Good Reading Podcast

Three couples, friends since high school, rent a luxurious house in the mountains for an unplugged weekend of drinking and bushwalking. No internet, no phones, no stress. On the first night, the topic of partner-swapping comes up. It's a joke - at first. Not everyone is keen, but an agreement is made. The lights will be turned out. The three women will go into the three bedrooms. The three men will each pick a room at random. It won't be awkward later, because they won't know who they've slept with - or can pretend they don't. When the lights come back on, one of the men is dead. No one will admit to being his partner. The phones still don't work, and now the car key is missing. They're stranded. And the killer is just getting started ... In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Jack Heath about the hidden dangers within an adult game of truth or dare, the virtues of a murder case where everyone and no one appears to be the killer, and how dark humour can make murder fun.

Two women from different worlds in Renaissance France cross paths in a way that changes both their lives. One is Marguerite de Navarre, a King’s sister. Powerful, privileged and widely admired, Marguerite must nonetheless marry where she is told to, regardless of her feelings, and – despite the thrilling new ideas of religious reform causing upheaval in France – must toe the line for the good of her brother’s kingdom. Ever a risk-taker, she does what she can to protect her reformist friends. The other is a cast out, itinerant child who longs to be a printer like her late father. Jehane goes dressed as a male by the name of Josse, at first for safety’s sake and then by choice, fending off the risks of being alone, unprotected and born female, poor but trying to live in freedom. These two remarkable women, the rich and poor come together in the most unexpected of ways. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Tracy Ryan about the challenges facing women in Renaissance France, how inventing a fictional character to complement the real Queen of the Navarre opened up storytelling possibilities, and how poetry, journal entries and Queen Marguerite's own writing have enriched the social and political fabric of this story.

A woman abandons her city life and marriage to return to the place of her childhood, holing up in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of the Monaro. She does not believe in God, doesn't know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive life almost by accident. As she gradually adjusts to the rhythms of monastic life, she finds herself turning again and again to thoughts of her mother, whose early death she can't forget. Disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations: a terrible mouse plague, the return of the skeletal remains of a sister, presumed murdered, who left the community decades before to minister to deprived women in Thailand, and a troubling visitor to the monastery pulls the narrator further back into her past. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Charlotte Wood about how she came to choose a nameless narrator as her storyteller, why the Monaro plains hold such meaning for her, and the benefits of writing someone else's memoir.

Over seventy years had passed since Mira Unreich was freed from a concentration camp in Germany. On that spring day in 1945, she found herself alive, against all odds. In the decades that followed, she never explained the mystery underpinning her survival. How could Mira say that in the Holocaust 'I learned about the goodness of people'? When Mira's journalist daughter Rachelle realised time was running out for Mira, who was ill with cancer, she resolved to ask her mother questions. It would be the most important interview of her life: a chance to discover the secrets to her mother's joy, and an opportunity to fit together the jigsaw puzzle pieces of her own life. Mira's words would lead Rachelle along a surprising path, where she learned for the first time what a truly extraordinary life her mother had led. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Rachelle Unreich about her mother Mira's idyllic childhood interrupted by war, the time spent in concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and Mira's incredible capacity to survive and to thrive despite the horrors of her past.

Penny Albright is a daughter of the thorn coven, forced to patrol the veil between the realms of Life and Death. Each night, one thorn witch—and only one—must cross the veil by burning at the stake. Each morning, that witch draws on their magic to return. Failure to follow the rules risks the veil and risks them all. Thorns, Tides, Embers, Storms, and Ores. All five covens are bound in servitude to the tyrant High Warden of Halstett. But one morning, Penny's favourite sister Ella doesn't return. And that night, determined to find her, Penny breaks the rules. She burns in secret. And she discovers that all isn’t as it seems in Life or Death. Her journey leads her to Malin, a devastating lord with too many secrets; to Alice, a mysterious captive prophet; and to a rebellion brewing in the shadows beneath the city. And as Penny's world splits, she’ll face a devastating choice. Because it’s not just her sister’s life that hangs in the balance. It’s the fate of all magic. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Katharine J Adams about the three words that led to her imagining a vast new magical universe, the hierarchy of characters and their rituals that drive the kingdom of Halstett, and why libraries are good places to hang out.

