu continues to explore howls of pain and compassion in her second novel, Kataraina; and magic realism in the boundaries between life and death, and Eastern Europe, in Helen Marshall's The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death.  BOOKS James Joyce, Ulysses (1922) Mary Morrissy, Penelope Unbound, Banshee Press Becky Manawatu, Kataraina, Scribe Helen Marshall, The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death, Titan Books (Keep scrolling for a list of all other books mentioned on the program) GUESTS Mary Morrissy, Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist and teacher of creative writing. Her books include Penelope Unbound — a speculative history of the life of Norah Barnacle, wife of James Joyce. She is currently in Australia and taking part in Bloomsday Events Claire Mabey, NZ children's author, editor and founder of the Verb Wellington readers and writers festival. Her novel

The same question is at the heart of three very different international novels on The Bookshelf this week, “What really happened”… To a WWI soldier who has forgotten his name and identity in The Remembered Soldier by Dutch author Anjet Daanje? To a fortune teller for the elite class in Ben Okri’s Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Broken-hearted? When four high achieving American boys entered a cave, and one emerged terribly hurt, In Sameer Pandya’s Our Beautiful Boys? Keep scrolling for a full list of all books mentioned on this week's program.   BOOKS Anjet Daanje, The Remembered Soldier (translated from the Dutch by David McKay), Scribe  Ben Okri, Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Broken-hearted, Apollo  Sameer Pandya, Our Beautiful Boys,  Bloomsbury     GUESTS  Tom Wright, theatre writer and adapter, and Artistic Associate at Belvoir Street Theatre. Bronwyn Rivers, researcher and novelist whose debut, The Reunion was released this year. She also has a PhD on the 1

A panel of international authors discuss the current state of the art of fiction. The latest Booker Prize winner Samantha Harvey, Rumaan Alam, Torrey Peters, and Robbie Arnott find connections in their writing and their bookshelves. PANELLISTS Samantha Harvey, an English writer whose five novels include The Wilderness, Dear Thief, and the 2024 Booker Prize winner, Orbital. Her non-fiction work is The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping Rumaan Alam, an American writer whose five novels include Rich and Pretty, Leave the World Behind and Entitlement. Torrey Peters, an American writer of novels, short stories and novellas, including her debut novel Detransition, Baby and a new collection, Stag Dance. Robbie Arnott, an Australian writer whose novels are Flames, The Rain Heron, Limberlost and Dusk. ------------------------ OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain George Orwell, 1984 Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven Melanie Cheng, The Burrow Helen Garner, The Children’s Bach Kazuo Ishigu