This is The Guardian.

Hello, my name is Claire Longrig, and I'm the deputy editor of the Guardian Longreed.

This summer, we want to bring you our top picks of the year so far on the audio long read.

Today I'd like to introduce a profile of Australian writer Helen Garner by Sophie Elmhurst,

who has previously profiled Richard Dawkins and casting director Nina Gold, among others.

The piece is titled The Savage Suburbia of Helen Garner, with a quote,

I wanted to dong Martin Amos with a bat.

It opens with a brilliantly telling scene.

Garner, feeling lonely when her family is away at the beach,

prunes their hell out of a bush in her garden.

By the time she's finished, there's barely a leaf remaining,

and she's described as aghast and delighted with her own violence.

She says, being willing to destroy is very important to be out there with a sharp-edged blade.

There's a conspiratorial note here.

She's not talking about gardening.

The pruning story is a perfect opening to a piece about a woman writer

who has, until now, been little red outside Australia,

and who writes with passion and acuity,

but without the confidence or self-aggrandizement of, let's say, Martin Amos, who was all about being the best.

Over a number of conversations, Garner reveals a surprisingly dark view of relationships and how

destructive they can be. When her diaries were published, friends admitted they were fearful about what would emerge from that sharp pen.

She's written novels based on her own life and documented horrifying murder trials,

...