Tell us about ‘A Liberal View’. What drew you to write about this topic?
‘A Liberal View’ is a biographical essay about Sir William McMahon, the man widely regarded as Australia’s most incompetent prime minister. My essay uses the story of his unpublished autobiography to explore his life and unfortunate reputation. I was drawn to the story by the silences: McMahon wanted to tell the story of his life himself, but he’s ultimately had it told by others. Exploring and explaining that was interesting.
If I asked a friend of yours what you were good at, what would they say?
Buying books.
What is a constant in your life, even as other things change?
A fine bit of knitwear. I love a good wool or cashmere sweater, all year round.
What was the last book you had trouble finishing, and why?
Åsne Seierstad’s One of Us. The story of Anders Breivik and the lives he took in Norway in 2011, One of Us was an intense, horrifying, and disconsolate book.
What do you think of writing that blurs the lines between fiction and nonfiction? Does the line matter?
There is a line and it does matter — but when done with skill and care, playing with fiction and nonfiction can result in really interesting writing. Edmund Morris’s Dutch: a memoir of Ronald Reagan, for example, plays with that line in a way that makes the subject strangely fascinating. Harold Nicholson’s Some People is another really great book that plays with it. Bernard Cohen’s Antibiography of Robert F. Menzies is another.
Which nonfiction writer would you most like to have a drink with, and why?
Patrick Leigh Fermor. He was a writer of gorgeous fiction and nonfiction, a war hero, and someone possessed of incredible erudition. I think I’d learn a lot from a drink with him.
Which nonfiction writers are doing the most interesting things with the form at the moment?
It’s perhaps not so ‘at the moment’, but I really enjoy the work of Richard Holmes. He couples subjects and topics together in unexpected, thoughtful, and — somehow — mischievous ways.
Do you agree with any of Jonathan Franzen’s opinions?
Oh, God. What a question. Maybe the one about not being able to write with an Internet connection. And that politics is its own novel.
If you had to award a prize for nonfiction writing to one of the following, which would you choose? Anna Funder’s Stasiland; Dave Eggers’ A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius; Joan Didion’s The White Album; Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast.
For nostalgia alone, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius would get it. I read it while in high school and thought it was great. Those are some seriously good books, otherwise, though.