May 12

A conversation with

Lisa Wilkinson

Maleny Community Centre

6 for 6.30pm

Tickets $30 and $20 for students

Bookings essential

And, introducing,

David Carlin & Peta Murray

In The Titanic Story of Evelyn Lisa Wilkinson explores the life of the only Australian survivor of the sinking of the Titanic. She tells the story of a brave young nurse who wanted to see the world, who fell in love but then almost lost it all in one of the greatest maritime tragedies the world has ever known.

Somehow Evelyn Marsden's story, and the courageous role she played in the hours after the ship fatally hit an iceberg, has been forgotten. In this superb book Wilkinson brings together the drama of that night with Evelyn’s own, extraordinary and heartwarming love story.

 
Lisa Wilkinson AM is one of Australia's most admired and respected media identities. Her personal story (told in the 2023 autobiography It Wasn’t Meant to Be Like This) really is remarkable. Hired as a girl Friday for the teen magazine Dolly, within two years she was the editor - the youngest-ever of a national magazine - a position she used to triple the circulation before being head-hunted over to Cleo by Kerry Packer himself.

Ten years later she was drawn into the world of television, co-hosting the Nine Network's  Today Show, before, eventually, joining the Ten Network as host of its prime-time award-winning news and current affairs program The Project. 

Currently focused on her writing, Lisa is married to journalist and bestselling author Peter FitzSimons. They have three children.

Lisa will be in conversation with Steven Lang.

And, introducing

David Carlin & Peta Murray

How to Dress for Old Age explores that time when our parents are getting old and we, ourselves, are growing that way.

It is a book of great contemplation… inviting us into tricky and uncertain territory - places we generally shy away from. Its dual voices unfold along parallel and intersecting tracks, charting the complex dance steps of Father and Daughter, Mother and Son, as they try on different roles. Weaving memory, anecdote and reflection the book asks what it takes to live a meaningful life all the way to the finish line.

I loved How to Dress for Old Age - I laughed, I cried, I laugh-cried. It is with tender, beautifully observed storytelling. Peta and David generously take us into the familiar realities of caring, showing up, and grieving. Read this book with a cuppa, dressed in your most comfortable (and stylish) outfit. It is a rare contribution, full of the wisdom that comes from lived experience.

Dr Kerrie Noonan

David Carlin’s previous books include Our Father Who Wasn’t There, The Abyssinian Contortionist, and The After-Normal

Peta Murray is known for plays Wallflowering, and Salt, as well as AWGIE-winning works of community theatre Spitting Chips and The Keys to the Animal Room.

June 24

A conversation with

Kate Holden

Maleny Community Centre

6 for 6.30pm,

Tickets $30 and $20 for students

Bookings essential

Introducing author to be announced

In The Ruin of Magic, award-winning writer Kate Holden meditates on her instinctive yearning for a long-ago Europe against the natural belonging she feels to the Australian landscape, and asks, What is a home? The strongest shelter or the most lethal trap? A museum of ourselves or a showcase of fashions? 

Kate Holden is the author of The Winter Road, winner of the 2021 Walkley Book Award and the 2022 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Douglas Stewart Prize for Nonfiction, as well as the two memoirs, In My Skin and The Romantic.

We are delighted to welcome her back to Maleny.

Kate will be in conversation with Steven Lang

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