Robert Dessaix

At Byron Bay Writers' Festival Ramona Koval compares notes with writer, broadcaster and translater Robert Dessaix on the topic of books, the literary life and the experience of being on the radio.

Robert's stellar career as a writer really took flight with his autobiography A Mother's Disgrace. This led to his novels Night Letters, Corfu and Twilight of Love: Travels with Turgenev.

But for 10 years, Robert Dessaix was the presenter of the ABC Radio National program Books & Writing. When he left to be a writer full time, Ramona Koval stepped into that role for the following 11 years, until the beginning of 2006 when Books & Writing morphed into this daily program, The Book Show. And so that's why Ramona and Robert got together in Byron Bay, to talk about books on the radio.