Holly Ringland: The World Beneath Her Feet

Join Holly Ringland, in conversation with Michaela Kalowski, to celebrate the release of her new novel 'The World Beneath Her Feet'.

WHEN: Monday, 7th September 2026, at Paddington Uniting Church. Please arrive when doors open at 6:30pm for a 7pm start. The event concludes at 8:30pm. after book signing.

Parking can sometimes be difficult, so please leave enough time. There is also a parking facility close by.

TICKETS: 

Admission: $20.00 (excluding external fees). Includes admission for one to the event and a wine (or beverage) upon arrival.

Admission + Book: $50.00 (excluding external fees), includes admission for one to the event, a copy of The World Beneath Her Feat (RRP: $34.99), and a wine (or beverage) upon arrival.

From the international bestselling author of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart and The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding, comes a luminous, deeply emotional, and utterly absorbing novel about belonging, memory, and the loves and landscapes that make us - and what it takes to come home to ourselves and each other. The World Beneath Her Feet is immersive Australian storytelling at its finest.

In her late thirties, Maggie Byrd lives a charmed life in London. She works with fossils and gems at the Natural History Museum, and shares a home with the two people she loves most: her best friend, Harriet, and her partner, Joe. However, beneath this carefully constructed facade lies a past Maggie buried deep inside herself and resolved never to unearth: the story of a guilt-ridden, heartbroken girl who left Australia in her early twenties and swore never to return. But when she learns that she's inherited her beloved uncle's rewilded land in a lush valley of southeast Queensland, Maggie's London life begins to fracture.

Bordering a town famous for its rare opalised fossil discoveries, the land lies near a volcanic lake rumoured to be cursed, and a sacred, ephemeral tea-tree swamp. It is land rich with living culture, and home to an abundance of native flora and fauna. And it's long been sought after by developers, willing to pay any price. In the nineties, this wild, vivid place also shaped Maggie when she was an angry, lost teenager. It was her home and sanctuary, where she experienced the intoxicating powers and limitations of friendship, first love, desire and loyalty - until she betrayed everyone she loved there and fled. When the same land that Maggie turned her back on comes into her care, she is forced to face what we all cannot bury, abandon or forget.

'It will never be like this again.'

She looked up. He held her eye.

'You'll never love anyone the way you do when you're sixteen.'

About the Author:

Holly Ringland is the author of two internationally best-selling and multi-award-winning novels, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart and The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding, and one nationally bestselling work of non-fiction, The House That Joy Built. She writes a beloved and bestselling Substack, The Joy Rise, on the intersection of creativity and connection. Her books have sold more than 600,000 copies globally and have been published in over thirty international territories. In 2021, Holly made her TV debut co-hosting the ABC TV factual series Back to Nature, which aired in prime time and to critical acclaim. In 2023, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart was adapted into an award-winning seven-part series starring Sigourney Weaver.

About the Host:

Michaela Kalowski is an interviewer, moderator and curator for writers and ideas festivals. Highlight interviews include Margaret Atwood, David Mitchell, Tim Winton and Stan Grant. She's curator of Big Weekend of Books, ABC Radio National's on-air writers' festival. She produces and hosts a monthly books conversation event for Petersham Bowling Club. Michaela has conducted radio interviews and presented programs across ABC radio and TV. She's co-presenter and co-writer of a two-part podcast for ABC Radio National, tracing part of her family's history, called Laya's Way Home.

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.