Meet our Authors
Award winning writer, Bronté Jackson, has had her stories on Rome published in The Age, and her blog about life in Rome was selected for the Top Ten Ultimate Rome Bloggers in 2011. Twenty years ago, Bronté Jackson won an airline ticket that thrust her into the heart of the Mediterranean. Recently separated, made redundant and evicted from her home, Bronté spent six months recovering in Greece and spending her redundancy package, before making her way to Rome. Her memoir, Roman Daze: La Dolce Vita for All Seasons, depicts her experiences.
Bruce McBrien has enjoyed a virtual love affair with Melbourne and its environs almost since the day he was born. Bruce experienced first-hand life at the top of Melbourne's social strata in the early 20th century. In rich detail, he describes his childhood years living at the Harrison House in Spring Street, and paints a vivid picture of inner-city Melbourne in the early-to-mid-1900s. His family's social standing gave Bruce a rare perspective on Melbourne life, as is illustrated through his many brushes with iconic politicians and celebrities over the years. Bruce McBrien spent much of his life working as a musical theatre actor and is a passionate supporter and long-serving volunteer of the National Trust of Victoria. Marvellous Melbourne and Me details not only the varied life of the man, but also that of his city. Over the years Bruce has made a collection of newspaper clippings, photographs, invitations, artefacts and memorabilia, some of which have found their way into this publication.
Dr Charles Anderson is a Landscape Architect and Artist in the School of Architecture and Urban Design at RMIT University with over thirty years experience making and exhibiting work in Australia and around the world. Charles has a distinguished international reputation as an interdisciplinary artist and designer, and has received numerous awards for his work across the art and design professions. He contributed to The Exchange at Knowledge Market: An Urban Living Lab
Raised dirt poor in the back streets of Istanbul, Coskun was inspired by his mother’s cooking and followed his dream by paying his dues in the restaurant trade in Turkey before opening his own very successful Istanbul restaurant, Moreish. After following his partner to Melbourne, Coskun worked in restaurants saving to open his own establishment. The early days of the restaurant were difficult: ‘I struggled each day with second- hand equipment in the kitchen, I survived through stove tops not working in the middle of service, plates and glasses breaking, and all the usual mishaps. What I learned from this experience is that if you believe in what you do, you just follow your dream, work harder than anyone else and remain positive.’ He also had to overcome the stereotype of a Turkish restaurant with people calling to ask if they had a belly dancer on the weekend! Tulum takes traditional, usually Anatolian, recipes and gives them contemporary twists using modern techniques. Coskun’s Australian diners can now appreciate the varieties and rich traditions of Turkish cuisine, which is a far cry from its old image of dips and kebabs.
Craig Horne has been a public servant and speechwriter and also a musician on the Melbourne scene over the last forty-eight years. As a teenager, Daddy Cool inspired him to take up the guitar and play in a rock and roll band of his own, eventually performing alongside Wayne, Gary and sometimes Hanna as members of his band The Hornets. He is the author of Daddy Who? and more recently, Roots: How Melbourne became the music capital of the world.
Dan Kaufman is a former newspaper journo and editor (who still occasionally writes columns for The Age and SMH). He launched, ran and wrote the very popular Bar Zine blog before starting his own media training, writing and editing consultancy business. His raucous novel Drowning in the Shallows debuted in early 2020.
Daniel Oakman is a curator, historian and bike rider. He has curated exhibitions about bikes, cars, cities and urban design; including Freewheeling, a ground-breaking travelling exhibition on cycling in Australia. Daniel writes about cycling, sport, social history and politics. His first book, Facing Asia, was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s History Awards.
With Melbourne Books, Oakman has published the first biography of Sir Hubert Opperman, Oppy: the Life of Sir Hubert Opperman. His latest book, Wild Ride, documents some of the most daring cycling journeys around Australia.
David Blisset is an award-winning Australian writer who has contributed three entries to the Award Winning Australian Writing series spanning from 2011-2013. He has served as a co-writer on Melbourne Books' titles including Snake Catcher (with Tony Harrison) and Our Primate Family (with Lou Grossfeldt). Blisset served as the writing coordinator for Reflections of Elephants (by Bobby-Jo Clow) which was released in 2016.