Chris Browne
Speaker
Chris is a retired medical researcher who spent most of his working life at Monash University. He has been a book collector for more than 50 years and has put together during that time a personal library of nearly 15,000 books. His main interests are 19th and early 20th century English literature, children’s books and fine illustrated books. He has particularly strong collections of Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, and Rudyard Kipling.
Talk: A young persons guide to book collecting
Talk: Now we are Ten
Tour: Meet me at the book fair
Mike O’Brien
President
Mike’s extensive military career from 1968 to 2001 ranged from commanding an infantry platoon in Vietnam to many senior roles, culminating in his appointment as Support Commander-Army. He has also run an antiquarian bookstore and writes local and military history. Mike is currently President of the Royal United Services Institute of Victoria, for whom he manages the State’s premier collection of military books.
Talk: Sectarian Riot? Coverup?
Shane Carmody
Speaker
Shane Carmody is a historian with a great interest in libraries and the history of collections. He leads an annual tour for Australians Studying Abroad to the Great Libraries of England.
Talk: Noted Donations to the Melbourne Public Library
Talk: William Caxton at State Library Victoria
Alissa Duke
Speaker
Alissa Duke is a Reference Librarian at Law Library Victoria, based in the Supreme Court Library. She has over 25 years experience in law libraries, the last ten at the Supreme Court Library.
Alissa has also been official “sketcher on location” at Melbourne Rare Book Week events since 2015. Her sketches can be seen at alissaduke.com
Jane Sullivan
Speaker
Jane Sullivan is an author and literary journalist who loves books and has always written about them.
Her latest novel is Murder in Punch Lane (Echo Publishing), set in 1868 Melbourne. Inspired by real events and people, it follows the quest of two unlikely detectives as they become enmeshed in the sins and secrets of the brash goldfields city.
Jane writes the Saturday Turning Pages column about books and writing for the Age and the online Sydney Morning Herald. Her previous novel Little People, set in 1870s Australia, was shortlisted for the Scribe-CAL fiction prize and for the UK Encore award for a second novel. Her other books are a novel, The White Star, and a memoir, Storytime, about growing up with books.
Interview: My Life in Readings
Conversation: The Mysteries and Mayhem in Early Melbourne
Mark Rubbo
Speaker
Mark Rubbo is currently Chairman of Readings; he retired from active bookselling in August last year after starting his career at the Melbourne University Bookroom in 1970. He is a past President of The Bookpeople, was the founding chair of the Melbourne Writers Festival and has held board positions on a number of arts organisations, including Melbourne's Wheeler Centre. In 2009 he founded the Readings Foundation to support literacy and the arts and since its inception over $1.4 million has been donated to various community-based organisations. In 2006 he was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia, ‘for service to the community through fostering an awareness of Australian literature as a bookseller, literary critic, and promoter and supporter of Australian writers.’ In 2015 he was awarded the Lloyd O'Neill Award at the Australian Book Industry Awards. With bookseller Jaye Chin-Dusting, proprietor of the Mary Martin Bookshops, he co-hosts The Booksellers Podcast.
Lucy Sussex
Speaker
Lucy Sussex is a New Zealand writer living in Australia. She has abiding interests in women’s lives, history and Australiana. In 2025 she will publish Outrageous Fortunes, a co-written biography about crime-writer Mary Fortune and her criminal son George.
Conversation: The Mysteries and Mayhem of Early Melbourne
Chris Browne
Speaker
Chris is a retired medical researcher who spent most of his working life at Monash University. He has been a book collector for more than 50 years and has put together during that time a personal library of nearly 15,000 books. His main interests are 19th and early 20th century English literature, children’s books and fine illustrated books. He has particularly strong collections of Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, and Rudyard Kipling.
Talk: A young persons guide to book collecting
Talk: Now we are Ten
Tour: Meet me at the book fair
Mike O’Brien
President
Mike’s extensive military career from 1968 to 2001 ranged from commanding an infantry platoon in Vietnam to many senior roles, culminating in his appointment as Support Commander-Army. He has also run an antiquarian bookstore and writes local and military history. Mike is currently President of the Royal United Services Institute of Victoria, for whom he manages the State’s premier collection of military books.
Talk: Sectarian Riot? Coverup?
Shane Carmody
Speaker
Shane Carmody is a historian with a great interest in libraries and the history of collections. He leads an annual tour for Australians Studying Abroad to the Great Libraries of England.
Talk: Noted Donations to the Melbourne Public Library
Talk: William Caxton at State Library Victoria
Alissa Duke
Speaker
Alissa Duke is a Reference Librarian at Law Library Victoria, based in the Supreme Court Library. She has over 25 years experience in law libraries, the last ten at the Supreme Court Library.
Alissa has also been official “sketcher on location” at Melbourne Rare Book Week events since 2015. Her sketches can be seen at alissaduke.com
Jane Sullivan
Speaker
Jane Sullivan is an author and literary journalist who loves books and has always written about them.
Her latest novel is Murder in Punch Lane (Echo Publishing), set in 1868 Melbourne. Inspired by real events and people, it follows the quest of two unlikely detectives as they become enmeshed in the sins and secrets of the brash goldfields city.
Jane writes the Saturday Turning Pages column about books and writing for the Age and the online Sydney Morning Herald. Her previous novel Little People, set in 1870s Australia, was shortlisted for the Scribe-CAL fiction prize and for the UK Encore award for a second novel. Her other books are a novel, The White Star, and a memoir, Storytime, about growing up with books.
Interview: My Life in Readings
Conversation: The Mysteries and Mayhem in Early Melbourne
Mark Rubbo
Speaker
Mark Rubbo is currently Chairman of Readings; he retired from active bookselling in August last year after starting his career at the Melbourne University Bookroom in 1970. He is a past President of The Bookpeople, was the founding chair of the Melbourne Writers Festival and has held board positions on a number of arts organisations, including Melbourne's Wheeler Centre. In 2009 he founded the Readings Foundation to support literacy and the arts and since its inception over $1.4 million has been donated to various community-based organisations. In 2006 he was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia, ‘for service to the community through fostering an awareness of Australian literature as a bookseller, literary critic, and promoter and supporter of Australian writers.’ In 2015 he was awarded the Lloyd O'Neill Award at the Australian Book Industry Awards. With bookseller Jaye Chin-Dusting, proprietor of the Mary Martin Bookshops, he co-hosts The Booksellers Podcast.
Lucy Sussex
Speaker
Lucy Sussex is a New Zealand writer living in Australia. She has abiding interests in women’s lives, history and Australiana. In 2025 she will publish Outrageous Fortunes, a co-written biography about crime-writer Mary Fortune and her criminal son George.
Conversation: The Mysteries and Mayhem of Early Melbourne