Robert Dessaix: What Days Are For

Robert Dessaix is one of Australia’s most cherished literary authors, acclaimed for his autobiographies, travel memoirs and fiction. For many years, he presented Books and Writing on ABC Radio National. In his latest book, What Days Are For, Robert shares his reflections from his hospital bed, recovering from a heart attack that threatens to kill him, as he reads the Philip Larkin poem ‘Days’ and wonders: what have his days been for? What and who has he loved – and why?

‘You will think some of the things I say are outlandish. But then: I love the outlandish.’ Opening with a reading from his book, Dessaix traces a path through travel, love, coincidence, intimacy, language, youth and death, in conversation with Ramona Koval.