When they are still little girls, Cibi, Magda and Livia make the promise to their father that they will always stay together. When Cibi and Livia are ordered to Auschwitz-Birkenau labour camp by the Nazis, Magda manages to hide out for a time in a neighbour's attic near her family home. Eventually the sisters are reunited in Auschwitz where they renew that promise, this time to each other. Together they manage to survive the death camp and forge a new life for themselves. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Heather Morris about the fortuitous moment that was the catalyst for Three Sisters, the power of familial bonds and turning real people into great characters to bring history to life.

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Heather Morris on a remarkable story of courage and survival in Three Sisters

Tess is a single mother with a three-year-old daughter Poppy but being an overprotective mother is complicating all of her personal relationships. When Tess finds a dark and disturbing drawing among Poppy's other colourful drawings she is convinced Poppy has witnessed something terrible. But's it's only a child's drawing – isn't it? While Tess will do anything to protect her daughter, she doesn't know who or what she is protecting her from. The path Tess takes only leads to more uncertainty and a place where she doesn't know who she can trust. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to writing team Nicci Gerrard and Sean French about the fundamentals of a psychological thriller, cultivating anxiety and uncertainty in their characters and the importance of a well made Negroni in the process of writing.

Nicci French on turning the everyday into a nail-biting psychological thriller in The Unheard

Celeste is having a very bad summer. Her parents are off travelling the world and she's left with little sister Esme and they're both desperate for adventure. When a magical flying bus crash-lands in their front yard carrying cousin Ferd, they get just want they needed. Wherewithal Way is Ferd's house and while it looks like an ordinary house it's really a portal to magical realms full of strange creatures and even stranger adventures. When something tries to break in through the portal in the pantry – the door to the mystical Realm of Forests – their entire existence is under threat. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Samantha-Ellen Bound about portal fantasies, folklore and faeries, and what's to come in this brilliant new four-part series, Seven Wherewithal Way.

Samantha-Ellen Bound on magical realms in Seven Wherewithal Way

Having worked in Afghanistan and Mexico, Damien Cave thought he understood something about the subject of risk. When he brought his young family to Australia to set up the New York Times' Australian bureau he was unexpectedly confronted with an entirely new approach to managing risk. Instead of being eliminated or romanticised he found a culture that respected and even embraced the idea. Following extensive research and interviews, Damien began asking himself critical questions about the American approach to risk he was familiar with. Into the Rip explores the idea that a managed exposure to risk where communities undertaken that responsibility together, has the potential to build true self-confidence and a clearer pathway to happiness and fulfilment. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Damien Cave about communal parenting, the Australian institution of Nippers and surf life-saving, the dangers of the self-esteem movement, and overcoming fear in his pursuit of the Bronze Medallion.

Damien Cave on the Australian way of risk in Into the Rip

Dame Nellie Melba was Australia's first international superstar, taking Europe and America by storm with a voice that thrilled the world. Most Australians imagine an imperious Dame dressed in furs and large hats, but behind the public facade lies a story of a young woman struggling to overcome social expectations in pursuit of a dream. After surviving an abusive marriage she found true love with a would-be King of France, an affair that brought both scandal and personal fulfilment into a life that characterised by both suffering an enormous international success. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Robert Wainwright about the life and loves, the triumphs and the disappointments of a talented woman finding her way in the world.

Robert Wainwright on an Australian icon in Nellie: The Life and Loves of Dame Nellie Melba

Pip doesn't like going home anymore. Her Mum isn't the same since her new boyfriend moved in and to cap it off her best friend Mika has moved away. When she finds an injured baby dragon that needs her care she starts to believe anything is possible. In this charming story of love, loss and survival, Karen Foxlee weaves a magical tale exploring what it really means to love and nurture while finding the courage to embrace change. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Karen Foxlee about becoming emotionally invested in her characters, bringing her storytelling back to Australia, and how daydreaming ignites her imagination.

Karen Foxlee on the healing power of magic and friendship in Dragon Skin

Born evil or simply mad? Frederick Bailey Deeming was known and reviled across three continents. He spent years travelling under various aliases, preying on the innocent, the gullible and the desperate. The Devil's Work raises fresh questions about Deeming's role in the Whitechapel murders and the identity of Jack the Ripper. In an era when spiritualism and a fascination with the afterlife was rife, Deeming's story attracted some of the world's most powerful and influential people, including Australia's second Prime Minister, Alfred Deakin. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Garry Linnell about one of Australia's most notorious criminals, the attraction of the big stories and bringing history to life in The Devil's Work: How Australia hunted and hanged the serial killer who shocked the world: Jack the Ripper.

