October 18, 2025 • 14 mins
Trent Dalton's made a name for himself as one of Australia's biggest authors, and he's back with something that's more personal.
He's best known for his 2018 novel, Boy Swallows Universe, which was adapted into an award-winning Netflix series last year.
His new book, Gravity Let Me Go, promises to be more auto-biographical, as it tells the story of a character in crisis as he works to tell more stories.
"It's so funny that as I'm talking about a book that is all about that, that I am inside the busiest period of my life...the whole story of Gravity Let Me Go is this journo who keeps obsessing about the story of his lifetime and he's in danger of missing an even bigger scoop, and that's something that's involving his wife and kids, and that's the story of my life."
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks edb Ozzie.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Author and journalist Trent Dalton is a favorite of ours
here on the Sunday Session. We like to think of
him as a friend of the show. Many of you
will be familiar with his smash hit Boy Swallows Universe,
a story based on Trent's childhood that was adapted into
a Netflix show. Trent is the master of telling the
stories of everyday people. In his new book Is No Exception,
(00:34):
drawing on his own life, Gravity Let Me Go has
been called one of his more personal books to date.
He's in Auckland for the stage adaptation of his book
Love Stories in Trent Dalton. Thank you so much for
coming in.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Welcome, Francesca. I am a friend of the show and
it's so good to be back and thank you for
having me. It's so great to just sit in here
and have a chat with someone I really admire. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
You are so busy. I mean, you're in town for
Love Stories, You're releasing a book. It's kind of like
you've turned into the Trent Dalton Empire.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yeah, well, it's kind of what my latest book about Actually,
it's amazing. It's funny I wrote this meta book about
a guy in crisis because he keeps focusing on his
storytelling addiction. And like, it's so funny that as I'm
as I'm talking about a book that is all about that,
that I am inside the busiest period of my life.
(01:24):
You know, the whole book of the whole story of
gravity let Me Go. Is this journal who keeps obsessing
about the story of his lifetime and he's in danger
of missing an even bigger scoop and that's something that's
involving his wife and kids. And it's just like, well,
that's the story of my life, Francesca. Like it's like,
you know, I'm here always knowing that at home, my
(01:46):
daughter's got a literature exam that she's got to be getting, right,
I've got to be helping out with Fiona, my wife,
you know, a million things at home, you know what
I mean. It's sort of like this empire needs to
just take a pause for a bit. But it's so
funny that, Yeah, it's so amazing you say that, But
you're right, I am. I'm incredibly busy.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
What keeps bringing you back to your own life for
these works of fiction.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I don't know. It's sick, isn't it. Like it's like,
what's wrong with me? Like I really wish I could
write a Scottish time travel tale. I wish I could
write about romans. You know, there's so many things I
want to write about vikings, and I sometimes sit down
and I started, Francesca with this book. I want to
write a story about two sisters who are the daughter
of a hit man. And I'm really excited about that story.
(02:34):
I really want to write that book. But then I thought, ah,
I want to write about my marriage. I want to
write about long term relationships. And I just if something
like that speaks to me, and I get a little
voice in my head that goes, no, you need to
honor that truth. Essentially, Like I've been a journal for
twenty five years now, and I spent twenty of those
(02:56):
years going into the living rooms of just ordinary, ordinary strangers.