Crown Resorts, the Bond Group, James Hardie, HIH Insurance, Geoffrey Edelsten’s Allied Medical Group, 7-Eleven and Rio Tinto, the list goes on… Australia has suffered from the continual sting of business scandals since corporate cowboys like Alan Bond and Christopher Skase wrought so much damage during the 1980s. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Australians have been affected, with many left traumatised when corporations collapse due to gross mismanagement and profits being put before people. Award-winning author Quentin Beresford takes us inside corporate Australia’s highest-profile scandals and the factors that drive them — the rise of celebrity CEOs, timid regulators, inept boards, the murky links between big business, governments, banks, media and lobby groups — and explores a path towards higher ethical standards from organisations. It’s a wild ride into the heart of corporate Australia. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Quentin Beresford about the continuous string of corporate scandals that has plagued Australia over the last forty years, the gallery of rogues who have been at the helm of these scandals, and the scourge of crony capitalism and the lack of regulation that has allowed these scandals to proliferate.

It's 2012 and in Northern Afghanistan, an international crisis has erupted. A group of NGO workers have been kidnapped by local insurgents and are now hidden in a winding mountain region. After attempts to negotiate a deal with the bandits fail, and with the lives of the hostages hanging in the balance, there is only one option... the SAS and Navy SEALs are sent in to find and free them. The Rescue is the action-packed story of the special forces' attempts save the hostages from almost certain death. Drawing on classified sources and using his own personal insight into the inner-workings of these units, Andy McNab gives a page-turning account of this incredible mission. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Andy McNab about the state of the Afghan war in 2012, the complex network of individuals and organisations both remote and on the ground who make rescue operations possible, and the importance of reliable intelligence in preparing for these kinds of dangerous missions.

In 1977, twenty-seven-year-old Robyn Davidson set off with a dog and four camels to cross 1,700 miles of Australian desert to the sea. A life of almost constant travelling followed. From the deserts of Australia, to Sydney's underworld; from Sixties street life, to the London literary scene; from migrating with nomads in Tibet, to 'marrying' an Indian prince, Davidson's quest was motivated by an unquenchable curiosity about other ways of seeing and understanding the world. Davidson threw bombs over her shoulder and seeds into her future on the assumption that something would be growing when she got there. The only terrain she had no interest in exploring was the past. In Unfinished Woman Davidson turns at last to explore that long avoided country. Through this brave and revealing memoir, she delves into her childhood and youth to uncover the forces that set her on her path, and confront the cataclysm of her mother's suicide. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Robyn Davidson about the challenges she faced in writing about her mother, her chaotic early life and relationship with her family, and the enduring curiosity that continues to inspire her nomadic lifestyle.

Twelve-year-old Billy Pyke has a talent for sorting things out, whether it’s his chaotic family home or the busy book stall at Paddy’s Market. In 1871, the market is the loud, smelly, marvellous heart of Melbourne, and Billy is delighted to work at the book stall there for the eccentric Mr Cole. When his new friend Kezia warns him of a sinister magician called the Obscurosmith, Billy can’t believe her stories of magical deals gone horribly wrong – until he sees them happening. And the night that the Obscurosmith crosses a terrifying and dangerous line, Billy realises something: if he wants the Obscurosmith stopped, he’ll have to do it himself. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Amelia Mellor about her fascination for 19th century history and Melbourne's Paddy's Market, how magic and history converge at Coles Book Arcade, why digging around in the vault of history can turn up the strangest things.

Macedonia, 1917. The great city of Salonika is engulfed by fire as all of Europe is ravaged by war. Amid the destruction are those who have come to the frontlines to heal: surgeons, ambulance drivers, nurses, orderlies and other volunteers. Four of them—Stella, Olive, Grace and Stanley—are at the centre of this extraordinary new novel, which takes its inspiration from the wartime experiences of Australians Miles Franklin and Olive King, and British painters Grace Pailthorpe and Stanley Spencer. In Jones’s imagination these four lives intertwine and change, each compelled by the desire to create something meaningful in the ruins of a broken world. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Gail Jones about the intersection of two momentous events of World War I, how four figures from history became characters in her novel by winding back the clock on their lives, and the importance of exploring stories that take a different perspective on the experience of war.