More about Professor Roland Perry
Perry began his writing career as a journalist on The Age Melbourne from 1969 to 1973. After five years in England making documentary films, he had his first book, a novel, Program for a Puppet, published in 1979. It was an international best-seller that was translated into eight languages.
Educated at Scotch College Melbourne, Perry has an Economics degree from Monash University (1972). His awards include: the Frederick Blackham Exhibition Prize in Journalism at Melbourne University (1969); the prestigious Fellowship of Australian Writers National Literary Award for non-fiction (2004) with Monash: the outsider who won a war; and Cricket Biography of the Year (2006) from the UK Cricket Society for Miller’s Luck, a biography of all-rounder, Keith Miller. In October 2011 Perry was made a Fellow of Monash University. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia ‘for service to literature as an author’ in June 2011. Monash University bestowed a Professorship on Roland Perry in October 2012. He is the University’s first Writer-in-Residence, lecturing PhDs and PhD aspirants on all aspects of writing, and Australian history.
Some insights…
How would you describe your writing practice?
After 37 books, a routine has developed. Once I have done basic research, writing begins while research never really ends. The day is split between writing about five hours and research and reading a further five hours. In between I do physical exercise and/or ten km bike rides.
I start from day one with 1000 words and maintain that quota six days a weeks. There is an increased word output as the manuscript progresses, culminating with about 2000 words a day. A Pavlovian reward is a good coffee at a favorite café.
Where do you usually work?
In an office at home in Melbourne, and also in my ‘writer’s retreat’ in my second favorite city, Chiang Mai, in Northern Thailand.
What made you write when you started out?
I had no pretensions about wanting to become an author.
I ‘fell’ into journalism at The Age in Melbourne. After five years I want to develop that acquired skill further, and went to London, where I worked for five years as a script-writer, on-camera interviewer, director and producer on documentary films. In that time, I began a novel Program for a Puppet. It was an international bestseller and translated into eight languages.
That allowed me to write full-time, and develop a style, which comes with confidence in developing narrative and characters, whether fiction or non-fiction.
Books and film writing are two distinctly different functions.
Books need a literary approach; film needs a greater visual sense. I am fortunate to have earned a living in both, which allows me to switch from one to the other. I have enjoyed non-fiction writing, but over the last six years with my Chiang Mai base have written a trilogy of thrillers----The Honourable Assassin; The Assassin on the Bangkok Express; and The Shaman.
Once they were published, I wrote 15 hours of film/TV based on the Trilogy, and expect this to be sold to a network or streaming company soon.
How important have libraries been in your life – from childhood to researching your books?
In grade two (aged seven) at Primary School I was bitten by the reading bug and spent many hours in the school library reading or arranging to borrow. I devoured a book a day. In secondary school this fell away but I revived the ‘bug’ in my 20s.
I have spent a fair proportion of my life in libraries, archives and research institutions in Australia, the UK, France, Russia and the US, culminating in my appointment to the Advisory Council to the National Archives of Australia in Canberra in 2006.
Which writers have inspired you?
A favourite writer is Australia’s Alan Moorehead. He was a fine war correspondent. Others whose style and approach I admire are Diana Georgeff, Phillip Knightley, Les Carlyon, Clivei James (non-fiction) and Denis Warner. Tom Keneally is entertaining and with a penchant for Australian stories and history. America’s Gore Vidal is a supreme essayist. Graham Greene and John Le Carre made a lasting impression.
A common theme of most of these authors that appeals is the spareness of their writing. Their economic use of the language, wit and a lack of pretension are keys to my appreciation of them. Their writing has an integrity, and therefore an authority, that is admirable.
Also, see Sydney Morning Herald article: Books that changes me.
Roland researching for the his 2020 book, The Shaman. Image by Dean Golja)
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Books by Roland Perry 1979---2021
1: Programme for a Puppet [first published, W H Allen, UK 1979---fiction]
2: Elections Sur Ordinateur [Bonnell Editions/Robert Laffont, France [1984]
3: The Programming of the President [Aurum Press UK & Beaufort Books USA, AKA---Hidden Power---1984]
4: The Exile: Wilfred Burchett, Reporter of conflict [William Heinemann, Australia and UK, 1988]
5: Blood is a Stranger [ Octopus Australia, 1988---fiction]
6: Faces in the Rain [Octopus Australia, 1990---fiction]
7: Shane Warne, Master Spinner [Wilkinson Books Australia, 1993]
8: Lethal Hero [Oliver Books, UK, 1993]
9: The Fifth Man [Sidgwick & Jackson, UK 1994]
10: The Don [Pan Macmillan Australia and Sidgwick & Jackson UK, 1995---AKA Don Bradman]
11: Mel Gibson, Actor, Director, Producer [Pan Macmillan Australia,1996]
12: Bold Warnie [Random House Australia, 1998]
13: Waugh’s Way [Random House Australia, 1999]
14: Captain Australia: A History of the Celebrated Captains of Australian Test Cricket [Random House Australia, 2000]
15: Bradman’s Best [Random House Australia and Transworld UK, 2001]
16: Bradman’s Best Ashes Teams [Random House Australia and Transworld UK, 2002]
17: Monash: The Outsider Who Won a War [Random House Australia, 2004]
18: Last of the Cold War Spies [Da Capo Press, 2005]
19: Miller’s Luck: The Life and Loves of Keith Miller, Australia’s Greatest All-Rounder [Random House Australia and Aurum Press UK, 2005---AKA known as Keith Miller]
20: The Ashes [Random House Australia, 2006]
21: Sailing to the Moon: the biography of Rolly Tasker [Pennon Australia, 2008]
22: Bradman’s Invincibles [Hachette Australia, 2008]
23: The Australian Light Horse [Hachette Australia, 2009]
24: The Changi Brownlow [Hachette Australia, 2010]
25: The Fight for Australia [AKA---Pacific 360---Hachette Australia, 2012]
26: Bill the Bastard [Allen & Unwin Australia, 2012]
27: Horrie: the war dog [Allen & Unwin Australia, 2013]
28: The Queen, Her Lover and the Most Notorious Spy in History [Allen & Unwin, non-fiction 2014]
29: The Honourable Assassin [Allen & Unwin Australia, 2015---fiction]
30: Celeste: Courtesan, countess, bestselling author [ABC Books/HarperCollins Australia, 2016]
31: The Assassin on the Bangkok Express. 2017---fiction [Wild Dingo Press]
32: Monash and Chauvel [Allen & Unwin, Australia, 2017, non-fiction]
33: Anzac Sniper [ABC Books/HarperCollins Australia, non-fiction 2018]
34: Bradman and Me [ ABC Books/HarperCollins, Non-fiction memoir October 2019]
35: RED LEAD: The Naval Cat with Nine Lives, [non-fiction Allen & Unwin, 2020.]
36: Shaman: the third in the ‘Assassin’ series. [fiction, Allen & Unwin, February 2021]
37: Bradman vs Bodyline [non-fiction, Allen & Unwin, October 2021]
Documentary Films:
1: The Force [1975]
2: Ted Kennedy & the Pollsters [1984]
3: The Programming of the President [1984]
4: Strike Swiftly [1985]
5: The Raising of a Galleon’s Ghost [1992]
6: The Plasmoid Car [2021]