From prehistory to now, this is the fascinating story of why music is vital to the human experience.

Award-winning broadcaster and composer Andrew Ford joins PFSMF co-artistic director Monica Curro to talk about Ford’s latest book, The Shortest History of Music – a lively, authoritative tour through several thousand years of music. Packed with colourful characters and surprising details, it sets out to understand what exactly music is, and why humans are irresistibly drawn to making it.

This is not a traditional chronological account. Instead, Andrew Ford focuses on key themes in the history of music and considers how they have played out across the ages. How has music interacted with other social forces, such as religion and the economy? How have technological changes shaped the kinds of music humans make? From lullabies to concert halls, songlines to streaming services, what has music meant to humans at different times and in different places?

In a meeting of two monumental hearts and minds, international singing sensation Josh Piterman reveals the secrets of his success to PFSMF’s very own Letterman – the composer, author and broadcaster Andrew Ford. This is a rare opportunity to gain insights into the dedication and desire required to forge an impactful path in the arts, and the versatility, resilience, and mindfulness needed to sustain a long and rewarding career.

Andrew Leigh  will be in conversation with Lin Hatfield Dodds on his new book Battlers and Billionaires: The Updated Story of Inequality in Australia.

Is Australia fair enough? And why does inequality matter anyway? From egalitarian beginnings, Australian inequality rose through the nineteenth century. Then we became more equal again, with inequality falling markedly from the 1920s to the 1970s. Now, inequality is returning to the heights of the 1820s. The housing and cost-of-living crises we face are some of the defining issues of our time.

In Battlers and Billionaires, Andrew Leigh shows that while inequality can fuel growth, it also poses dangers to society. Too much inequality risks cleaving us into two Australias, with little contact between the haves and the have-nots. And the further apart the rungs on the ladder of opportunity, the harder it is for a kid born into poverty to enter the middle class. Battlers and Billionaires sheds fresh light on what makes Australia distinctive, and what it means to have - and keep - a fair go.

'Fun, fascinating and fundamentally important. A must-read for anyone who cares about bridging our divides.' -Julia Gillard

'A thought-provoking book which emphasises how far we have strayed from confidently discussing public policies that seek to give meaning to our egalitarian spirit.' -Laura Tingle

Are we about to see history repeat?

'Do you ever stop and ask, 'Is it all going to happen again?' —Siegfried Sassoon

We live in an age that seems eerily familiar. A time of dictators, populists, organised lying, European wars, grabs for territory, ideological extremism and even antisemitism, a time when things are falling apart and the centre is struggling to hold. It has all happened before, in the 1920s and '30s. History is sending us a warning, and unless we heed it, history will have its revenge as we repeat the disaster of the 1940s.

The world needs to learn the lessons of these decades, and fast. Dennis Glover retells the story of the interwar years in a series of lessons drawn from unfolding events and the unheeded omens of those who spoke out but were ignored.

An urgent, surprising and altogether persuasive read, Repeat: A Warning from History will open your eyes.

Dennis Glover was educated at Monash and Cambridge universities and has made a career as one of Australia's leading speechwriters. His first novel, The Last Man in Europe, was published around the world in multiple editions and was nominated for several literary prizes, including the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. His second novel, Factory 19, was published in 2020, and his third, Thaw, in 2023. His book-length essay An Economy Is Not A Society was published in 2015.

Dennis is one of the founders of Per Capita and a founding fellow.

Attend our in-person lunch and discussion at 12:30pm or watch the live stream remotely.

After Ariane Beeston gave birth, she experienced postpartum psychosis and was admitted to a psychiatric unit. Ariane explains in her memoir the long road back from the brink, her efforts to create awareness and minimise shame about postpartum psychosis, and her career pivot to perinatal health. With Jayne Tuttle.

Come help musician and podcaster Claire Tonti launch her new song, The Beast, into the world with a special show exploring M/otherhood and Creativity. 

