Award-winning biographer Judith Brett will be in conversation with Virginia Haussegger on her new book Fearless Beatrice Faust: Sex, Feminism and Body Politics

‘Beatrice Faust’, said Helen Garner, ‘is not scared of anybody.’ Faust was the transformative feminist activist, writer and intellectual who founded the Women’s Electoral Lobby in Melbourne in 1972. She campaigned for abortion law reform, and thought, talked and wrote about sex and feminism, from the sexual revolution of the 1960s through to the neoliberal 1990s, always with her own demanding body as her guide. She was a force to be reckoned with.

She also endured a miserable childhood, and suffered chronic ill health as well as a later-life addiction to prescription drugs. Her letters reveal a complex, troubled inner life that belied the confident charisma of her public persona. Fearless Beatrice Faustcelebrates, explains and questions her struggle to change both herself and her world. Drawing on public records and private writings, Judith Brett creates a compelling and psychologically nuanced portrait of a gifted, argumentative woman who refused to be a victim.

Judith Brett AM is a political historian and biographer and emeritus professor of politics at La Trobe University. Her books include Robert Menzies’ Forgotten People: Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class, The Enigmatic Mr Deakin, which won the 2018 National Biography Award, and was shortlisted in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, NSW Premier’s History Awards and Queensland Literary Awards and From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage, which was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award.

Virginia Haussegger AM is an award winning journalist, broadcaster & former ABC News anchor in Canberra. Virginia is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Canberra and Deputy Chair of the media think-tank PIJI, the Public Interest Journalism Initiative. In 2019, Virginia was named ACT Australian of The Year, in recognition of her community leadership and women’s rights advocacy. Virginia’s book, Genderquake: is our feminist future written in the past?, will be published in October.

The vote of thanks will be given by Frank Bongiorno AM, Professor of History ANU and President of the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.

Books are available for signing from 5.30pm and again after the event.

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A podcast will be made available after the event.

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