You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. This is Hard Talk with me, Zainab Bedawi.

Thanks for downloading this edition of the program and I hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to Hard Talk here on the BBC World Service with me, Zaynab Bedawi, in Sydney,

where my guest is one of the world's most distinguished writers, Thomas Kenealy.

He's the author of more than 30 novels,

including his best known, Schindler's Ark, that was turned into an Oscar-winning film and also won him the Booker Prize. He writes a lot on the themes of culture and identity. So, now in his 80s, does he think Australia has matured into a nation that is secure in its identity?

Or is it a country divided in culture, politics and race?

Thomas Caneli, welcome to Hard Talk.

Thank you, Zaneb.

You've written about a huge range of topics.

The American Civil War, Australia, of course, the First World War,

Joan of Arc, Napoleon.

How do you go about choosing a subject for a book?

Well, it's generally some weird connection with Australia that begins me,

in that I heard that there was a family on St Helena who knew Napoleon and then they got so close to Napoleon that they fell out of

favour and were sent where the British sent everyone unsatisfactory in the 19th century to Australia.

And so I love those connections between the old world because I was raised in an Australia

that considered itself to be out of the world.

It's sort of the last thing before the penguins of Antarctica.

So you start with your home country and then link to the rest of the world.

All right.

You're very drawn to moral dilemmas.

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