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Masterpiece Special – Robyn Davidson (1996)

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The writer's craft education content clip 2

Original classification rating: PG. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

Robyn Davidson tells Andrea Stretton that she doesn’t take notes during her epic treks. Long after the journey is over she sits down to distil and write the story using her memory to recall the incidents that were really important, and of course drawing on her writer’s craft.

Curator’s notes

by Janet Bell

Masterpiece made these specials only a few times every year whenever a significant artist was visiting Australia and was available for a longer form interview. They are more or less unadorned, relying completely on the strength of the interviews, which are invariably gripping. As a series made up of talking heads, it is a reminder that the television interview can hold an audience especially if the interviewer is someone of the calibre of Andrea Stretton.

Teacher’s notes

provided by The Le@rning FederationEducation Services Australia

This clip shows part of an interview with the Australian writer Robyn Davidson conducted by Andrea Stretton, arts journalist and television presenter. Davidson talks about the writer’s craft and the role of memory and imagination in writing, especially in relation to her book Tracks. The interview takes place in a studio and the women are filmed predominantly in close-up against an unadorned set.

Educational value points

  • Robyn Davidson (1950–), the subject of the interview, gives a personal account of the process of writing autobiography, which for her is very different from creating a record of events. She likens the creation of such a work to the making of an artefact. She writes, she says, to 'make life real’ and claims that both imagination and memory play a role in autobiographic writing, as they 'feed off each other’.
  • The clip explores the role of memory in the process of writing. In writing her book Tracks (1980), about her journey across desert from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean, Davidson relied on her memory without having notes to refer to. For Davidson, memory acts as a kind of sieve, ensuring that only the important things are retained for the record. Then the writer as craftsperson shapes these elements to produce the finished text.
  • The nature of memory and imagination is discussed in the clip. Davidson reveals, in discussion with Stretton, that the distinction between memory and imagination becomes blurred for her after the writing process is over. After writing Tracks she could no longer 'remember what was journey and what was book’.
  • The clip provides an insight into Davidson’s character and background, which enabled her to complete a 2,700-km journey from Alice Springs to the west coast of Australia accompanied by four camels and a dog. She saw the trek primarily as a way to make an inner journey but two years after its completion wrote Tracks, which became an international bestseller.
  • Andrea Stretton (1952–2007) demonstrates in this interview with Davidson some of the qualities that made her such a successful interviewer. Davidson is a somewhat reticent and guarded interviewee but Stretton’s style of questioning shows her warmth and genuine interest in the subject. Stretton honed her interviewing skills during her time as producer and presenter of television arts programs for SBS and the ABC from 1987 to 2001.