Join us for an evening with Tegan Bennett Daylight as she chats to Sarh Ayoub about her new novel, How to Survive 1985, a warm, wise and life-affirming story where takes her beloved cast of characters from her debut YA novel Royals on a fresh adventure, to discover something about their roots and how far their generation has come.

6:30pm arrivals for 7pm start

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ABOUT THE BOOK:
When four friends find themselves thrown back in time to 1985, how will they handle being teens in their parents’ era? And will they ever get back to the future?

It takes Shannon a while to work out what’s happened. She went into the cinema in 2025 and came back out... in 1985? Somehow she’s travelled forty years back in time.

But this isn’t the first time something strange has happened to Shannon and her group of friends. Is there a chance that whatever mysterious forces brought them together a year ago have sent them back to the 80s with her? To find her friends, she’ll have to navigate a world with no smartphones, no internet, and – worst of all – no access to bubble tea. Plus, what’s with the hairstyles?

Once they’re reunited, things only get more complicated. As the group tries to find a way back to the future, some friendships are strained while others blossom into something more. Can they stay together – and stay friends – long enough to survive 1985?

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Tegan Bennett Daylight is a writer, teacher and critic. Her books include the Stella Award shortlisted Six Bedrooms and the novels Safety and Bombora. She lives in the Blue Mountains with her husband and two children.

Sarah Ayoub is a journalist, bestselling author and academic with a PhD in migrant Australian YA literature. Her work has been published in The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney Review of Books, Meanjin and more. Sarah is a Stella Schools Program ambassador, has mentored the youth curators of The Sydney Writers' Festival YA program, contributed to the anthology Arab, Australian, Other: Stories on Race and Identity and most recently been a judge for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. Sarah was elected to the board of the Australian Society of Authors in 2021 and is currently working on her first novel for adults as the writer-in-residence of Sweatshop Literacy Movement.

Sarah is an advocate for education and Australian stories, appearing at schools and festivals where she promotes her YA novels Hate is Such a Strong Word, The Yearbook Committee and The Cult of Romance, as well as her picture books The Love that Grew, Nice and Slow and How to Be a Friend.

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