Oct 6, 2026 · 48 min · 10 segments
Hear from one of the country’s most acclaimed authors, Kate Grenville, on her dazzling new work of non-fiction – a colonial-era cold case that’s part locked-room mystery, part captivating exploration…
Kate GrenvilleGuest
Santilla ChingaipeHostOne of the things that you write in the book is that you write that you couldn't see a story but you also couldn't look away.
What was it about what was in those files that you couldn't look away from or
First of all, the files themselves are a glimpse into a life that I hadn't ever read about in that kind of granular detail.
Stuff about what it was really like to live in a little country town, which is what it was, a tiny country town called Currabubula, in the last decade of the 19th century...
I mean, I'd read a lot of history about 19th century Australia, but I had never read...
It's not a historian's business, really, to talk about the sorts of things that novelists find fascinating, which is, you know, how do people hold their pants up before elastic? And...
The file contains basically letters to and from the school teacher, Joseph Connor, and his employers, the Department of Education or Department of Public Instruction, mostly the local school inspector.
And as I turned the pages with the question, was this denunciating letter accurate or not? Was Joseph Connor really this terrible man, or was he in fact the victim of some kind of local vendetta? So as I turned the pages, my opinion kept flip-flopping.
The next I would read a letter that I think, oh, wait a minute, something a little bit sus here.
And there are a few things more addictive, actually, than reading a mystery and wanting to know the answer.
Did you find out the answer about how they held their pants up before Elastic was invented?
One of the things that you write in the book is that you write that you couldn't see a story but you also couldn't look away.
What was it about what was in those files that you couldn't look away from or
First of all, the files themselves are a glimpse into a life that I hadn't ever read about in that kind of granular detail.
Stuff about what it was really like to live in a little country town, which is what it was, a tiny country town called Currabubula, in the last decade of the 19th century...
I mean, I'd read a lot of history about 19th century Australia, but I had never read...
It's not a historian's business, really, to talk about the sorts of things that novelists find fascinating, which is, you know, how do people hold their pants up before elastic? And...
The file contains basically letters to and from the school teacher, Joseph Connor, and his employers, the Department of Education or Department of Public Instruction, mostly the local school inspector.
And as I turned the pages with the question, was this denunciating letter accurate or not? Was Joseph Connor really this terrible man, or was he in fact the victim of some kind of local vendetta? So as I turned the pages, my opinion kept flip-flopping.
The next I would read a letter that I think, oh, wait a minute, something a little bit sus here.
And there are a few things more addictive, actually, than reading a mystery and wanting to know the answer.
Did you find out the answer about how they held their pants up before Elastic was invented?
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