All About Women 2024

I have not attended the All About Women festival since before the pandemic, but thought I would go this year as the line up looked great. I booked three sessions, leaving myself time to explore the scene down at the Sydney Opera House. 

Here's how I spent my day, Sunday 10 March 2024, at All About Women.

Mary Beard

As a lover of the history of the Roman Empire, I was thrilled to hear from classics scholar Mary Beard. In a session moderated by Bri Lee, Beard had the entire Concert Hall enthralled as she spoke about her latest work Emperor of Rome (2024), which Lee described as a villainous origin story of the patriarchy. They spoke about how Ancient Rome was actually quite diverse and about how she responded to critics who thought she should not appear on television because of her looks. 

Having mostly read Mary Beard, one thing that I did not anticipate was how funny she was. She is so quick witted, and delightfully engaging. In one exchange she was talking about Marcus Aurelius and his meditations. She calls them Aurelius' Jottings to Himself, as it was never intended to be published. 

After the session, I joined the queue of admirers to have a book signed. The festival has instituted a rule of one book per person, so I had to make a quick decision as to which of my many Beard books I would request signing. I opted for Twelve Caesars (2021) in which Mary Beard explores Roman history and its influence on art and culture, with its parallels to Suetonius. She was lovely to speak with.

Anne Enright

Irish author Anne Enright's latest novel, The Wren, The Wren, follows a mother and daughter impacted by brutality of family violence. It has just been longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and I have been enjoying reading it.

This session, moderated by author Madeline Gray, began with Enright reading two passages. She chose one of Nell, the daughter, and another of Carmel, the mother, which perfectly captured their essence. Enright spoke about writing and how she finds her characters. She talked about how she likes her readers to make up their own minds about characters. 

After this session I met Anne Enright and asked her to sign a copy of The Gathering for me, winner of the 2007 Booker Prize*. I told her it was a shame we could only get one signed, as I had The Wren, The Wren with me too.  She did a quick shuffle of my books so I could get them both signed! 

Anna Funder 

Readers of this blog will know that I adore Anna Funder and love all of her work. Her latest book, Wifedom, is an intriguing look at George Orwell's wife Eileen O'Shaughnessy. Funder sat down with Jemma Birrell to discuss the book and how it came to be. 

Funder spoke about how much she admires Orwell and had read many biographies which diminished or erased the role his wife played in his success. She then found Eileen's voice in her letters to her friend Nora, and found a fearless wit and intellect. Funder spoke about how she conducted her research and the way in which she used various techniques to craft her book. 

After the session Funder signed a copy of Wifedom for me. The book has been longlisted for the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction and we will find out if it has been shortlisted at the end of the month. 

All About Women has a wonderful lineup with some of my favourite thinkers speaking - Tara Moss, Jane Caro, Jan Fran, Jamila Rizvi, Grace Tame, Clementine Ford, Chanel Contos, Nakkiah Luis, Jess Hill, Brooke Boney, Bridie Jabour, and Sisonke Msimang. There were plenty of other sessions that I would have liked to have attended at the All About Women festival - including Yellowface with Rebecca F Kuang - but I found the festival schedule really tricky with the staggered session times that overlapped or had short breaks between. The Opera House is a lovely venue, but it is hard to navigate between the various rooms. I also found the Kinokuniya pop-up bookshop disappointing as there was no space to wander around and the queues were terrible.

Bonus Event - Bessel van der Kolk

The night before the All About Women festival I attended another event at the Sydney Opera House. A friend had a spare ticket to hear Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score. What a fascinating discussion about his research and practice. He described trauma as being different from memory, but more of a re-living the experience. 

He talked about his more recent work in which he has been researching the use of psychedelics on trauma - specifically MDMA - and how this has been assisting patients. It was all very interesting, with a sold out crowd in the Concert Hall to hear him speak - no wonder his book has been on bestseller lists for over a decade! It was a really interesting session and I am so glad I was able to attend.

*Booker Books - I have a growing collection of signed Booker winners - including Damon Galgut's The Promise (2021), Bernardine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other (2019), Marlon James' A Brief History of Seven Killings (2015), Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North (2014), Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries (2013), and Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark (1982). Delighted to add Anne Enright's The Gathering (2007) to this collection.