Helen Garner reflects on five decades of writing — an ABC Radio National Top 100 Books countdown special

Helen Garner is one of Australia's most significant and renowned writers, known for her precise and observational writing style, disarming honesty and piercing curiosity about her fellow human beings. Here, she reflects on a lifetime of writing, from her groundbreaking 1977 debut Monkey Grip, to her work in the courtroom covering some of Australia's most shocking crimes, to her keen observations of daily life in her collections of letters and diaries.

To celebrate ABC Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books countdown we bring you this celebration of Garner's immense contribution to Australian letters and life across five decades.

"I'm terribly interested in working out what happens between people."

The first event in the Body of Work series presented by Federation Square and the Melbourne Arts Precinct was recorded Thursday 6 August 2026

Speakers:

Helen Garner

Author, Monkey Grip, The Children's Bach, Cosmo Cosmolino, Joe Cinque's Consolation, How to End a Story: The Collected Diaries 1978-1998 (winner the 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction), This House of Grief, The Season, The Mushroom Tapes (with Sarah Krasnostein and Chloe Hooper) and more

Michael Williams (host)

Editor, The Monthly, former artistic director of Sydney Writers Festival, former director of The Wheeler Centre, former host, ABC Radio National