Alison and Sue will be joined by Professor Kate Mitchell from the Australian National University to explore the craft of historical fiction writing. Together they will untangle the role of research, character development, crafting fictitious worlds and the representation of historical figures. 

Alison is the author of nine novels including two recently published historical novels, with reviews noting their intelligence, wit, pace and scrupulous research.

Sue’s Australian series are best-sellers, praised for their meticulous research and their empathic treatment of characters, particularly women, brought back from the shadowy reaches of the past into the spotlight. 

Following the presentation, Alison and Sue will be available for book signings in the foyer.

The presentation will also be available online. Please make a booking for an online ticket and we will send you a direct link to the Zoom livestream. You will be able to request a recording of the event if you aren't able to attend the livestream viewing.

About the speakers

Alison Goodman

Alison Goodman is the author of nine novels. Her most recent release, The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin, is the second book in the Ill-Mannered Ladies series which are historical adventure/mysteries set in the Regency era. The first book, The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies, won the 2024 Readers’ Choice Davitt Award and was long-listed in the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Award.
Her award-winning Lady Helen dark fantasy trilogy has been described as ‘Buffy meets Pride and Prejudice’ and all three books in the series – The Dark Days Club, The Dark Days Pact, The Dark Days Deceit – received accolades, including The Dark Days Club which was a 2017 CBCA Notable Book for Older Readers. Alison is also the author of the New York Times bestselling fantasy duology EON and EONA. 

Sue Williams

Sue Williams is a best-selling author and an award-winning journalist and travel writer. She’s been writing all her life and is passionate about telling people’s stories in the most compelling way she can, bringing their worlds, and their words, vividly home to readers.

Sue’s Australian series, Elizabeth & Elizabeth, about the Elizabeths Macquarie and Macarthur, That Bligh Girl about Mary Bligh, the daughter of notorious governor and mutiny survivor William Bligh, and now The Governor, His Wife and His Mistress about the tangled love life of Philip Gidley King, have all proved best sellers.

Professor Kate Mitchell

Professor Kate Mitchell is Director of the Research School of Humanities and the Arts and Professor of Literary Studies at the Australian National University (ANU). Her research is focused on 19th and 20th century literary and cultural history, with a particular interest in neo-Victorian fiction and film, and contemporary historical recollection in literature and film more generally.

She likes particularly to think about the role of fictional narratives in creating public memory of contested, marginalised or occluded pasts; the ways that 'memory' travels through time and space, especially via novels, film and television; and the ethics - and creative possibilities - involved in fictionalising past lives and events. How can fiction be used to speak the unspeakable, in the past and today?