Partners in crime

Acclaimed author Tom Keneally has won several of the world’s highest literary honours so when he emails to confirm his interview with The Weekly, it is unsurprising the brief note is charming and illuminating. He is answering on behalf of a publicist who is home-schooling a daughter Tom affectionately describes as a reincarnation of Catherine the Great. “She no sooner begins a lesson than the child wants to capture Central Asia,” he writes, and you can practically hear his crackling roar of a laugh, transmitted via email.

That one sentence gives a preview of the man who has shaped modern literature in Australia and beyond: kind, funny and deeply concerned with history. Tom is one of Australia’s most prolific and celebrated authors, best known for Schindler’s Ark, which became the Oscar-winning Steven Spielberg film, Schindler’s List.

The indefatigable 85-year-old and his daughter, Meg, are taking time out of their mutually busy writing schedules to talk about their unique bond, and the writing partnership that has fulfilled Meg’s dreams, and granted the world a second generation of Keneally stories.

Meg grew up wanting to follow in her