There’s nothing better than relaxing during summer with a good book. And now we have your reading list sorted with some of this season’s hottest page turners.

Work your way through the biggest non-fiction releases on the Library’s summer reading list, get your questions ready and join host Astrid Edwards for a conversation with the author themselves.

This week, we’ll be joined by… David Marr.

Widely regarded as one of Australia’s most influential commentators, Marr is joining us to discuss the updated edition of his essay collection, My Country.

In My Country, Marr curates some of his most powerful writing on religion, sex, censorship and the law; striking accounts of leaders, moralists and scandalmongers; and elegant ruminations on the arts and the lives of artists.

Hear directly from the reporter about what inspired the book, why he decided to create an updated edition and more. Plus, get the chance to ask any of your burning questions.

Book your tickets now and get reading!

And don’t forget to grab My Country from Readings State Library Victoria – present your tickets in store to receive 10% off the RRP.

In partnership with Sisters in Crime

Join us to celebrate the launch of Lucy Sussex and Megan Brown's Outrageous Fortunes: The Adventures of Mary Fortune, Crime-writer, and Her Criminal Son George.

When Mary Fortune arrived in Melbourne with her infant son in 1855, she was determined to reinvent herself. The Victorian goldfields were just the place. After a time selling sly-grog and a bigamous marriage to a policeman, Mary became a pioneering journalist and author.

Philomena Horsley will do the launching honours. Horsley is a long-time member of Sisters in Crime, a Davitt Awards Judge, and a Scarlet Stiletto trophy winner. She is also a medical anthropologist with expertise in autopsies, death and dying; family and domestic violence; and women’s health.

Free, but bookings are essential.

Megan Brown and Lucy Sussex, authors of Outrageous Fortunes will be in conversation with Dr Meg Atsker. 

Outrageous Fortunes is the gripping story of Australia’s first female crime writer and her career-criminal son.

When Mary Fortune arrived in Melbourne with her infant son in 1855, she was determined to reinvent herself. The Victorian goldfields were just the place.

After a time selling sly grog and a bigamous marriage to a policeman, Mary became a pioneering journalist and author. The Detective’s Album was the first book of detective stories to be published in Australia and the first by a woman to be published anywhere in the world. Her work appeared in magazines and newspapers for over forty years – but none of her readers knew who she was. She wrote using pseudonyms, often adopting the voice of a male narrator to write about ‘unladylike’ subjects.

When Mary died in 1911, her identity was nearly lost. In Outrageous Fortunes, Megan Brown and Lucy Sussex retrieve Fortune’s astonishing career and discover an equally absorbing story in her illegitimate son, George. While Mary was writing crime, George was committing it, with convictions for theft and bank robbery. In their intertwined stories, crime fiction meets true crime, and Melbourne’s literary bohemia consorts with the criminal underworld.

$10 per person plus booking fee & gst includes light refreshment. All proceeds go to the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute to support the staging of our author events.

The gripping story of Australia’s first female crime writer and her career-criminal son.

When Mary Fortune arrived in Melbourne with her infant son in 1855, she was determined to reinvent herself. The Victorian goldfields were just the place.

After a time selling sly grog and a bigamous marriage to a policeman, Mary became a pioneering journalist and author. The Detective’s Album was the first book of detective stories to be published in Australia and the first by a woman to be published anywhere in the world. Her work appeared in magazines and newspapers for over forty years – but none of her readers knew who she was. She wrote using pseudonyms, often adopting the voice of a male narrator to write about ‘unladylike’ subjects.

When Mary died in 1911, her identity was nearly lost. In Outrageous Fortunes, Megan Brown and Lucy Sussex retrieve Fortune’s astonishing career and discover an equally absorbing story in her illegitimate son, George. While Mary was writing crime, George was committing it, with convictions for theft and bank robbery. In their intertwined stories, crime fiction meets true crime, and Melbourne’s literary bohemia consorts with the criminal underworld.

Fortune tackled subjects such as murder, armed robbery, bootlegging, and sexual violence with a frankness unprecedented for a woman in the 19th century, in styles ranging from melodrama and Gothic horror to social realism and what is now called noir. If you would like to read some of these pioneering stories alongside Outrageous Fortunes, you’re in luck. Nothing But Murders brings together a collection of 17 of her finest stories, edited and introduced by Sussex and Brown, and restores her to her rightful place as a major crime writer. A limited number of copies of this book will also be available at the event.

Megan Brown completed her PhD at the University of Wollongong, examining the work of Mary Fortune. She has contributed chapters to The Routledge Companion to Australian Literature and The Unsocial Sociability of Women’s Life Writing.

Lucy Sussex’s books include Blockbuster! Fergus Hume and The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, which won the 2015 Victorian Community History Award, Women Writers and Detectives in the Nineteenth Century and Saltwater in the Ink: Voices from the Australian Seas. She has a PhD from the University of Wales and is an honorary fellow at La Trobe University.

Join Megan and Lucy at the Afterword Cafe. Tickets include a glass of wine or soft drink.