And they sat down with and they let me sit
in their living rooms Francesca for like four hours, as
we both you know, sometimes wept over their lives and
they shared the most personal things. And sometimes I lost
sleep at night about how I treated those people In
(03:17):
print like I would actually really worry about how did
I leave those people better than? How better or worse
than how I found them? And sometimes I got it wrong,
particularly in my early ambitious twenties when I was trying
to make a name for myself as a journal or
whatever I was trying to do. And it really made
this pact that if I ever got a chance to
(03:38):
write stories about myself, then it's all in, you know,
like they get a lot of me, and I'm honoring
like literally a thousand people who gave who wanted me
with their stories, and so that's sort of well, I
can't help but keep coming back. And there were so
many things to say in gravity about I wanted to
write a story about a marriage in crisis. And I'm
not saying my marriage is in crisis, but it's come close,
(04:00):
to be honest, it's come close at times, and I
really wanted to kind of go there and go I'm
I'm so proud of my wife and either way, we've
overcome any difficulties because of all my stuff, you know,
And yeah, I wanted to put that in a book.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
But I think it's going to resonate with people because
relationships are roller coaster.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Well aren't they you know, yeah, they're the couples. I
really love talking to those ones who have been at
it for you know, twenty years, forty years, and I
meet them sixty years. You know, I just go hats
off because you imagine the evolution that that's taken in
a relationship to go that far, you know, with all
of the difficulties of life that come in, And that's
true love. You know, I'm fascinated by you know, I
(04:40):
thought I loved my wife when I was twenty. When
I met January ten, two thousand, it's like she's ten
times more interesting than she was when I was twenty.
You know, it's like that's that's brilliant, that's really exciting. Well,
it's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Who was the first person to read this book or
read a chapter when you've completed it?
Speaker 3 (04:56):
A fee? Yeah, mobife fee. And it's horrific. Like she's
she's a journo herself, Francesco. So she puts on it
things like she'll write little it out at office works
and then I give you the big manuscript and then
she put on this one thing's like no no, no, no,
no no no. Or there's a scene in it, like
it's so the whole thing is this. It's about this
(05:18):
journal who gets this scoop of a lifetime literally lends
in his letterbox. It's a message from a killer leading
him on a trailer breadcrumbs to a body. And it's
almost like, how far will you go? Mate, Like for
the story of a lifetime? Would you go so far
as to endangering your family? And would you actually go
so far as endangering your own life? And in the meantime,
(05:40):
he's missed this incredible thing that's happening with his wife
at home and won't sort of spoil that. But it's
such a sort of metaphor for my life, which is
why FEE had to read it. And I just go, look,
you are in this and you're not, but you are,
you know. And so she reads it and she goes,
why do you have to go there? And I just go,
I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. But there's power in it.
(06:03):
You know. My favorite writers are people who mine a
little bit of themselves like it and be a bit
truthful with their fiction, you know. And I just think
that's such a powerful thing to do. And so I
have to and this amazing wife of mine says, Yeah,
it's awkward, it's awful in parts, but go for it,
you know what I mean? Like, what a what an
ultimately loving thing that she lets me do? You know,
(06:23):
it's an actual sort of act of love that she says,
go for it because I know you need to in
your head, you know. And it's all tied back to
Boyce Swallows Universe stuff. It's all one big spirograph, Francesca,
where I'm trying to explore all what's it like being
married to the kid from boy Swallows Universe? Basically is
what gravity is about? You know, That's ultimately what it
(06:43):
ends up being about.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, it's like you explored your younger self in the
previous book and now we're doing we're doing it again
with the adult version.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Right, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Tell me a little bit about the obsessiveness that Noah
has with the story. As you say, we've got this
journalist who's just wondering how far he can go. Tell
me a little bit about that and where that's come from.
You like that as a journalist.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Completely there was a period. I've still got it. I've
still got it. I would do anything for copy like
I did. You know I went on. I remember I
had no right to be in Afghanistan with Australian soldiers,
but I went. And I was on a village walk
with a guy who was looking after me with a
grenade launcher. And if you need a guy looking after
you on a patrol, it was a patrol in Afghanistan
(07:31):
with a guy who was looking after and I was
just like, what am I doing here. I'm not a
war correspondent. I have nothing to offer the national record
on Australia on the importance of this mission. But I
did it for copy, you know. And I remember I
walked into the basement of this really well known serial
killer in Australia, his brother who was implicated in his
(07:51):
brother's crimes. I remember distinctly going down into that guy's
basement right with him. He said, I want to show
you something in my basement. And we walked down the
back of this guy's staircase. We crept under we got
into this basement, Francesca, and he goes go further, further, deeper, deeper,
and he took me to the end of this base
(08:13):
and I remember just going this is dangerous, Like this
guy hasn't been where we don't know whether this guy
did or didn't do these crimes he's been accused of.
