Robert Dessaix receives Australia Council lifetime achievement award for literature

The 78-year-old Hobart resident received this year's Australia Council Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature.

Robert is known for his memoir A Mother's Disgrace, the novels Night Letters and Corfu, and a number of published essay collections and travel memoirs. He is also known for hosting popular ABC radio program Books and Writing from 1985-95.

He said throughout his literary career his writing had been largely inspired by his fascination with other languages and cultures.

"My first book opens in Cairo, my second book is set in Venice, my third book opens in Rome and is mostly set in Greece. I never write about Australia," he said.

"All my books are about making foreign cultures accessible to my readers. I think that is partly why I've never been accepted until now, until this award, into the canon of Australian writing."

The origins of this fascination with other cultures date back to his childhood when as a young boy he would collect stamps, including stamps from other countries such as Russia.

"Autocracies have the most fabulous postage stamps. I wanted to be able to read what was written on these stamps, especially the ones that showed the underground railway stations at Moscow, which were like palaces. They were built by slaves, but very beautiful."

This curiosity inspired Robert to buy a Russian dictionary, which he used to start to teach himself Russian. Still a boy, he would continue to learn the language through a class at the Workers Education Association.

His passion for learning the language was fueled by the fact that under the Menzies government, learning too much about Russian culture was very much forbidden. He became fascinated with the writings of Russian authors such as Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Chekov. As a young adult, he earnt a PhD in Russian literature, going on to teach Russian, and translating works by authors such as Dostoyevsky and Turganev.

"I was never attracted to the politics (of Russia). It was exotic, it was beyond our kin. It was the language, and the fact it was a little bit forbidden, a little bit taboo."

His fascination even took him to Moscow, where he completed two post graduate degrees during the height of the communist rule from 1966-67 and in 1970.

As a foreigner he had what he described as a "softened experience" compared to the Russian citizens he met. He was able to use travellers cheques to do things such as buy tickets to the Bolshoi ballet, stay in hotels with hot water and good food, buy oranges in winter and purchase things such as meat.

"I lived in a student residence that was small, but quite comfortable. You needed a pass to walk in or out, and couldn't bring guests in without permission. We were observed the whole time.

"We could cross borders, whereas Soviet citizens could not, I think that was the main thing that the Russians envied."

Robert's experiences in Russia only increased his thirst for new experiences all over the world. He has travelled extensively, and still loves learning languages to this day - he is currently studying Indonesian.

"I'm excited to be amidst people who disagree with me about just about everything.

"If I go to Morocco, or to Syria, every minute feels as though it's a week long, every minute is profound, dangerous and life changing."

Robert said another key focus of his writing was encouraging dialogue. His books are framed as conversations, something he believes there is not enough of in contemporary society.

"What distresses me about cancel culture is it closes dialogue down and becomes a monologue."

He said his first book - A Mother's Disgrace, was essentially a letter to his birth mother, whom he had only met for the first time in his 40s.

The book explores difficult themes such as Robert's coming to terms with his own sexuality after 12 years of marriage, the shame that caused his young birth mother Yvonne to give him up for adoption, and her difficulty accepting his homosexuality once they were eventually reunited.

"She said to me near the end, when she was dying, 'I can't accept you, I do not approve, if I had kept you, you would have been normal'."

"I think she was a good person, but I was a disappointment to her.

"What I tried to say to my birth mother, her name was Yvonne, is I've had a good life."

"My adoptive father Tom was born in the 1880s, but he was a wonderful man. He was uneducated, didn't read at all, but was very loving and very supportive.

"I'm not angry. Because I've seen so much of the world, I think I'm hugely fortunate," he said.

Part memoir and part personal record, Robert's latest book Abracadabra features a collection of talks given around Australia and overseas, along with one short story. It is available now through Brio Books.

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