With performances & discussion from an incredible lineup of m/others who make including:

Author & Advocate Jamila Rizvi

Comedian Bron Lewis

Body Love Activist April the Bodzilla 

Author Isobelle Oderberg 

Dancer & Author Ariane Beeston 

Musician Eliza Hull 

Spoken Word Artist Fleassy Malay  

Spoken Word Poet Flick Odgers 

Musician Moni La Rue

& Contemporary Dancer Bonnie Dulac 

Expect original music, dance, spoken word, storytelling, comedy and honest discussion around the complexities of mothering, where the systems are failing us & what needs to change. Come share in the joy, the love and the RAGE. Claire Tonti will perform a set including some music from her debut album Matrescence & her new song The Beast with a contemporary dance performance by m/other Bonnie Dulac. 

The showcase will finish with a panel about M/otherhood and Creativity. 

Adult themes include perinatal mental health, birth trauma, miscarriage & pregnancy loss, mothering with chronic illness, neurodiversity, disability, Queer identity and Matrescence metamorphosis. 

Join us at Brighton Library to hear from two incredible authors, Ariane Beeston with Because I'm Not Myself, You See: A Memoir of Motherhood, Madness and Coming Back From the Brink and Maxine Fawcett with Everything is Perfect - which it is evidently not. Although Ariane's book is a memoir and Maxine's book is a novel, both books tackle the topics of losing yourself and having to come back from the brink with wry humour and hope.

Joining Ariane and Maxine in conversation will be Katherine Collette, local Bayside polymath, who not only writes brilliant books, but also has an engineering background, coaches writers, draws cartoons and hosts a podcast. 

Ali Lowe, author of The School Run, describes Maxine's book as "an honest and hilarious story of the changes that come with middle age...I laughed, cried and cringed with Cass. This is an absolutely cracking debut novel. I devoured it."

Anna Spargo-Ryan, author of A Kind of Magic, says "Ariane Beeston's honesty, poetry and wisdom will save lives."

Economist and parliamentarian Andrew Leigh will be in conversation with technology entrepreneur and philanthropist Cliff Obrecht about Andrew’s new book, Battlers and Billionaires: The Updated Story of Inequality in Australia.

On October 23, 2024, the Brunswick Picture House will host "Highway to Hell: Are We Stuck in a Climate Action Cul-de-sac?", a pivotal event featuring a presentation by renowned climate scientist Dr. Joelle Gergis, lead author of IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, The Quarterly Essay Highway to Hell and joined by a panel of local experts and activists to talk about government paralysis, false solutions and the folly of adaptation, rather than curbing fossil fuel use. The threat is real, and it's the community who are being called to act.

The event aims to energise community action on climate change by presenting practical solutions and empowering attendees to make a tangible difference.

Before he was the Silver Bodgie, Robert J. Hawke was a scrawny kid from Border Town with a prophetic belief in his own grand destiny. Historians David Day and Frank Bongiorno consider the man behind the myth, and the myth behind the man. In conversation with Western Australian Labor Senator Varun Ghosh.
 

Australia is experiencing its first serious outbreak of inflation in decades, global inequality is sky-rocketing, there is a cost of living crisis, and the big banks are posting record profits. Join award-winning historian Stuart Kells and Canberra’s own Andrew Leigh MP as they untangle some of the big knots of our economic moment, and uncover a scandal or two. In Conversation with ABC Canberra's Adam Shirley. 

From rookie Queensland cop to leader of the opposition, Peter Dutton’s trajectory is more than a political origin story, it’s a cultural mirror. His fears, furies and preoccupations tell us something important about ourselves. Lech Blaine and Niki Savva take a deep dive into the mind of the opposition leader, and consider where he might lead us.  

Nina Wan (The Albatross), Rachel Mogan McIntosh (Mothering Heights), and Ariane Beeston (Because I'm Not Myself, You See), join Tori Haschka (A Recipe for Family), to discuss the tensions between creativity and creation; anxiety, pain, illness and parenthood - and just how much of yourself you are willing to put into your work.

The story of our past -- as individuals, and collectively as communities, nations, and indeed empires -- is the bedrock of understanding the present and perceiving the outlines of the future. But how history is told – and by whom -- matters greatly. Author and journalist David Marr, historian Alison Bashford, and Marc Fennell, author and presenter of the ABC’s Stuff the British Stole, discuss how history is transmitted – in books, on screen, and now in podcasts -- by both scholars and non-scholars, and to what effect, both good and bad.

