Thomas Keneally is a prolific author of fiction and nonfiction. Many of his books are worldwide bestsellers and he has won many awards. He won the Booker Prize for Schindler’s Ark, which was later made into the Oscar-winner film Schindler’s List by Steven Spielberg. His new book, Napoleon’s Last Island, explores the intriguing tale of the friendship that sprang up between Napoleon and Betsy Balcombe, a young girl living on the south Atlantic island of St Helena while the Emperor was exiled there. With his ability for bringing historical stories to life in the most brilliant and surprising ways, Keneally recreates Betsy's friendship with Napoleon, her enmities and alliances with his court, and her dramatic coming of age during her years with them on the island, and vividly shares this remarkable tale and the beginning of an Australian dynasty. He talks about his work and his new novel.

Speaker biography:

Thomas Keneally won the Booker Prize in 1982 with Schindler's Ark, later made into the Steven Spielberg Academy Award-winning film Schindler's List. His non-fiction includes the memoir Searching For Schindler and Three Famines, an LA Times Book of the Year, and the histories The Commonwealth Of Thieves, The Great Shame and American Scoundrel. His novels The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Gossip from the Forest, and Confederates were all shortlisted for the Booker Prize, while Bring Larks and Heroes and Three Cheers For The Paraclete won the Miles Franklin Award. The People's Train was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize, South East Asia division. Follow him on Twitter @thomaskeneally

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