And I'm going down there for copy because I knew
on Saturday it's going to make a great read on
the Saturday weekend magazine, you know. And it's like, and
I was a new dad at that point, I just like,
(08:33):
how far would you go? You know? And it's like,
that's that's a journal thing, and it's terrifying.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Okay, do you think it's about assisting risk and you're
just not very good at assisting risks? Yes?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yeah, putting storytelling over risk, that's something journals do all
the time. You see it, you see it. I remember
I was with I wanted to get I wanted to
jag an interview with this head of an outlaw motorcycle
gang in Australia. It was really impossible to get. This
guy just was about to get out of prison, and
his lawyer took me out on a boat on the
Brisbane River. And I remember I was on this sort
(09:05):
of speedboat with the lawyer and us like a sergeant
at arms from this famous outlaw motorcycle gang. I remember
going what am I doing out on the water with
these known criminals, just in order to possibly show that
I'm going to be trustworthy enough to be granted this interview,
you know what I mean. And you're just going, are
they you know, they could tie some rocks to my
legs and just throw me down in the river, but
(09:27):
you're there for copy And it's like, yeah, I just
think it's a journo. It's a blank spot. It's a
dark spot in a journal's life. They can't see risk
because they're so blinded by the power of that story
and the scoop. Were so driven by the scoop sometimes
and I had that, I had that, and now I've
got different scoops that I'm chasing. It's the scoop of
ideas really, you know, like I get hooked on an
(09:48):
idea and I'll be standing in the kitchen Francesca and
Fees talking to me, and she knows. She goes, ah,
damn it, you're doing it again. You're thinking about the story,
and she's like, book book Week. Remember we've got to
get the book week costume, you know, And it's like,
don't forget that bookwek costumes are actually why you're here,
not here to dazzle readers. You're here to be a
dad and you're here to be a husband. Remember that, mate,
(10:10):
you know. So that's that's what Gravity's about. Do you
see that?
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Are you worried about your your children and they are
ablity to assists risk?
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Can you sing it in them? Yeah, it's like, please don't.
My youngest daughter's got the bug. So you know, my
favorite character in Gravity is this is this guy, Noah
Cook's who's the lead sort of journal sort of hero
of the story or anti hero. But he's got this
incredible daughter who wants to be a journal too. And
that's just my youngest daughter. I see it in her.
(10:39):
Francesca worryingly, she's got the story bug. But this kid
clam in in Gravity. She does journalism for all the
right reasons. She wants to talk about the light. She
wants to go interview the strangers in her street and
remind them why they're amazing. And it's like, that's why
actually I did get into journalism. That's my favorite type
of journalism.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
And we should touch on that too, because I think
that this is something which we see in all your books.
You have this beautiful balance of light and dark. Oh yeah,
you know, hopefulness, that joy, It's always there. Just just
when you think you're going down a bit of a
dark hole, there's just whether it's a moment of humor
or a reflection or something, there's just that there's that
lightness there as well, isn't there.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Oh, that's from my life. That's you know. The Dalton
Boys are on a train to go visit our mum
in Boggo Road Women's Prison, you know, and and we're
telling jokes to each other, you know, because we all
know how sad it's going to be, you know, like
it's it's I think that's beautiful, you know. That absolutely
comes from my childhood, you know. And I so admire
(11:39):
New Zealand kids, Aussie kids who face the worst traumas
and they're living in the cracks and those little little
little beams of light are coming down through humor and
and and love, you know, and and they're the beams
that they cling to. And I just think that's so powerful.
You can, really, you can really make that light bright
if you show people how dark things can get. Yeah,
(12:01):
but you've got to go down into the darkness to
let that stuff shine so bright.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Because of course, Love Stories is on our stage at
the moment, a very special book which has come to
life and this theater piece. How exciting has that been?
