Pip Williams: The German Ward

Join author Pip Williams and Nicole Abadee for an author event celebrating her new book, The German Ward.

WHEN: Thursday, 1st of October 2026,

WHERE: At the Paddington Uniting Church. Doors open at 6:30 pm for a prompt 7 pm start. The event concludes at 8:30 pm, after the book signing. Parking can be difficult, so please allow extra time. There is also a parking facility close by.

TICKETS: 

1 x Admission: $20.00 (excluding external fees), includes admission for one to the event.

1 x Admission + 1 x Book: $45.00 (excluding external fees), includes admission for one to the event and a copy of The German Ward (RRP: $34.99).

The love story of the year: a breathtaking new novel from the author of global bestsellers The Dictionary of Lost Words and The Bookbinder of Jericho. A tale of love between enemies behind the lines of WW1 and the Australian artist who captures their secret.

This is a story about desire.

France, 1915. An English nurse and German doctor fall in love. He is a prisoner of war; she has never cared for rules. Their love is visceral and urgent, forbidden and doomed, and it would have gone unrecorded if not for a series of drawings found more than a century later.

At first the drawings seem insignificant, but the woman who finds them glimpses moments of intimacy and can’t look away. The images become part of a puzzle she wants to solve: who were the lovers, what became of them, and what story of war was the artist trying to tell?

In this luminous tale of hope in the midst of darkness, Pip Williams expands the world of her bestselling novels. Sensual and sophisticated, The German Ward shows one of Australia’s most significant writers reaching the height of her skills. 

About the Author:

Pip Williams is the author of social research, essays, memoir, and the occasional poem, but she is best known for her companion novels, The Dictionary of Lost Words and The Bookbinder of Jericho. Since its publication in 2020, The Dictionary of Lost Words has won a number of major book awards, was chosen for the Reese Witherspoon Book Club and became a New York Times bestseller. As well as being adapted for stage, The Dictionary of Lost Words is being turned into a book concerto and has been optioned for a limited series. Pip’s second novel, The Bookbinder of Jericho, was published in 2023 and was an instant bestseller. In 2024, it won the Australian Book Industry Awards General Fiction Book of the Year and was Dymocks’ number-one book in its Top 101. Both novels were also recognised in ABC Radio National’s Top 100 Books of the 21st Century. Her upcoming novel, The German Ward, continues her exploration of love, art, and history, bringing to life a vivid World War I story of forbidden love and artistic discovery behind the lines in France. Pip’s books have been published around the world and translated into more than 30 languages.

About the Interviewer:

Nicole Abadee is a freelance journalist and writers’ festival moderator. She writes about books for Good Weekend Magazine, Spectrum and Australian Book Review. She also writes for Harper’s Bazaar. She is a regular moderator at writers’ festivals, including Sydney Writers’ Festival, Adelaide Writers’ Week, Canberra Writers’ Festival and the Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival. In 2025 she was a moderator at Edinburgh International Writers’ Festival, and will be moderating there again in August 2026.She has been a literary judge, podcaster and a guest on ABC Radio to discuss books. In 2025 Nicole was the curator of the inaugural Woollahra Writers’ Festival. Nicole is a board member of the Eleanor Dark Foundation, which runs Varuna, the National Writers’ House, and is on the Advisory Council of the Sydney Women’s Fund.

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.