Author Ella Ward

What does the world feel like when it’s ending for you, and no one else? What does life feel like when you are running away from it? This is a story that begins in a way you expect and ends very far from there. It is a story of creaking English hallways and vast Australian skies. Of hands that feel like warm sandpaper. Cicadas that sing so loudly they drown out the grief. Of white wine and an old piano and children who want their parents back from the dead. It is a magical tale of travel and mystery. And a very human tale of sex and loss and seawater and the primal joy of coming home. This is The Cicada House.

She has worked in advertising for many years. This means she has a proclivity for profanity and needs help with punctuation. Her words have been published in places like Frankie, Marie Claire and The Sydney Morning Herald. Her memoir, 27 Letters to My Daughter, was published in Australia in 2022 and the US in 2023. Ella lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her husband, child, pets and neuroses. The Cicada House is her first novel.

A Melbourne girl who moved to London and came home with a penchant for pork pies, Percy Pigs and a husband. In 2018 she was hit with the cancer stick, which apart from being rather frightening also encouraged a foray into oversharing on insta.

Deborah's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/what.ive.learnt/

Mind, Film and Publishing: https://www.mindfilmandpublishing.com/

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/what-ive-learnt/id153556330

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3TQjCspxcrSi4yw2YugxBk

Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1365850

Maggie Alderson is the author of ten novels and four collections of her columns fromGood Weekendmagazine. Her children’s book Evangeline, the Wish Keeper’s Helper was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award. Before becoming a full-time author she worked as a journalist and columnist in the UK and Australia, editing several magazines, including Mode and British ELLE. She writes a Substack called Style Notes and is on Instagram at @maggialderson. She is married and has one daughter.

Would You Rather, the new novel from bestselling author Maggie Alderson. It’s a heart-warming story about second chances and starting over and a great summer read.

Food stylist Sophie Crommelin has a beautiful life. Now that their two boys are grown up, she and her husband, Matt – an acclaimed artist – are leaving London for a new start on England’s fashionably boho south coast. But the day after the house is sold, a series of shocks leaves Sophie reeling – and suddenly she’s heading off to Hastings on her own.

Beau Crommelin has always been very much his father’s son. Charming, beautiful and creative, he gets on with everyone and is building a name as a jewellery designer. But after Matt’s sudden death, Beau finds himself on the wrong end of a scandal and everything he thought he knew about himself is called into question.

Deborah's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/what.ive.learnt/

Mind, Film and Publishing: https://www.mindfilmandpublishing.com/

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/what-ive-learnt/id153556330

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3TQjCspxcrSi4yw2YugxBk

Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1365850

Andy Kay

In his role as CEO of the World Literacy Foundation, Andy spearheads a powerful literacy organisation - he has the wonderful opportunity to meet likeminded amazing people and organizations around the world.

With more than 750 million people globally struggling with literacy this is an epidemic

It affects all aspects social health educational parts of their lives.

Sometimes, l wear different hats. One of those highlights over the past 20 years was running with the Olympic torch when my home country was the host. Sydney 2000.

Pictured is much younger and more native person who was early in his journey in a leadership role.

Today, our world is so much different. The numbers of children without basic foundational literacy skills is greater yet the passion still remains deep to serve others and deliver successful outcomes.

We discuss the literacy revolution and the exciting world Literacy Summit in Oxford London in April next year

Deborah's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/what.ive.learnt/

Mind, Film and Publishing: https://www.mindfilmandpublishing.com/

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/what-ive-learnt/id153556330

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3TQjCspxcrSi4yw2YugxBk

Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1365850