ABOUT THE EVENT:

The untold story of Hollywood legend Zane Grey's Australian adventures.

On Wednesday 17th September at The Royal Oak, Balmain, join Vicki Hastrich in conversation with Charlotte Wood.

Copies of The Last Days of Zane Grey will be available for purchase at the venue through Roaring Stories, with Beaumont signing copies after the discussion.

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ABOUT THE VENUE

Attendees are asked to arrive at 6.30pm for a 7pm start. Seating is unallocated – another reason to arrive early to secure an optimal spot. Why not make a full evening of it, too, by ordering a meal at the Royal Oak before or after the event? One of Balmain's oldest and most loved pubs, it serves a delicious range of food and beverages.

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ABOUT THE BOOK

Zane Grey was the world's first millionaire author, inventor of the western in both literature and Hollywood films, globally feted as a celebrity adventurer. But until now his adventures in Australia have been little known.

Grey first sailed to Australia in the mid-1930s to pursue the new sport of game fishing and a secret Australian lover, but behind the scenes he was in trouble. While chasing world records in game fishing at Bermagui and showing Australians how to create new industries from their marine resources, Grey was also scrambling to protect his precarious finances by making the first ever 'Jaws' movie at Queensland's Hayman Island.

Amid all the drama that followed him, Grey was on a singular quest to test himself against an epic-sized great white shark - leading to the fight of his life in the wild seas off Port Lincoln.

In the tradition of Grey's own action-packed westerns, Vicki Hastrich's biography is a tale of a new frontier and a grand portrayal of Australian and American dreams, showcasing wilderness while bringing a missing part of Australia's history into dazzling light.

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ABOUT VICKI HASTRICH

Vicki Hastrich is a Sydney writer. Her two novels, Swimming with the Jellyfish (2001) and The Great Arch (2008) were followed by the memoir Night Fishing: Stingrays, Goya and the singular life (2019). Writing in the Times Literary Supplement, critic Beejay Silcox has called Night Fishing 'the literary equivalent of a glass-bottomed boat, a frame for wonderment'. Her 2025 biography The Last Days of Zane Grey examines the life of the American western writer, celebrity and big game-fisherman via the untold story of Zane Grey's two trips to Australia in the 1930s.

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ABOUT CHARLOTTE WOOD

Charlotte Wood is the author of ten books - seven novels and three non-fiction works. She has won the Stella Prize and the Prime Minister's Literary Award, among others, and her features and essays have appeared in The Guardian, New York Times, Sydney Morning Herald, The Monthly, Saturday Paper and others. She lives in Sydney.

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TERMS & CONDITIONS

Refunds

Please note that tickets are non-refundable unless the event is cancelled or postponed due to extenuating circumstances. Refunds are not issued within 48 hours notice of event date. Humanitix fee is nonrefundable.

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This event is presented by Roaring Stories Bookshop Balmain and Allen and Unwin.

With thanks to our venue partner The Royal Oak.

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