Pip Williams

My name's Nicole Aberdee.

I'm delighted to join Jane in welcoming you here tonight for a conversation with Pip Williams about her most recent novel, The German Ward, which was published only a few days ago by Firm Press.

I'd like to begin by acknowledging the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of this land, and pay my respects to the elders past and present, and to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are here today.

Let me tell you a little bit about Dr. Pip Williams.

She is the author of social research, that was her previous career, essays, a memoir about time spent in Italy with her family, and three novels, including this one, the latest, The German Ward.

She has a PhD in public health from Adelaide Uni, but she's best known for her historical fiction.

Yeah.

I've also been reading, I'm doing a read-along with the Tandem Collective for The German Ward by Pip Williams.

I keep seeing that.

I'm really enjoying it so far, actually.

mean, I'm sure it was probably number two or number three, right? But South Australia is so blessed with incredible authors.

Do you vote for Colin Teely or do you vote for Hannah Kent or do you vote for Pip Williams or do you vote for Mem Fox? You know, I mean, what a state, something in the water.

Yeah, people did vote for all those people also.

Absolutely.

The third book is The Dictionary of Lost Words.

By Pip Williams.

By

Pip Williams.

And I actually read The Bookbinder of Jericho, second one of those two, first.

And so I read them backwards.

So there's a few sort of takes on, like new takes on sort of classic plays, which is pretty exciting.

And then finally for that season in September and October is The Bookbinder at Jericho, which is based on Pip Williams' bestselling novel.

She's a a local writer and has had some real success with her other novel is The Dictionary of Lost Words, which was also adapted for the SAGE and audio described with Access to Arts.

So

Rock star Tim Rogers, who's recently been in a stage production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, where he played Pozzo.

And here's taking on the latest from Pip Williams of the Dictionary of Lost Words fame and a new novel called The German Ward.

And best-selling novelist Madeleine Gray takes us to contemporary London and some, well, I think...

Quite awkward moments in the novel by Jem Calder.

This is ABC Radio National's The Bookshelf on air, on ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Cassie McCullough with Kate Evans and our reviewers today, performer, musician, legend Tim Rogers and novelist and superstar creative writing teacher Madeleine Gray.

And now we're turning to the latest from the internationally best-selling Australian writer, Pip Williams, whose novels include The Dictionary of Lost Words and The

Bookbinder of Jericho.

It is time for Puka Puka.

Let's begin with The German Ward by Pip Williams, which is one of your two selections for us today.

It is indeed.

Now, you might remember Pip Williams, who wrote the Dictionary of Lost Words, which was a huge, big global bestseller a couple of years ago, several years ago now.

So Pip is an Australian author, and the German ward features three females.

Isabel Ray, she was an Australian-born impressionist painter, a real-life person, so it's based on a very sort of on a kernel of fact, and then Pip goes and fictionalizes to great effect.

Loved, loved, loved, loved, loved.

Indeed.

Look, some of the most successful authors do not.

I mean, Pip Williams doesn't have social media.

I did quite a lot of research years ago back when my publisher was encouraging me to put myself out there more on social media, which I've always felt really cringe about, but of course I'm doing now with my-

[laughs]