Cirrus@Austlit

'Robert is a writer, broadcaster, essayist, translator and, as of quite recently, a playwright. After teaching Russian Language and Literature at the ANU and the University of New South Wales, he moved into radio as the host of the ABC's Books and Writing program before taking up writing full-time. Since then, he has produced many books, essays, reviews and, more recently, a play (staged for the very first time last year in Launceston in the Earl Arts Centre). Robert's major publications include the autobiography, A Mother's Disgrace (1994); two novels, Night Letters: A Journey through Switzerland and Italy (1996) and Corfu: A Novel (2001); two travel memoirs, Twilight of Love: Travels with Turgenev (2004) and Arabesques: A Tale of Double Lives (2008); as well as two collections of essays, And So Forth (1998) and As I was Saying (2012). These books often focus on the question of self: the self or selves of the authors in whose footsteps Robert travels, and also the self of the narrating persona.' (Publication abstract)