Artificial intelligence  is one of the most contentious innovations of this century. For some observers its potential benefits -- for medicine and science, for example – outweigh any dangers; for others, the risks it poses to human agency and creativity, as well as global security, are enough to call for an immediate halt to its development. Journalist Tracey Spicer (author of Man Man: How the Bias of the Past is Being Built into the Future);  Toby Walsh (Professor of AI at UNSW and author of Faking It! Artificial Intelligence in a Human World) and Seumas Miller (ANU Professor Philosophy and author of Cybertechnology, Ethics and Collective Responsibility) debate and discuss these issues.

Depicting one’s life or the lives of others, whether in memoir or fiction, raises issues of identity, as well as authenticity. Yet identity – cultural, sexual,  racial, national --  can be  fluid and, rightly or wrongly, is sometimes contested, as is the authenticity of its depiction. Memoirist Kaya Wilson, biographer Jacqueline Kent, novelist Kirsty Jagger, and memoirist and novelist Alice Pung examine the challenges these issues present in writing about their own lives and the lives of others.

Founding editor of The Saturday Paper and Schwartz Media Editor-in-Chief Erik Jensen talks about his book Angry at Breakfast, an anthology of ten years writing editorials for The Saturday Paper, and the triumphs and frustrations of his career publishing the nation’s biggest news stories. With Stephanie Convery from The Guardian.

Which inheritances can we escape and which will haunt us forever? From one of Australia's most brilliant writers comes a gripping true story about the tangled fates of two couples and the foster children trapped between them. Join Lech Blaine as he discusses his new family memoir with Michael Williams (recorded for The Monthly’s weekly podcast, Read This).

With the majority of residents in the Borough of Queenscliffe voting ‘Yes’ in last year’s historical Referendum for a Voice to Parliament, but the nation overall voting ‘No’, First Nations writer Thomas Mayo and constitutional lawyer Shireen Morris share their thoughts on the outcome and the new path forward for reconciliation.

Two allies. Two agreements. 70 years of entwined history. Allan Behm, Andrew Fowler and Sam Rogeveen consider the risks and rewards of the America/Australia alliance. In conversation with Emma Shortis.

In 1975, as Gough Whitlam’s government hurtled towards its demise, a nineteen-year-old arts student at the University of Melbourne, Kim Carr, began a long march. Join the former Victorian senator and Labor cabinet minister as he discusses his memoir with Frank Bongiorno, and ponders a vital political question: How should Labor argue the case for a workable, appealing, durable version of social democracy for twenty-first-century Australia?

What does it take for an author to excavate personal history and turn it into searing, emotive prose? And how does an individual situate their experiences within, or against, formidable institutions – the church, the media, the government, the police force? 

Lech Blaine’s memoir, Australian Gospel: A Family Saga, tells the gripping true story of the tangled fates of two couples and the foster children trapped between their beliefs. Former police officer Veronica Gorrie’s astonishing debut, Black and Blue, details her passionate fight against institutional racism and sexism in the police force, and saw her win the 2022 Victorian Premier's Prize For Literature. Winning the 2024 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards for Indigenous Writing, Daniel Browning’s Close to the Subject, chronicles his stellar career as a journalist in a collection of essays, interviews, poetry, memoir, art writing and play script, highlighting his vulnerable and passionate creative side in its own right. 

Explore the artistry and personal toll of writing non-fiction with these celebrated authors, in conversation with festival director Maeve Marsden. 

Authors have long been fascinated by the very human need to belong, and what happens when that need becomes an obsession. A teenage sports game descends into a brawl in Karen Viggers’ Sidelines, two families clash over their beliefs, and their children, in Lech Blaine’s memoir, Australian Gospel, and a 70-year-old alternative health influencer is reunited with her estranged transgender son in Ernest Price’s dry-witted debut, Pyramid of Needs.  

Consider family, religion, identity, sport, diet culture and social media with these three brilliant books. 

From one of Australia's most brilliant writers, a gripping true story about the tangled fates of two couples and the foster children trapped between them.

