Whitcoulls Recommends: Gravity Let Me Go and Boleyn Traitor

Gravity Let Me Go by Trent Dalton. Noah Cork should be on top of the world. His new true crime book is a bestseller, but strange things happening around him are deeply unsettling. As a major storm threatens Brisbane he’s caught up in one of his own, failing to see what’s right under his nose in this brilliant story about murder and marriage and one man desperate to do the best by his family, with no idea how to go about it.

Boleyn Traitor by Philippa Gregory. Jane Boleyn was the sister of Anne Boleyn and a senior lady in waiting to five of Henry V111’s wives. The book is written from her perspective, about their lives in his court. The story of these women as they lived through a volatile and dangerous period in service of a petulant and unreliable king is compassionate, insightful and utterly riveting, and bears some comparisons with modern days. I adored it. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks ab.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Joan, Good morning, good morning, love you to have you
with us. Trent Dalton, who is a friend of the
show We Love Trent Dalton, has a new book out
which is very exciting.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Yes, we do love him. I love his books, as
you know. They're mostly set in Brisbane and he writes
brilliantly about the dispossessed, the underclass, the underbelly of Brisbane,
which I think is one of the most notable features
of his writing. This one's a bit different. It's about
a guy called Noah Cork who should be on top
of the world. He's a journalist and he's just had

(00:43):
published a true crime book about the murder of a
woman called Tams and Fellows, and it's at the top
of the bestseller lists, and so he should be having
his real moment in the sun. But he's tormented by
the story of her murder, and also by the person
who committed the murder, who has not yet been found
but is kind of haunting poor old Noah. And Noah

(01:05):
lives with his wife and two daughters. And in this book,
the way that Trent writes, These women is just wonderful.
There's strong, interesting characters, and Noah is a bit hapless.
He wants to be the best father and husband that
he can be. He's pretty much neglected his family for
the six months that it took him to write this book.
But he just doesn't know how to go about being

(01:26):
the best guy. And one day he goes into the
bathroom of the family home and somebody in the condensation
on the mirror in the bathroom has written gravity, let
me Go. And he's trying to figure out this riddle
and what it means and where it fits into his life.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
He always writes something which he is familiar with in
a sense. And of course he was a journalist, wasn't
he Yes, and his poor wife did kind of hold
everything together while he started writing novels. And you know
there's just these little moments when you were telling that
story that you know that he's drawn on his own experience.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Well that would be why he says that this is
his most personal book yet.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Oh look at me, Oh can't wait to read it.
Philippa Gregory has a new book out.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
She does. It's called Berlin Traitor and for fans of
historical fiction or PHILIPA. Gregory. Many listeners might remember her
book The Other Berlin Girl and the other historical work
she's done. I absolutely adored this. I found it really
hard to put it down. It's told from the perspective
of Jane Berlin, who was Anne Berlin's sister, and so

(02:31):
you get the Court of Henry the Eighth told from
a very female perspective. And Jane Berlin was a senior
lady in waiting for five of Henry the Eight's wives,
and so you're with her as she essentially works through
the lives of each of the wives. And PHILIPA. Gregory
said in writing this book she wanted to set the
record straight because some of these women have been so

(02:53):
maligned by history and for centuries they've been ridiculed or
talked about in bad ways. For instance, she says that
Anne of Cleves was portrayed as being ugly and fat,
but in fact, the ugly and fat person in that
court was the king himself. I just loved it. I
loved the history. I loved these women, and as I
read it increasingly through the book, it seemed to me

(03:15):
that there were parallels with modern day things that are
going on in the world at the moment, and certainly
a lot of what happened back then in history has
not been confined to that period of time.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Sorry, I'm putting you on the spot a little, but
when did you last release a novel?

Speaker 3 (03:29):
Oh? It was some years ago and not in the
Berlin seria.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yes, it feels like it was. So this will be
because I know a lot of people absolutely love and
it's a great bigger in this genre and things. Ah,
there we go. Good to hear those two books we
spoke about today, Gravity let Me Go by Trent Dalton
and Bolin Traitor by Philippa Gregory. Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
See you next week.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks there'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.