In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, the distinguished British biographer Oliver Soden chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about his choices while crafting Jeoffry: The Poet’s Cat. Jeoffry was a real cat who lived in a London asylum with Christopher Smart, an 18th-century poet.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• How Virginia Woolf’s Flush: A Biography, the imaginative biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel, influenced Oliver Soden’s choices while crafting The Poet’s Cat
• How Oliver cleverly used Jeoffry as a lens through which to explore Christopher Smart’s character, personality and often troubled life
• How Oliver retraced Jeoffry’s and Christopher Smart’s real and imagined footsteps in 18th-century London, discovering its vibrant cast of characters such as King George, the composer Handel and Samuel Johnson, one of the towering figures of British literature
• How Oliver balanced fact and fiction given his admission that ‘the dividing line between fact and fiction is necessarily wobbly’ in The Poet’s Cat, and ‘sometimes one is disguised as the other’
• How Oliver accessed Jeoffry’s interior life and inner monologue, enabling him to write from the perspective of an 18th-century alley cat
• How Oliver shifted from the traditional, scholarly tone and narrative style of his biographies of the composer Michael Tippett and playwright Noël Coward to the whimsical, witty, affectionate and playful style of The Poet’s Cat
• How Oliver balanced the lightheartedness of Jeoffry’s antics with the book’s deeper philosophical themes.

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, the award-winning historian and author Dr Kate Fullagar chats with Dr Gabriella-Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting Bennelong & Phillip: A History Unravelled, the first joint biography of First Nations leader, Bennelong, and the first governor of the British Colony of New South Wales, Arthur Phillip.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• Why Bennelong & Phillip is still so relevant, over 200 years since the events depicted in it occurred
• Why Kate Fullagar structured the narrative around the intertwined lives of Bennelong and Arthur Phillip rather than crafting separate biographies
• Why Kate plotted the events in Bennelong’s and Phillip’s lives in reverse order, starting with the two leaders’ funerals
• How Kate reconciled the literary challenges in crafting events in reverse order
• How Kate pieced together and interpreted thousands of fragments of evidence that were biased by a colonial lens and lacked an Indigenous perspective
• The vital evidence that enabled Kate to challenge the prevailing image of Bennelong as a tragic victim and outcast of his community
• The complexities of intercultural encounters, particularly the power dynamics, cultural misunderstandings and moments of genuine connection that shaped the interactions between Bennelong and Phillip
• Why deeply researched, revisionist accounts of a life and events are so vital in an authentic portrayal of our nation’s history and the individuals who created that history
• How Bennelong & Phillip encourages us to confront the complexities of the past and engage in ongoing conversations about reconciliation and justice.

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, the historian Dr Pamela Toler chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting The Dragon from Chicago. The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany, the biography of Sigrid Schultz, the Chicago Tribune’s bureau chief in Berlin during Hitler’s rise to power.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• Why Pamela Toler chose The Dragon from Chicago as the biography’s title
• Why Sigrid Schultz’s story is still so relevant today
• How Pamela responded to gaps and misinformation in the historical record
• How she reconstructed scenes from Sigrid’s life that reflected escalating intimidation and imminent danger in Nazi Germany
• How Pamela balanced her voice as the narrator with Sigrid’s voice and point of view
• How Pamela balanced Sigrid’s professional and public life with her human story
• How Pamela contextualised Sigrid’s life and choices within their broader historical, social and cultural landscape.