Michael and Mary Shelley are Christian fanatics who loathe their fellow Australians – especially their 'reckless indulgence of alcohol and obsession with idiotic ball sports'. Lenore and Tom Blaine are working-class Queensland publicans raising a large family in a raucous, loving, sports-obsessed home. There's just one problem. The Blaines are foster parents to three of the Shelleys' children, who were removed from Michael and Mary as infants. And the Shelleys are prepared to do anything to get them back. Anything.

Australian Gospel is a family saga like no other – heartbreaking, hilarious and altogether astonishing.

'One of the best writers of his generation.' Benjamin Law

Lech Blaine is the author of the memoir Car Crash and the Quarterly Essay Top Blokes. His writing has appeared in The Monthly, Guardian Australia, The Best Australian Essays, Griffith Review, Kill Your Darlings and Meanjin. He was an inaugural recipient of a Griffith Review Queensland Writing Fellowship.

Jess Hill is an investigative journalist and the author of See What You Made Me Do and the Quarterly Essay The Reckoning. She has been a producer for ABC Radio and journalist for Background Briefing, and Middle East correspondent for The Global Mail. Her reporting on domestic abuse has won two Walkley awards, an Amnesty International award and three Our Watch awards. See What You Made Me Do won the 2020 Stella Prize and the ABA Booksellers’ Choice Adult Non-Fiction Book of the Year.

Join us for the launch of Lech Blaine's Australian Gospel. Lech will be joined in conversation by his siblings: Steven Blaine, John Blaine, Hannah Blaine and ABC journalist Ellen Fanning. 

Australian Gospel is a gripping true story about the tangled fates of two couples and the foster children trapped between them. Michael and Mary Shelley were Christian fanatics. Three of their children – Steven, John and Hannah – were placed into foster care with Lenore and Tom Blaine. The Blaines were working-class publicans in country Queensland. In 1992, Lenore Blaine gave birth to a miracle baby named Lech. Australian Gospel is the book that Lech was born to write: a love letter to his colourful parents and foster siblings. Today, Steven is an accountant in Perth. John is a car salesman in Bundaberg. Hannah is a neuropsychologist in Alice Springs. Lech is an author and essayist based in Sydney.

Lech Blaine is the author of the memoir Car Crash and the Quarterly Essays Top Blokes and Bad Cop. He is the 2023 Charles Perkins Centre writer in residence. His writing has appeared in Good Weekend, Griffith Review, The Guardian and The Monthly. 

Michael and Mary Shelley are Christian fanatics who loathe their fellow Australians – especially their 'reckless indulgence of alcohol and obsession with idiotic ball sports'. Lenore and Tom Blaine are working-class Queensland publicans raising a large family in a raucous, loving, sports-obsessed home.

There's just one problem. Lenore and Tom are foster parents to three of Michael and Mary's children, who were removed from the Shelleys as infants. And the Shelleys are prepared to do anything to get them back. Anything.

Australian Gospel is the true story of Lech Blaine's family, a stranger-than-fiction tale that is heartbreaking, hilarious and altogether astonishing.

Lech Blaine is the author of the memoir Car Crash and the Quarterly Essays Top Blokes and Bad Cop. He is the 2023 Charles Perkins Centre writer in residence. His writing has appeared in Good Weekend, Griffith Review, The Guardian and The Monthly. His forthcoming book is Australian Gospel.

Organised in partnership with Constant Reader Bookshop.

Join us for a fascinating panel discussion that will explore the issues faced by Australian women with Indian heritage. What are the roles and expectations of women in India and how do these play out among the Indian diaspora in Australia? 

The panel includes the editor of Growing up Indian in Australia, Aarti Betigeri, and selected contributors from the book. Growing up Indian in Australia is a compilation of stories reflecting the diversity and experiences of Australians with Indian heritage. 

Entry is free to this event but bookings are essential. A book signing in the Foyer will follow this event.

The event will be available to view live online via the Library's Facebook and YouTube pages. You do not need to book a ticket to watch the event online. 

Lech Blaine is an award-winning writer and journalist from Queensland. He is the 2023 Charles Perkins Centre writer in residence.

