Clip description
Andrea Stretton comments on the strong sense of family in Carey’s fiction and he tells us he has no real idea of family. He was sent to boarding school at the age of 10 and his siblings were a decade older than him. He tells creative writing students that writers have to love the characters they’re writing about. He says that is one of the most important rules of writing.
Curator’s notes
Peter Carey is one of Australia’s best-known contemporary writers. He was born in Victoria and studied science at university before beginning work with a number of advertising agencies while writing part-time. He’s only the second writer – after JM Coetzee – to have won the Booker Prize twice.
Despite the hazards of wind, city noise and deepening shadows that are the bane of exterior shooting, this interview between Andrea Stretton and Peter Carey is engaging and interesting. He now lives in New York where he’s acclaimed as one of the celebrity writers of our age.