Imagining The Past

S9 Ep5: Imagining the Past—Summer/Autumn Season—2025—Greg Johnston in conversation with Kelly Rimmer, Victoria Purman and Nicole Alexander.

Imagining The Past

Show Notes

Kelly Rimmer, Victoria Purman and Nicole Alexander have conjured various characters across their many books. Greg Johnston examines their inspiration for key characters, the methods used to fully develop them, whether unexpected plot twists arose when placing them in predicaments, and if their creations took on a life of their own once delivered to readers.

Imagining the Past is listed in the Top 25 Historical Fiction Podcasts.

More from Imagining The Past

Oct 20, 2026

Pip Williams launched her third novel, The German Ward, 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. Pip was in conversation with Nicole Abadee at the Uniting Church in Paddington, Sydney.

Sep 29, 2026

At the sparkling new bookshop in Sydney’s Summer Hill, Rose Read, Malcom Knox launched the sequel to The First Friend, imaginatively titled The Second Child. He was in conversation with Shankari Chandran and Sid Chandran

Sep 6, 2026

Emily Maguire’s Rapture won the inaugural ARA History Novel Prize Reader’s Choice Award in 2025. Emily chats with Greg Johnston about writing and researching this breakthrough novel.

Sep 3, 2026

In September, Karen Brooks launched her new novel, The Extraordinary Florence Stoker, at the Peacock Theatre in the Salamanca Arts Centre in Hobart. She was joined by her publisher, Jo Mackay.

Aug 15, 2026

Elisabeth Storrs chats to Greg Johnston about her new novel, Fables and Lies, set in Germany during the Third Reich, and her A Tale of Ancient Rome Series.

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