Lech is author of the critically-acclaimed Car Crash: A Memoir and the Quarterly Essay Top Blokes. Car Crash was shortlisted for the National Biography Award and two categories at the Queensland Literary Awards.

Join Lech Blaine and Benjamin Law to discuss Blaine's new book Australian Gospel.

Copies of Australian Gospel will be available to purchase on the night, and Lech will be signing books.

Tickets include a welcome drink and shared grazing boards. Doors open from 6:00pm for a 6:30pm start, seating is unallocated so arrive early to secure your spot!

We’re delighted to welcome Lech Blaine to The Taproom in November. We are fans of his Quarterly Essay contributions and his memoir Car Crash was an incredible read, described by Trent Dalton as ‘A heart-soaring act of literary bravery’.

Lech’s new book, Australian Gospel: A Family Saga, is a dark comedy about the tangled fates of two couples and the children trapped between them

​

Michael and Mary Shelley are Christian fanatics who loathe their fellow Australians – especially their 'reckless indulgence of alcohol and obsession with idiotic ball sports'.
Lenore and Tom Blaine are working-class Queensland publicans raising a large family in a raucous, loving, sports-obsessed home.

There's just one problem. Lenore and Tom are foster parents to three of Michael and Mary's children, who were removed from the Shelleys as infants. And the Shelleys are prepared to do anything to get them back. Anything.

Australian Gospel is the true story of Lech Blaine's family, a stranger-than-fiction tale that is heartbreaking, hilarious and altogether astonishing.

Lech will be in conversation with Chris Donnelly.

Join us for a conversation between Lech Blaine and Emily Westmoreland to celebrate the release of Lech's new book, Australian Gospel.

Michael and Mary Shelley are Christian fanatics who loathe their fellow Australians - especially their 'reckless indulgence of alcohol and obsession with idiotic ball sports'.
Lenore and Tom Blaine are working-class Queensland publicans raising a large family in a raucous, loving, sports-obsessed home.

There's just one problem. Lenore and Tom are foster parents to three of Michael and Mary's children, who were removed from the Shelleys as infants. And the Shelleys are prepared to do anything to get them back. Anything.

Australian Gospel is the true story of Lech Blaine's family, a stranger-than-fiction tale that is heartbreaking, hilarious and altogether astonishing.
 

Hosted by The Sun Bookshop.

Join Readings for 24-hours celebrating books, culture and community

Laura Tingle once famously said about Australia: ‘We are a racist country, let's face it. We always have been, and it's very depressing.’ Take that premise as a jumping off point and join Erik Jensen, founding editor of The Saturday Paper and editor-in-chief of Schwartz Media, as he asks activist and author Veronica Gorrie, author and academic Alice Pung, and Lord Mayor of Melbourne Nicholas Reece about their experiences in our own home town. Author and journalist George Megalogenis will open the discussion with an introduction to Australia’s social and political stats and facts – both past and present.

Join Readings for 24-hours celebrating books, culture and community

In Australian Gospel, Lech Blaine, one of Australia’s most brilliant writers, has written the story of his childhood – a gripping tale of the tangled fates of two couples and the foster children trapped between them. Here the old adage is true: fact is stranger than fiction. Australian Gospel is a family saga like no other – heartbreaking and hilarious. 

David Marr, beloved Australian journalist, author, and host of ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live, will join Lech Blaine in a discussion about the ties that bind us.

The Readings Bar and Books will be open at the venue.

A report of America that catches the madness and the politics of an election like no other.

In his Quarterly Essay High Noon (September 2024) Don Watson gives a deeply historically informed, characteristically mordant account of Donald Trump, Joe Biden and a divided country. Watson considers how things reached this pass, and what might lie ahead.

An essential analysis about a crucial moment of choice.

Don Watson is an acclaimed author. His books include the bestselling Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: A Portrait of Paul Keating PM, Death Sentence, Watson’s Dictionary of Weasel Words, Caledonia Australis, American Journeys, The Bush and The Passion of Private White. In addition to books and essays, including several on US politics for Quarterly Essay, he writes films and gives occasional talks on writing and language.

Don Watson will give members, potential members and guests an insightful perspective into the US Presidential election outcome, what it means for Australia and the broader implications.