Kim Scott and Kate Grenville went to the library, and came away with a story

Kim Scott was so disturbed by how Noongar people were depicted in the Western Australian archive that he wrote Benang: From the Heart. Plus Kate Grenville explains the origins of her latest genre-bending book and how The Secret River became a novel.  

In 2000, Kim Scott's Benang won the Miles Franklin Literary Award making him the first Indigenous author to win the prestigious prize (shared with Drylands by Thea Astley). In this special interview for Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books vote, he tells Claire Nichols why he wrote Benang as a reckoning with his own Noongar identity. Kim shares the rage he felt reading the work of A.O. Neville, the notorious WA "Chief Protector of Aborigines" and his reaction to the photos of Indigenous people used throughout Neville's racist manifesto "Australia's Coloured Minority". 

Will you be voting for Benang: From the Heart? Vote now in ABC Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books.

Kate Grenville is the author of many books that explore Australian history including her celebrated novel, The Secret River. Her latest The Country Schoolmaster: A Mystery in 88 Letters is a genre-bending exploration of the archive and asks where does truth lie? Kate also tells Claire about how The Secret River began its life and why the book is still special to her. 

Kate Grenville is a regular guest on The Book Show and you can listen to Kate and Claire discuss the novel A Room Made of Leaves, a fictionalised account of the life of Elizabeth Macarthur. Or listen to Kate discussing her novel Restless Dolly Maunder. 

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