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Civic Theater in Auckland might be the greatest I know
it is. It's not even my I mean, I've been
in London theaters and that matches anything I've seen in
the world. It's the most beautiful, isn't it gorgeous? Like
I just am so honored that this story had this
idea to take a typewriter to a corner and ask
two hundred people to tell me about love. They turned
it into a play and now that thing's playing in
(12:38):
the Civic Theater. It's like, are you kidding? It's amazing,
It's the great I wanted to honor my best mate's
mum who handed me this typewriter. It was her best friend,
this nineteen seventy sky blue olive Eddie typewrite, and she said,
do something with it. I wrote a book, went out
to a street, asked people all these stories, and now
it makes its way to Auckland somehow. It's just incredible.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
I think it's going to go a little bit further
than that. I think the Empire is going to keep sprinting,
isn't it it's just going to keep going. I mean,
love stories are so important, right everyone's you know, life's
a bit tough at the moment. Everyone's finding things a
little bit hard. And at the end of the day,
if you've got some love in your life, you know,
you can see that Glamark, can't you.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
You can see the life. That's the whole message of
the story. There's you know, the whole play eventually ends
up being a revelation of why I was on the
corner anyway. It's the same stuff I'm exploring, and gravity
is that there were things I actually needed to fix
in my marriage that all these wonderful strangers reminded me of.
And the greatest thing you'll ever take from that play,
if you go see it, is to drive home and go, yeah,
(13:35):
I am so lucky. I've got five people in my
life who love me. You know, I'm so lucky. I've
got one person in my life still, you know what
I mean. And to remember also the people who don't
have love. You know that there are a lot of
people in this city, Auckland, I know, you know, who
have fallen through the cracks. And you ask anyone the
toughest thing to do in life to live without his
(13:55):
love forget. Yeah, yep, Food's tough and shelts is tough,
but love's still the one that makes life really rough
if you don't have it, you know, So that play
sort of speaks to that as well.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Trent, thank you so much for your vulnerability, for your
brilliant writing, and for just putting out so much goodness
and gorgeousness into the world. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Right back at you. That's what you do. Thanks, Francesca's
what an honor that was.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Trent Dalton. His new book Gravity, Let Me Go is
in stores now, and today is the last day for
Love Stories at the Civic in Auckland.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks It'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks edb Ozzie.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Author and journalist Trent Dalton is a favorite of ours
here on the Sunday Session. We like to think of
him as a friend of the show. Many of you
will be familiar with his smash hit Boy Swallows Universe,
a story based on Trent's childhood that was adapted into
a Netflix show. Trent is the master of telling the
stories of everyday people. In his new book Is No Exception,
(00:34):
drawing on his own life, Gravity Let Me Go has
been called one of his more personal books to date.
He's in Auckland for the stage adaptation of his book
Love Stories in Trent Dalton. Thank you so much for
coming in.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Welcome, Francesca. I am a friend of the show and
it's so good to be back and thank you for
having me. It's so great to just sit in here
and have a chat with someone I really admire. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
You are so busy. I mean, you're in town for
Love Stories, You're releasing a book. It's kind of like
you've turned into the Trent Dalton Empire.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yeah, well, it's kind of what my latest book about Actually,
it's amazing. It's funny I wrote this meta book about
a guy in crisis because he keeps focusing on his
storytelling addiction. And like, it's so funny that as I'm
as I'm talking about a book that is all about that,
that I am inside the busiest period of my life.
