- From:The Daily Telegraph
- December 16, 2011
New book: Author and National Living Treasure Thomas Keneally. Picture: Manuela Cifra. Source: The Daily Telegraph
"They're a great therapy for writing," he says of his four grandchildren. "I use them shamelessly as therapy. If you take them out, you are too busy trying to catch them and make them happy and comfort them when they fall over to even think about books."
The National Living Treasure and author of more than 40 books is best known for his Booker Prize-winning 1982 novel Schindler's Ark, which Steven Spielberg made into the Academy Award-winning film Schindler's List.
His latest effort Australians: Eureka To The Diggers picks up from volume one, Australians: Origins To Eureka (2009). This book includes the plight of two of Charles Dickens' sons, who were sent to Australia as the "last-chance saloon" to make something of themselves.
"I'm up to 1942 in volume three. I'm fascinated by obscure figures who show the whole sweep of an event," he says. "For example, in World War I, although I mention generals, I'm interested in lieutenants and downwards. I even have the chance to quote my uncle, John Keneally, who was on the Western Front. He said something very interesting about the second referendum on conscription. He says, 'We'll show Billy Hughes that he has bitten off more than he can chew!' "
The confirmed republican was surprised to discover that Australia had fought for its constitution when he had assumed it was all "imperial arse-licking".
And his uncompromising sweep of history does not spare well-known Australians.
"The thing if you are writing about famous people, people you are used to seeing standing on a plinth with beards and top hats and so on - like (father of Federation) Henry Parkes - is to talk about their vulnerability, and their opportunism, because in our underwear we are all poor, quivering pilgrims," he says.Australians: Eureka To The Diggers - Thomas Keneally
A$60, Allen & Unwin