With special guest:
- Matthew Spencer
… in conversation with Bill Kable
Matthew Spencer decided to make a big change in his life after 20 successful years as a journalist.
The challenge he took on was not going to be easy and there were no guarantees. Matthew chose to enter the highly competitive field of writing a crime novel and as with a lot of ventures he needed a bit of luck along the way.
It can be a lonely path requiring in this case four years of working on his original idea. There were a lot of setbacks on this four year journey but Matthew had the good fortune of being able to engage with a professional editor who worked alongside him for most of that journey. Although tough on Matthew her criticisms were always constructive and there never was a time when she said the effort would go unrewarded. Finally all that hard work has paid off and Matthew is proud to unveil his first novel, Black River, which has already received some rave reviews from some of our most respected writers.
This episode is a double header. We get to explore the thinking of the author as he discovered what his new career demanded and what were the driving forces. We hear about the effect on Matthew’s family of having a writer in the house and we discover what his writing method is. We also get to explore the exciting story of Black River.
Matthew brings to his craft his personal experience growing up in Sydney, his education at a major boys’ private school and as a journalist.
Interestingly Matthew tells us that he is already well down the path of his second novel which will incorporate some of the characters and settings of the first novel.
Matthew Spencer
Matthew Spencer was a journalist at The Australian for twenty years, with long stints running the Foreign News desk and as Opinion Editor. He has written for newspapers and magazines in Uganda and Kenya and been published in The Australian Financial Review and The Sydney Morning Herald.
Matthew was born in Parramatta. The son of teachers, he lived on the 320-acre campus of a boys’ boarding school. Long summers on the largely deserted property while exploring the remnant bush with its tributary of the Parramatta River inspired this book.
Song selection by our guest: Helplessly Hoping by Crosby, Stills & Nash