(01:24):
You know, the whole book of the whole story of
gravity let Me Go. Is this journal who keeps obsessing
about the story of his lifetime and he's in danger
of missing an even bigger scoop and that's something that's
involving his wife and kids. And it's just like, well,
that's the story of my life, Francesca. Like it's like,
you know, I'm here always knowing that at home, my
(01:46):
daughter's got a literature exam that she's got to be getting, right,
I've got to be helping out with Fiona, my wife,
you know, a million things at home, you know what
I mean. It's sort of like this empire needs to
just take a pause for a bit. But it's so
funny that, Yeah, it's so amazing you say that, But
you're right, I am. I'm incredibly busy.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
What keeps bringing you back to your own life for
these works of fiction.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I don't know. It's sick, isn't it. Like it's like,
what's wrong with me? Like I really wish I could
write a Scottish time travel tale. I wish I could
write about romans. You know, there's so many things I
want to write about vikings, and I sometimes sit down
and I started, Francesca with this book. I want to
write a story about two sisters who are the daughter
of a hit man. And I'm really excited about that story.
(02:34):
I really want to write that book. But then I thought, ah,
I want to write about my marriage. I want to
write about long term relationships. And I just if something
like that speaks to me, and I get a little
voice in my head that goes, no, you need to
honor that truth. Essentially, Like I've been a journal for
twenty five years now, and I spent twenty of those
(02:56):
years going into the living rooms of just ordinary, ordinary strangers.
And they sat down with and they let me sit
in their living rooms Francesca for like four hours, as
we both you know, sometimes wept over their lives and
they shared the most personal things. And sometimes I lost
sleep at night about how I treated those people In
(03:17):
print like I would actually really worry about how did
I leave those people better than? How better or worse
than how I found them? And sometimes I got it wrong,
particularly in my early ambitious twenties when I was trying
to make a name for myself as a journal or
whatever I was trying to do. And it really made
this pact that if I ever got a chance to
(03:38):
write stories about myself, then it's all in, you know,
like they get a lot of me, and I'm honoring
like literally a thousand people who gave who wanted me
with their stories, and so that's sort of well, I
can't help but keep coming back. And there were so
many things to say in gravity about I wanted to
write a story about a marriage in crisis. And I'm
not saying my marriage is in crisis, but it's come close,
(04:00):
to be honest, it's come close at times, and I
really wanted to kind of go there and go I'm
I'm so proud of my wife and either way, we've
overcome any difficulties because of all my stuff, you know,
And yeah, I wanted to put that in a book.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
But I think it's going to resonate with people because
relationships are roller coaster.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Well aren't they you know, yeah, they're the couples. I
really love talking to those ones who have been at
it for you know, twenty years, forty years, and I
meet them sixty years. You know, I just go hats
off because you imagine the evolution that that's taken in
a relationship to go that far, you know, with all
of the difficulties of life that come in, And that's
true love. You know, I'm fascinated by you know, I
(04:40):
thought I loved my wife when I was twenty. When
I met January ten, two thousand, it's like she's ten
times more interesting than she was when I was twenty.
You know, it's like that's that's brilliant, that's really exciting. Well,
it's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Who was the first person to read this book or
read a chapter when you've completed it?
Speaker 3 (04:56):
A fee? Yeah, mobife fee. And it's horrific. Like she's
she's a journo herself, Francesco. So she puts on it
things like she'll write little it out at office works
and then I give you the big manuscript and then
she put on this one thing's like no no, no, no,
no no no. Or there's a scene in it, like
it's so the whole thing is this. It's about this
(05:18):
journal who gets this scoop of a lifetime literally lends
in his letterbox. It's a message from a killer leading
him on a trailer breadcrumbs to a body. And it's
almost like, how far will you go? Mate, Like for
the story of a lifetime? Would you go so far
as to endangering your family? And would you actually go
so far as endangering your own life? And in the meantime,
(05:40):
he's missed this incredible thing that's happening with his wife
at home and won't sort of spoil that. But it's
such a sort of metaphor for my life, which is
why FEE had to read it. And I just go, look,
you are in this and you're not, but you are,
you know. And so she reads it and she goes,
why do you have to go there? And I just go,
I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. But there's power in it.
