Stephanie Bishop on her dark and compulsive novel about creativity and desire, 'The Anniversary'

Good Reading Podcast

Novelist JB Blackwood is on a cruise with her husband, Patrick, to celebrate their wedding anniversary. For days they sail in the sun. They lie about drinking, reading, sleeping, having sex. Patrick is a legendary film director and JB's one-time professor. Much older than JB, Patrick is a maverick film director and a cult figure - a god in the eyes of many. But now his success is waning while JB is on the cusp of winning a major literary prize. When a storm strikes the cruise, the bliss is shattered. With nothing but dark water all around, under mysterious circumstances, Patrick falls overboard. As the search for Patrick's body, the consequences of his death and the truth about their relationship ripple through JB's consciousness. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Stephanie Bishop about JB Blackwood's journey of creative emancipation from beneath her husband's shadow, how to write an authentic sex scene, and the intense psychological thriller that emerges out of the process of exploring the depths of JB's creative consciousness.