GRAEME SIMSION + THE ROSIE EFFECT
(Or, “How an Auckland-born Australian became my new favourite person”)
Some switched-on souls may recall Graeme Simsion’s star turn at this past year’s Writers Week. Before taking to the stage at that event, he wove his way among the crowd at the Embassy Theatre, answering questions and having a good yarn with anyone who was up for it. Eight months of continued literary success later, his approach was no different. Before taking the mic at our decidedly more intimate event, Graeme spent time wandering around the shop and offering to sign the books that excited early-comers were clutching while waiting in their front-row seats.
In his talk, he used his ‘writer’s trick’ of whittling down his life story to a few turning points to illustrate his journey as a writer – from his eight year old self being told that his essay was ‘the best essay I’ve read all year… by a boy’ to his experiences in the physics department at Monash University (‘all male, all geeks, all of us ready with our HP calculators’).
He went on to explain the ways in which the people he met and the friends he made in his time at university – and through his various other ‘geeky’ workplaces and worlds along the way – helped influence and shape Don Tillman, the protagonist in both The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect. His complete immersion in the character, voice and all, was evident whenever he read a passage or simply quoted a one of line or fragment of a phrase.
No question went unanswered, with Graeme even humouring the audience with his picks for hypothetical cast members of the film adaptation of The Rosie Project that is currently in development. He was equally self-deprecating and rightfully proud of his work to date (must be his Kiwi roots coming through) – and thoroughly charmed everyone in attendance. It’s fair to say that Graeme earned himself a fair new fans from well-timed passers-by.
Graeme Simsion speaking to the crowd at the lunchtime event
The crowd at the lunchtime event
The crowd at the lunchtime event
Graeme Simsion signing books at the end of the event
THE ROSIE EFFECT is available in store,
and from our online shop HERE
