Imagining the Past-HNSA2019-Walking Side by Side: collaboration between historical novelist and historian

Imagining the Past’s new season features live recorded sessions from the 2019 HNSA conference brought to you by our host, Greg Johnston. Our tenth episode explores Parramatta, the second penal settlement established in Australia. When Thomas Keneally and Meg Keneally decided to set their Monsarratt detective series there, Meg sought the assistance of local historian, Gay Hendrikson, to dig into the township’s history. Gillian Polack learns how Meg and Gay formed a working relationship to trace the footsteps of the Keneallys’ characters, locate potential murder sites, and pore over history together, and how their collaboration extended to Meg’s first solo novel Fled.