Frances Whiting: The Nocturnals

Join author Frances Whiting for an intimate author event, in conversation with Caroline Overington at Gertrude & Alice to talk about her new book, The Nocturnals.

WHEN: Wednesday, 1st of July 2026, at Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore. Please arrive when doors open at 6:45pm for a 7pm start. The event concludes at 8:30pm.

TICKETS: 

1 x Admission Ticket only $25.00 (excluding external fees), includes admission for one to the intimate event, a glass of wine and nibbles upon arrival.

1 x Admission + 1 x Book: $50.00 (excluding external fees), includes admission for one to the intimate event, a copy of The Nocturnals (RRP: $34.99), a glass of wine and nibbles upon arrival.

2 x Admission + 1 x Book: $70.00 (excluding external fees), includes admission for two to the intimate event, a copy of The Nocturnals (RRP: $34.99), a glass of wine and nibbles upon arrival for each guest.

From the bestselling author of The Best Kind of Beautiful, Frances Whiting, comes an endearing, wise, and witty novel of love and friendship that asks: how far would you go to protect your friends?

In the summer of 1997, five high school students meet. Nina, the Good Girl. Beatrice, The Poetess. Harriet, the Ghost. Cosmo, the Professor. And Hunter, the Golden Boy. In their last year of school, they become inseparable, five sides of the same star, until a fault line cracks between them, scattering them to all corners of the globe.

Now, fifteen years later, Hunter has called them with his conch shell lips to return to the place where they lived and laughed and cried together, before secrets were whispered, and promises were broken. No-one knows why he has assembled them, but there is no question they will go. Because to outsiders, they might be, in turns, a little bit weird, a little bit glamorous, and a little bit dangerous. But to each other, they are, and always will be, The Nocturnals.

'An alluring novel of thwarted dreams and unrequited love' - The Australian

About the Author:

Frances Whiting is one of Australia's best known and favourite columnists. For more than twenty years her weekly Sunday Mail column has engaged readers in the highs, lows and the wonderful of the every day. She is also an award-winning journalist and Senior Feature writer for Q Magazine in the Courier Mail. She has published two collections of her columns: Oh To Be A Marching Girl and That's A Home Run Tiger! and a novel, Walking on Trampolines.

About the Host:

Caroline Overington is one of Australia's most successful writers and journalists.  She has twice won the Walkley Award for Investigative Journalism; she has also won  the Sir Keith Murdoch award for Journalistic Excellence; Australia's richest prize for business writing, the Blake Dawson Prize; and the Davitt Award for crime writing. 

About Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore

Rated as one of the top 10 bookstores in the world by National Geographic, Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore is an oasis for writers, readers, and coffee lovers. Books overflow from the shelves of their store, featuring a mix of new, second-hand, antiquarian and rare books. Stay a while & enjoy some homemade chai, and amazing coffee, and unearth a book treasure or two. Read more about the bookstore's story here, and about the real Gertrude & Alice here.