In conversation

Frank Moorhouse: Strange Paths

Matthew Lamb in conversation with Geordie Williamson at the Afterword Cafe. 

Frank Moorhouse was legendary in Australian literary and cultural life, the author of a huge and diverse body of work – essays, short stories, journalism, scripts, the iconic Edith Trilogy – an unapologetic activist, intellectual, libertarian and champion of freedom of speech and sexual self determination. Though he lived his life publicly, his private stories have not been shared, the many paths he forged left unexamined, until now.

Matthew Lamb shared many a luncheon table with Moorhouse and immersed himself in the archived life and cultural ephemera of Frank’s world. This landmark study, from Moorhouse’s own publisher, the first in a projected two volumes, is the fascinating and comprehensive story of how one of Australia’s most original writers and pioneer of the discontinuous narrative came to be.

Fearless, sardonic and utterly dedicated to his creative life, his relationships with friends, other writers and lovers were complex and long-lasting. Lamb shares the strange paths that Frank traversed and gives us a cultural history of the times that shaped Moorhouse and which Moorhouse himself helped to shape.

Matthew Lamb is a former editor of Review of Australian Fiction and Island magazines. He has two PhDs, in Literature and Philosophy, respectively.

Geordie Williamson has been chief literary critic of The Australian since 2008 and is publisher-at-large at Pan Macmillan Australia.

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