(06:03):
You know. My favorite writers are people who mine a
little bit of themselves like it and be a bit
truthful with their fiction, you know. And I just think
that's such a powerful thing to do. And so I
have to and this amazing wife of mine says, Yeah,
it's awkward, it's awful in parts, but go for it,
you know what I mean? Like, what a what an
ultimately loving thing that she lets me do? You know,
(06:23):
it's an actual sort of act of love that she says,
go for it because I know you need to in
your head, you know. And it's all tied back to
Boyce Swallows Universe stuff. It's all one big spirograph, Francesca,
where I'm trying to explore all what's it like being
married to the kid from boy Swallows Universe? Basically is
what gravity is about? You know, That's ultimately what it
(06:43):
ends up being about.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, it's like you explored your younger self in the
previous book and now we're doing we're doing it again
with the adult version.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Right, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Tell me a little bit about the obsessiveness that Noah
has with the story. As you say, we've got this
journalist who's just wondering how far he can go. Tell
me a little bit about that and where that's come from.
You like that as a journalist.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Completely there was a period. I've still got it. I've
still got it. I would do anything for copy like
I did. You know I went on. I remember I
had no right to be in Afghanistan with Australian soldiers,
but I went. And I was on a village walk
with a guy who was looking after me with a
grenade launcher. And if you need a guy looking after
you on a patrol, it was a patrol in Afghanistan
(07:31):
with a guy who was looking after and I was
just like, what am I doing here. I'm not a
war correspondent. I have nothing to offer the national record
on Australia on the importance of this mission. But I
did it for copy, you know. And I remember I
walked into the basement of this really well known serial
killer in Australia, his brother who was implicated in his
(07:51):
brother's crimes. I remember distinctly going down into that guy's
basement right with him. He said, I want to show
you something in my basement. And we walked down the
back of this guy's staircase. We crept under we got
into this basement, Francesca, and he goes go further, further, deeper, deeper,
and he took me to the end of this base
(08:13):
and I remember just going this is dangerous, Like this
guy hasn't been where we don't know whether this guy
did or didn't do these crimes he's been accused of.
And I'm going down there for copy because I knew
on Saturday it's going to make a great read on
the Saturday weekend magazine, you know. And it's like, and
I was a new dad at that point, I just like,
(08:33):
how far would you go? You know? And it's like,
that's that's a journal thing, and it's terrifying.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Okay, do you think it's about assisting risk and you're
just not very good at assisting risks? Yes?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yeah, putting storytelling over risk, that's something journals do all
the time. You see it, you see it. I remember
I was with I wanted to get I wanted to
jag an interview with this head of an outlaw motorcycle
gang in Australia. It was really impossible to get. This
guy just was about to get out of prison, and
his lawyer took me out on a boat on the
Brisbane River. And I remember I was on this sort
(09:05):
of speedboat with the lawyer and us like a sergeant
at arms from this famous outlaw motorcycle gang. I remember
going what am I doing out on the water with
these known criminals, just in order to possibly show that
I'm going to be trustworthy enough to be granted this interview,
you know what I mean. And you're just going, are
they you know, they could tie some rocks to my
legs and just throw me down in the river, but
(09:27):
you're there for copy And it's like, yeah, I just
think it's a journo. It's a blank spot. It's a
dark spot in a journal's life. They can't see risk
because they're so blinded by the power of that story
and the scoop. Were so driven by the scoop sometimes
and I had that, I had that, and now I've
got different scoops that I'm chasing. It's the scoop of
ideas really, you know, like I get hooked on an
(09:48):
idea and I'll be standing in the kitchen Francesca and
Fees talking to me, and she knows. She goes, ah,
damn it, you're doing it again. You're thinking about the story,
and she's like, book book Week. Remember we've got to
get the book week costume, you know, And it's like,
don't forget that bookwek costumes are actually why you're here,
not here to dazzle readers. You're here to be a
dad and you're here to be a husband. Remember that, mate,
(10:10):
you know. So that's that's what Gravity's about. Do you
see that?
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Are you worried about your your children and they are
ablity to assists risk?
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Can you sing it in them? Yeah, it's like, please don't.
