In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Nadia Wheatley chats with Gabriella about the choices she made while writing the biography of Charmian Clift, one of Australia’s most charismatic writers whose books were often decades ahead of their time.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• Nadia Wheatley’s reluctance to write Charmian Clift’s biography and the vigorous arm twisting that ultimately resulted in her agreeing to embark on the project.
• Nadia’s reasons for opening the biography with her personal story.
• The meaning behind the book’s title: The Life and Myth of Charmian Clift.
• Why Nadia chose to interpret Clift’s life rather than repeat the mythical representations of earlier biographies.
• The ethical dilemmas Nadia faced when revealing secrets about Clift’s personal life.
• How Nadia achieved a fine balance between portraying Clift’s conflicting roles as a talented author and wife of a prolific writer; a devoted mother; and a feminist decades ahead of her time.
• The extent to which Nadia believes she accessed the truth of her subject.
• Nadia’s exciting news about publishing an edited version of Charmian Clift’s, The End of the Morning, which includes Clift’s previously unpublished autobiographical novel and thirty of her essays.

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In this episode, Gabriella continues her conversation with Kenneth Miller about his group biography Mapping the Darkness, The Visionary Scientists who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep.

As we learned in the previous episode, a century ago, sleep was widely considered a state of nothingness and a wasteful habit we could learn to overcome. Thanks to the four scientists Kenneth introduced us to in episode one, we now know the truth: that sleep is an incredibly complex phenomenon, central to our physical, emotional, and cognitive health.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• How Kenneth captured each character’s passion for research and their sense of scientific wonder.
• How Kenneth portrayed each scientist’s quest to uncover the mysteries of sleep.
• How Kenneth structured the narrative to create a gripping adventure of the human spirit.
• Details of the famous cave experiment in 1938 when two sleep researchers retreated into the cavernous Mammoth Cave in Kentucky for 32 days to find out when they could switch to a 28-hour sleep cycle after being deprived of environmental cues.
• Kenneth’s meticulous research strategy and how he grasped complicated sleep science.
• How Kenneth transformed thousands of pages of complex scientific information into a propulsive and compelling biography of the quartet of individuals who revolutionised our understanding of why we sleep and how we can get sleep better.

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In this first of two episodes with Kenneth Miller, Gabriella asks about the choices he made while writing Mapping the Darkness, The Visionary Scientists who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep, the compelling biography of the quartet of researchers who revolutionised our understanding of why we sleep and how we can sleep better.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• Why Kenneth suddenly became interested in the field of sleep science.
• Why Kenneth opened Mapping the Darkness with the story of a man whose life unraveled because of a sleep disorder.
• The cast of characters who created the field of sleep science at a time when no-one was interested in the topic and funding for sleep research was non-existent.
• The historical, social and political context in which the sleep scientists conducted their research.
• The unexpected opportunities that enabled the scientists to gain research funding and recognition for their discoveries.
• Kenneth’s approach to balancing the scientists’ professional and private lives to create a kaleidoscopic rather than one-dimensional portrait dominated by their obsession with unravelling the puzzle of sleep.
• The four scientists’ breathtaking discoveries that ultimately shaped the way we understand sleep and its role in our lives.

https://biographersinconversation.com

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Linkedin: Gabriella Kelly Davies

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