Garry Linnell on the serial killer who shocked the world in The Devil's Work

As a child growing up in country Queensland Lisa Millar dreamed of having a big life. Now with years on the road as an ABC Foreign Correspondent behind her, she shares her moments of joy among the reporting on grief and tragedy. Lisa battled a debilitating fear of flying that threatened her life and career but only now has she been able to reflect on a joyful childhood, the journey that brought her here, and the change she has witnessed along the way. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Lisa Millar about growing up in an aviation-obsessed family, facing her fears and embracing the big and the small moments in life.

Lisa Millar on conquering fear and hitting a deadline in Daring to Fly

Back after suspension, Detective Sergeant Robert Cardilini is immediately tasked with solving domestic violence cases. To complicate matters, his new partner is the eager and idealistic young Detective Lorraine Spencer. When a young woman is found bleeding and tied to a chair it leads to a sinister game of exploitation reaching the highest echelons of society. When Spencer goes out on a limb to unravel the mystery, the question is: will Cardilini be there to catch her? In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Rosalba Jeffreys about Perth in the 1960s, the return of Detective Sergeant Robert Cardilini and turning her husband's manuscript into a book.

Rosalba Jeffreys on bringing the story together for Robert Jeffrey's The Final Cut

Josie de Bray was a brothel madam who owned most of Roe Street, Perth from WWI up to the 1940s. This immensely readable social history uses the life of Josie de Bray as conduit into the lives of her friends and competitors – the many women who paraded in their petticoats on the verandas of Roe Street, and who were kept from the public view and were secret keepers themselves in the seamier side of town. In this episode, author and researcher Leigh Straw chats to Heather Lewis about the stigma of sex work past and present, and the process of writing The Petticoat Parade.

Leigh Straw on Madam Monnier and Perth's notorious Roe Street brothels in The Petticoat Parade

Australia has been directly involved in the nuclear industry for decades: from the establishment of the Australian Atomic Energy Commission in 1953 to the secret tests at Maralinga and the decision to export uranium in the 1970s and 1980s. Whether we like it or not we are part of the global nuclear industry and bear a moral obligation as guardian of around 30% of the world's uranium deposits. In Long Half-life, Professor Lowe exposes the fundamental challenges politicians and decision-makers face when their own time horizons rarely go beyond next year's budget or election. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Professor Ian Lowe about landmarks in the political debate around nuclear power, the importance of ordinary people in the decision-making process, and the continuing existential threat to the human race the nuclear industry poses.

Professor Ian Lowe on the complexities of the nuclear industry in Australia in Long Half-life.

Three housemates. One dead, one missing and one accused of murder. Melbourne journalist Olive 'Oli' Groves is obsessed with the 'Housemate Homicides' a story that set career in motion nine years earlier. When the one missing housemate suddenly turns up dead the whole story comes flooding back for Oli. Paired with enthusiastic and tech-savvy millennial Cooper Ng to reinvestigate the case, Oli is forced to confront both her past and the present in a new media landscape that's turned digital. Oli soon discovers that her search for the truth may find the answers lie much closer to home. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Sarah Bailey about the life of a cold case in the news cycle, exploring the friction in generational differences and the challenges of creating a new character.

Sarah Bailey on the thrill of the cold case in The Housemate

Tori Swyft wakes up in a Barcelona hotel room to a gruesome murder scene. With a splitting headache and no memory of the night before, her world is in turmoil. Could she really have done such a thing? If she didn't then who did? A man known only as The Voice phones her with revelations of a shocking video proving Tori is the murderer. Set within the seedy world of global politics and counter-espionage, Tori soon finds herself in a race against time to prove her innocence. In this episode, Gregory Dobbs chats to John M Green about the new breed of female spy, the real threat of technology in the arena of geo-politics, and his love affair with the city of Barcelona.

John M Green on the third book in the Dr Tori Swyft international spy thriller series, Double Deal

Battle scarred investigative journalist and former war correspondent John Bailey is picking up the pieces of his life after the death of the one woman who helped him hold it all together. He's got a new job, he's given up the drink and he's somehow even acquired a four-legged companion. When Federal Police raid his home armed with a warrant granting unprecedented powers, Bailey is determined to get to the truth. While investigating the rise of a global white supremacist group, it becomes clear that Bailey himself is now a target and a deadly enemy emerges from the shadows. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Tim Ayliffe about the alt-right movement, politics and the pressures on investigative journalism in a world where opinion often triumphs over truth.

Tim Ayliffe on the rise of the white supremacy movement in The Enemy Within.

Book talk and author interviews aimed at helping you discover your next favourite read, presented by Good Reading Magazine.

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Good Reading Podcast

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