Kirsty Murray

My latest book is The Secret Life of Maeve Lee Kwong

It’s about everything. Being alive in the 21st century, happiness, grief, friends, family, music, psychics, school, first kisses and last moments, travel, the world… all the usual stuff.

The best thing about being a writer is being asked to answer interview questions like these. Well, more seriously, it’s also nice to be able to eat chocolate while you work and to have no one else telling you what you should be thinking about. You can look like you’re working really hard when you’re simply staring into space and no one can tell whether you’re thinking about your next novel or whether you’re trying to decide whether to eat the cream filled chocolate or the one with the sticky nuts inside.

If I wasn’t a writer I’d be dead.

My first published novel was Zarconi’s Magic Flying Fish

Morning person or night-owl? I can go either way. When I was a teenager, I was a serious night-owl but when I had kids, I learnt to face day-light. Now I prefer to write in the mornings and, when the mood takes me, I read other people’s books into the small hours.

My first job was such a great score. When I was still in high school I worked weekends and Thursday nights in a tiny bookshop in Toronto, Canada. It was run by a German bookseller called Manfred Meurer and he was the best employer I’ve ever had. We used to sit behind the counter together reading, talking about books, and eating Swiss cheese on Kaiser rolls from the German deli next door The shop was called ‘The Book Barrel’ and stocked a fabulous eclectic mix of books. I didn’t earn much because even though he paid me half in cash and half in books, I could never resist blowing all my wages on lovely, glossy hard-covers

My last holiday was three weeks in China visiting Beijing, Shanghai, Huangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau. Fabulous.

My perfect Saturday is early morning breakfast and shopping with my best friend at the Vic Markets, a leisurely browse of the weekend newspapers while sitting in the sunshine on the back verandah and snacking on the treats we’ve brought home with us.

The last CD I bought was Quadrophenia by The Who.  I used to own the vinyl first edition double LP, complete with the original photographic essay that went with the albums. It was stolen at a party in a share house many years ago. I was annoyed about it for so long, I couldn’t bring myself to replace it. The great thing about getting older is letting go of petty irritations.

I’m currently reading A Feng Shui Detective Novel - The Shanghai Union of Industrial Mystics by Nury Vittachi. It’s probably the weirdest detective novel you’ll ever read but a lot of fun. I just finished reading Just Like Tomorrow by Faiza Guene. It’s about a French/North African Muslim teenage girl growing up in high-rise flats on the edge of Paris. It’s good to realize that some truths about being a teenager are the same no matter where you grow-up.

Big Brother or Australian Idol?  You’re kidding? Australian Idol because at least some of the contestants can sing.

Favourite film/tv show is Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. A lot of people think this is just another Christmas movie but it’s actually about a man who tries to commit suicide and is given the opportunity to see what the world is like without him. I love the line that Clarence, the crazy old angel, says towards the end of the film: ‘One man’s life touches so many others that when he’s not around, it leaves an awful hole.’ It sums up a lot of what I believe about history and stories and the importance of hanging in there no matter how dark things become.

My favourite book changes with my mood. Last month it was Joyce Carole Oates’ book The Falls. The month before that it was Ursula Dubosarksy’s The Red Shoe. The month before that it was Maurice Sendak’s The Night Kitchen (I’d been re- reading it to my nephew). The month before that… (you get the picture?).

The book character I would most like to meet is Mike Mulligan’s Steam Shovel

The book characters I would least like to meet are The Wicked Witch of the West or the Big Bad Wolf. They both haunted my dreams when I was a kid.

The worst thing I’ve ever written is a page in my diary when I was fourteen where I bagged all my friends. Years later, when I re-read it, I was so ashamed of myself that I ripped it out and burnt it.

When I was growing up I wanted to be a writer and a trapeze artist. Failing (and falling) at the latter, I resigned myself to the former.

My heroes are... In hindsight? My parents. I wish I had told them that when they were alive.
In the wider world? Peter Benenson, the founder of Amnesty International, and the countless ordinary folk who fight to defend human rights. Also Louisa Lawson, Mary Gilmore and Katherine Susannah Pritchard for having the courage of their convictions and for their commitment to Australian writing.