Gunnedah fans of Peter Watt’s Australian fiction have been treated to rare audience with the best-selling author.
About 20 people attended the talk at Gunnedah Shire Library where the author shared his experiences in writing, diverse working life and “love for Australia”.
Mr Watt is known for his uniquely varied employment history which includes time as a soldier, prawn trawler deckhand, real estate salesman, police sergeant, private investigator, surveyor’s chainman and advisor to the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary.
His writing, which is reprinted in multiple languages and distributed across the world, includes more than 20 books which delve into the history of the land, wartime Australia and quintessential country life.
His latest release ‘Ghosts of August’ takes readers on a journey through Australian action of World War 1 – from German New Guinea to Egypt, Palestine and the terrible killing fields of the Western Front – as well as events of soldiers’ families at home.
Mr Watt said after arriving in Gunnedah for the talk, it was comforting to speak with people who held similar interests and background to his own.
“I’m actually amongst people who are people I can relate to having grown up on a soldier’s set block on the western plains of New South Wales,” he said.
“These are the people that I’m most comfortable with. Not at Byron Bay amongst all the trendies, but out in the country.”
Monday’s stopover in Gunnedah formed part of nine-library tour which he is completing in just six days across central west New South Wales.
He brought several foreign language editions of his books to show the Gunnedah audience and reminisce about what makes Australia so appealing to overseas visitors.
“It’s kind of nice that I shared in some of the foreign editions of my books – I’ve had people from overseas writing and saying, we’re coming to visit your country because we’ve read your books.”
Despite his writing receiving high praise, Mr Watt said his time spent publicising the books across other mediums, had proved challenging.
“Being an author has nothing to do with what you write, it’s the image you portray,” he said of his early foray into television.
Mr Watt said although time as an author was borne out of a fascination with history and yearning to share that with a broad audience.
“Mostly, I think I’m a frustrated teacher and I love teaching people from Australia and overseas about history,” he said.
“We know history is not a popular subject at school. So I guess it’s a case of I’m a teacher and entertainer. So if you put history in an entertaining format, people will read history and say, now I know why this is happening today, because it happened in the past.”
Mr Watt joked that although his books may not win any prizes, he hoped his promotion of Australia might one day be worthy of formal recognition.
“I’ll never win a literacy award but I hope to one day win a tourism award,” he laughed.
