Partners in Crime: Tom and Meg Keneally

Apr 02, 2017, 03:30 PM

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How do you bond with your dad? Go to the cricket? Walk the dogs? How about writing a book together? How about writing twelve books together?

Chris Flynn, Tom Keneally and Meg Keneally

That’s what Meg Keneally has been doing with her dad, although it’s not such a strange idea in her case. Meg’s father is an icon of Australian literature, a Booker Prize-winner, a Miles Franklin-winner, and the author of The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Schindler’s Ark and other classics – Tom Keneally.

So far, the pair have written two books together, The Soldiers Curse and The Unmourned, as part of a funny and engrossing historical crime fiction series. The Monsarrat series is about a crime-solving convict who travels between penal colonies cracking murder cases ... and the Keneallys are aiming to write another ten books in the series.

How did this collaboration come about? What are their creative similarities and differences as writers? And how do they resolve creative disputes? Tom and Meg tackle these questions and many more with host Chris Flynn.