Biographers in Conversation

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Ian Hembrow chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about his choices while crafting Celsius: A Life and Death by Degrees.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

Celsius: A Life and Death by Degrees is the first full-length English biography of Anders Celsius, a modest Swedish astronomer who quietly revolutionised our understanding of the natural world.

Ian Hembrow’s accidental discovery of Celsius’s story in 2016 sparked a years’-long quest that led him to the Arctic Circle, retracing Celsius’s 1736–37 expedition to measure the shape of the Earth.

Celsius’s story is set against the backdrop of the European Enlightenment, illustrating how he thrived in the vibrant 18th-century scientific community while unlocking fundamental mysteries of nature.

Ian Hembrow draws connections to the present, noting that Celsius, who is best known for inventing the 100-point centigrade temperature scale, now lends his name to global climate targets as humanity strives to limit warming to 1.5°C.

How Ian Hembrow delves into Celsius’s human story, sharing the personal struggles and triumphs behind his scientific achievements and offering a poignant reminder that even great scientific minds face immense personal challenges.

The relevance of Celsius’s story today, reminding us of the crucial role of scientific inquiry and our shared responsibility to use knowledge wisely as we face urgent challenges like climate change.

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Hester Kaplan chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about Twice Born: Finding My Father In the Margins of Biography.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode: 

The catalyst for crafting Twice Born was the death of Hester’s father, the biographer Justin Kaplan. Hester realised she had lost the chance to ask her father the questions that had always eluded her during his lifetime.

Rather than being a conventional biography, Twice Born blends biography, memoir, and fiction, a structure Kaplan chose deliberately to view her father from many different angles and points of view, enabling her to know him in ways impossible while he was alive.

Kaplan discovered that her father chose Mark Twain as his biographical subject because of deep personal parallels that included an early loss of parents, a traumatic childhood and an identity reinvented through writing. Hester insists that biographers inevitably choose subjects who mirror their own inner lives.

Kaplan reflects on how memory and fiction blur once put on the page.

Because Justin Kaplan always wrote behind closed study doors, his daughter uses fiction to imaginatively enter that space and reconstruct his writing process.

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Helen Pitt chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about The House: The dramatic story of the Sydney Opera House and the people who made it and Luna Park: The extraordinary story of the showmen, shysters and schemers who built Sydney’s famous fun park.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

The catalyst for The House was hearing of the death of Sydney Opera House architect Jørn Utzon. Helen Pitt realised his tragic story deserved retelling for a new generation.

Helen restored the largely forgotten story of Peter Hall, the Australian architect who completed the interiors of Sydney Opera House after Utzon’s dramatic departure in 1966.

Luna Park began taking shape in 2019, driven by Helen’s desire to uncover the dark history lurking beneath one of Sydney’s most joyful facades.

The Ghost Train fire of 9 June 1979, which killed six children and one father, sits at the heart of Luna Park. Helen presents compelling evidence that the potential crime scene was bulldozed within 24 hours, making the truth perhaps permanently unknowable.

Helen cites Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City as her primary model for novelistic nonfiction, employing scene-setting, dialogue and granular detail to bring history viscerally alive.

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Dr Paul Kildea chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about Chopin’s Piano: A Journey through Romanticism.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

Paul Kildea’s inspiration for crafting Chopin’s Piano. A Journey through Romanticism.

The significance of the biography’s title.

The relevance of Chopin’s Piano: A Journey through Romanticism today.

Chopin’s primitive piano was crafted by Juan Bouwer, an amateur artisan in Palma, Majorca, in 1838.

Juan Bouwer had no inkling his humble instrument would become the catalyst for Chopin composing six of his 24 Preludes on the piano.

Why Chopin’s Piano’s 24-chapter structure mirrors Chopin’s two books of 12 Preludes.

Musica Viva adapted Chopin’s Piano as a national touring production in 2023, blending all 24 Preludes with storytelling.

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Sara Fitzgerald chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about The Silenced Muse: Emily Hale, T. S. Eliot, and the Role of a Lifetime.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

How the secret letters T.S. Eliot wrote to Emily Hale revealed an intimate 27-year correspondence (1930-1957) that confirmed Hale’s profound influence on his poetry.

How Eliot’s destruction of Emily’s letters to him silenced her voice.

Despite being relegated to footnote status in Eliot’s life, Emily taught drama at prominent colleges such as Smith College, acted in amateur theatre with future Broadway stars and maintained a rich independent life.

How Eliot’s secret letter to Harvard revealed a nasty counter-narrative. Eliot’s pre-emptive statement dismissed his relationship.