Richard Flanagan
Richard Flanagan
Richard Miller Flanaganis an Australian novelist from Tasmania. "Considered by many to be the finest Australian novelist of his generation", according to The Economist, each of his novels has attracted major praise and received numerous awards and honours. He also has written and directed feature films. He won the 2014 Man Booker Prize...
NationalityAustralian
ProfessionNovelist
CountryAustralia
rapidly
The number of those identifying as Aborigine in Tasmania rapidly rose in the late 20th century.
apologise history home interest john owners referred refused rising sorry willing
John Howard, willing to apologise to home owners for rising interest rates, would not say sorry to Aborigines. He refused to condone what he referred to as 'a black armband version' of history, preferring a jingoistic nationalism.
history report
History, like journalism, is ever a journey outwards, and you must report back what you find and no more.
australia believed generous good itself land large latter seemed
For much of the latter part of the 20th century, Australia seemed to be opening up to something large and good. It believed itself a generous country, the land of the 'fair go.'
gets god great novelists
God gets the great stories. Novelists must make do with more mundane fictions.
boats fleeing great large liberal malcolm numbers taken wretched
Under Malcolm Fraser's Liberal governments in the 1970s, large numbers of refugees fleeing Vietnam in wretched boats were taken in without any great fuss.
australia dried federal government native services slowly title
Under Howard, federal government support for black Australia slowly dried up. Services were slashed, native title restricted.
grew returned strongly time
I grew up very strongly with this sense of time being circular: that it constantly returned upon itself.
I grew up in a world that was clannish - old Tasmanian-Irish families with big extended families.
love people
I am the happiest writing and being with the people I love.
cry poor
I'm a successful novelist, and I've been a lucky one, so I don't want to cry the poor mouth. Writing has never been easy.
dislike forces forms love music particular rethink strange
I love all forms of music. I even like music I dislike, because the music you dislike is like going to a strange country, and it forces you to rethink everything and to appreciate its particular joys.
felt hardest love
I had long wanted to write a love story, and I had long - wisely, I felt - shirked the challenge because I felt it the hardest story of all to write.
anyone came camp fear met official round taken time younger
I have met Aborigines younger than me who used to hide every time anyone official came round their camp for fear of being taken away.