From award-winning writer Kate Holden comes The Ruin of Magic, a selection of crafted essays of intimate and personal experience and sharply informed rumination on life in strange times.

In gorgeous prose she meditates on her instinctive yearning for long-ago Europe versus the natural belonging she feels to the Australian landscape, and asks, What is a home? The strongest shelter or the most lethal trap, a museum of ourselves or a showcase of fashions? What, then, does it mean to make ourselves at home in an Australia still finding its way amidst old and avoided truths? Is nostalgia a reasonable mourning of timeless lore lost or a dangerous fantasy? And what has happened to magic and beauty in the glare of modern life?

Reading Rainer Maria Rilke, Patti Smith, Walter Benjamin and D.H. Lawrence, dreamers and philosophers and poets, pagan history and new criticism, Holden writes with humour and sorrow of all the ways life today warps us under its glare - and how to find a haven in the subtle shadows.

Jackie Bailey is an award-winning author whose nonfiction book about spirituality, 'The Outrageous Good Fortune of Living’ (HarperCollins), will be released in 2026. Jackie works as a funeral celebrant and pastoral care practitioner, supporting people to navigate death and dying.

Kate Holden coupled with author Jackie Bailey will make for an evening of thoughtful and fascinating conversation as the two explore this highly anticipated collection of essays.

Contact the host of Kate Holden - Author Event

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