Whitcoulls Recommends: Time of the Child and The Voice Inside

Time of the Child by Niall Williams. Set in a small Irish village, this tells the story of Dr Jack Troy who lives quietly with his unmarried daughter Ronnie. Their lives are changed forever just before Christmas in 1962 when an abandoned baby is found and handed to him, and instead of passing the child on to the correct authorities he finds he simply cannot give her up. I cannot say enough how wonderful this book is - it’s a masterclass in writing and I thought it was sublime.

The Voice Inside by John Farnham. The famous Australian singer - who still holds the record for the biggest selling album ever in Australia (Whispering Jack) has written a memoir about his life and career, and about triumph over adversity. There was a period where his record company turned their backs on him and it looked as though his career might be over, but he managed a comeback - and has also survived a nasty cancer scare. Listeners may recall that his song The Voice was used as the anthem for the referendum held last year, and brought him to a whole new prominence. Above all, he’s a proud survivor. 

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Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Joey McKenzie joins me now to talk books. Good morning,
Good morning. I am so excited. I just love Nile Williams.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
I'm so glad to find another adoring fan.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Oh the way he writes, it's just beautiful.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Yes, it is so Anybody listening who values and loves
really fine writing should immediately go out and get a
copy of Time of the Child by Nile Williams. It's
set in a small Irish village and it's centered around
the local doctor, a man called doctor Jack Troy, who
lives with his unmarried daughter Ronnie, and they've got a

(00:45):
fairly pedestrian, quiet life because he's the village doctor. He's
kind of set apart from the rest of the community
and everybody respects him, but nobody interferes with his life.
And one day a young boy comes across a baby
who's been abandoned and thinks that the right thing to
do is to give it to the doctor, who will
then make the appropriate decisions about what should happen. But

(01:07):
when this baby is given to the doctor and his daughter,
they simply cannot bear to give it up. It is
beautifully done. It's one of those books where I almost
had to read every sentence twice because he has an
extraordinary gift for words and for atmosphere and for putting
things together. And it's impossible for me actually to say

(01:30):
how good this book is.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
My mother put me on too him. But the problem was,
and my mother is an avid reader and has an
awful lot of books, but she has a very small
pile of do not lend because they are so special
to her. And I understand that that she just doesn't
want to risk never getting it back. And Nile's books
are all in that pile.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Yeah, I don't think he's nearly as widely known as
he deserves to be. This book, I describe it as
being sublime. It really is.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Okay, well, that's mum's birthday. Sort it bring him to
that she's not listening. Oh no, I'll tell her because
she'll go out and try and grab it. The Voice
Inside by John Farnan. We've been hearing a little bit
about this memoir that he has written and some of
the fascinating stories that he has to share.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah, fascinating. He was born in England and emigrated to
Australia at the age of nine with his family. He
as a teenager, became an apprentice plumber, but he was
very interested in music, and as he got more and
more gigs, he decided that he'd give full time music
a go. And I was particularly charmed by the bit
in the book where he had to attend a hearing

(02:32):
in front of the Victorian Apprentice Commission to see whether
or not he could be released from his apprenticeship. But
clearly he was because he went on to have a
terrific career. He had a manager called Daryl who was
based in Adelaide and knew South Australia very well, so
the first part of John Farnham's career was very much
traveling hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kilometers around South Australia.

(02:55):
What he didn't realize for quite some time, because he
was a very naive, sweet young man, was that Darryl
had been drugging him for years, putting amphetamines in his
drinks at night to keep him up singing all night,
and then giving him sleeping stuff in the morning so
that he could knock him out for the rest of
the day, and it took him a long time to
work out that that was happening, but also that Daryl
was ripping him off right left in center. He became famous,

(03:19):
and some listeners may recall this for the song Sadie
the Cleaning Lady, which his record company essentially forced him
to record against his better.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Judgment, because I didn't realize he had this. I just
think of him as sort of the rock pop star. No,
I had no idea he had this early career.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
He did almost sort of manufactured early career. And he's
probably most well known in Australia and possibly here for
the album he made called Whispering Jack, which is still
the biggest selling record ever made by an Australian and
the third biggest selling record ever overall in Australia. So
an extraordinary career. Some listeners may remember that last year

(03:57):
when there was a referendum being held in Australia called
The Voice, he gave his song The Voice to be
the anthem of the referendum and so it was widely
played and he had quite a big comeback. He had
a tough career because there was a point where his
record company just turned their backs on him. And he
was left defend for himself and wasn't sure he'd ever
make it back. And then in twenty twenty two he

(04:19):
was diagnosed with oral cancer and had a very rough time.
So this is triumph over adversity. I will say it
is not one of those rock and roll sex and
drug books. He met his wife, I think he was
twenty three, she was nineteen. They've been together ever since.
And I said he was a very sweet, naive young
man at the beginning. I think he's still a very
sweet man.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
And now it's a two very different books for you today.
Time of the Child by Nile Williams and also The
Voice Inside by John Farnham. Thanks Joan, see you next week.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
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.