My youngest daughter's got the bug. So you know, my
favorite character in Gravity is this is this guy, Noah
Cook's who's the lead sort of journal sort of hero
of the story or anti hero. But he's got this
incredible daughter who wants to be a journal too. And
that's just my youngest daughter. I see it in her.
(10:39):
Francesca worryingly, she's got the story bug. But this kid
clam in in Gravity. She does journalism for all the
right reasons. She wants to talk about the light. She
wants to go interview the strangers in her street and
remind them why they're amazing. And it's like, that's why
actually I did get into journalism. That's my favorite type
of journalism.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
And we should touch on that too, because I think
that this is something which we see in all your books.
You have this beautiful balance of light and dark. Oh yeah,
you know, hopefulness, that joy, It's always there. Just just
when you think you're going down a bit of a
dark hole, there's just whether it's a moment of humor
or a reflection or something, there's just that there's that
lightness there as well, isn't there.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Oh, that's from my life. That's you know. The Dalton
Boys are on a train to go visit our mum
in Boggo Road Women's Prison, you know, and and we're
telling jokes to each other, you know, because we all
know how sad it's going to be, you know, like
it's it's I think that's beautiful, you know. That absolutely
comes from my childhood, you know. And I so admire
(11:39):
New Zealand kids, Aussie kids who face the worst traumas
and they're living in the cracks and those little little
little beams of light are coming down through humor and
and and love, you know, and and they're the beams
that they cling to. And I just think that's so powerful.
You can, really, you can really make that light bright
if you show people how dark things can get. Yeah,
(12:01):
but you've got to go down into the darkness to
let that stuff shine so bright.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Because of course, Love Stories is on our stage at
the moment, a very special book which has come to
life and this theater piece. How exciting has that been?
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Civic Theater in Auckland might be the greatest I know
it is. It's not even my I mean, I've been
in London theaters and that matches anything I've seen in
the world. It's the most beautiful, isn't it gorgeous? Like
I just am so honored that this story had this
idea to take a typewriter to a corner and ask
two hundred people to tell me about love. They turned
it into a play and now that thing's playing in
(12:38):
the Civic Theater. It's like, are you kidding? It's amazing,
It's the great I wanted to honor my best mate's
mum who handed me this typewriter. It was her best friend,
this nineteen seventy sky blue olive Eddie typewrite, and she said,
do something with it. I wrote a book, went out
to a street, asked people all these stories, and now
it makes its way to Auckland somehow. It's just incredible.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
I think it's going to go a little bit further
than that. I think the Empire is going to keep sprinting,
isn't it it's just going to keep going. I mean,
love stories are so important, right everyone's you know, life's
a bit tough at the moment. Everyone's finding things a
little bit hard. And at the end of the day,
if you've got some love in your life, you know,
you can see that Glamark, can't you.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
You can see the life. That's the whole message of
the story. There's you know, the whole play eventually ends
up being a revelation of why I was on the
corner anyway. It's the same stuff I'm exploring, and gravity
is that there were things I actually needed to fix
in my marriage that all these wonderful strangers reminded me of.
And the greatest thing you'll ever take from that play,
if you go see it, is to drive home and go, yeah,
(13:35):
I am so lucky. I've got five people in my
life who love me. You know, I'm so lucky. I've
got one person in my life still, you know what
I mean. And to remember also the people who don't
have love. You know that there are a lot of
people in this city, Auckland, I know, you know, who
have fallen through the cracks. And you ask anyone the
toughest thing to do in life to live without his
(13:55):
love forget. Yeah, yep, Food's tough and shelts is tough,
but love's still the one that makes life really rough
if you don't have it, you know, So that play
sort of speaks to that as well.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Trent, thank you so much for your vulnerability, for your
brilliant writing, and for just putting out so much goodness
and gorgeousness into the world. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Right back at you. That's what you do. Thanks, Francesca's
what an honor that was.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Trent Dalton. His new book Gravity, Let Me Go is
in stores now, and today is the last day for
Love Stories at the Civic in Auckland.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks It'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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