21 April 2018
Episode 124
30 minutes
Photo: Russell Shakespeare
Ayres was widely known in Australia as Emma, a celebrated radio presenter. Unhappy in his own body, he gave it all up to travel to Afghanistan and teach music in a school. However an incident there led him to return to Australia and begin his transition from female to male. He tells Georgina Godwin that story.
21 April 2018
Share episode
DownloadWant more radio episodes like these in your inbox?
Sign up to Monocle's email newsletters to stay on top of news and opinion, plus the latest from the magazine, radio, film and shop.
Meet the Writers - latest episodes
Zelda la Grange
La Grange is a white South African who grew up supporting apartheid. But, a few years after Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, she was travelling the world at his side. She talks about Mandela the man.
Taylor Jenkins Reid
Reid began her career in film production, switching to writing after being influenced by the actress Jennifer Aniston. For the past six years she’s produced a book a year: her latest, ‘Daisy Jones & The Six’, is based on…
Michael Angele
Angele is the Swiss-German author behind ‘The Last Newspaper Reader,’ which was serialised in our seasonal newspaper. He’s also the editor of ‘Der Freitag’, European Newspaper of the Year in 2018. We talk about the impor…
Niklas Natt Och Dag
A member of Sweden’s oldest surviving noble family, Och Dag is one of Scandinavia’s hottest new novelists. We talk about his journey into writing and debut novel ‘The Wolf and the Watchman’.
Charlie Connelly
Compared to Bill Bryson, the prolific Charlie Connelly has written about everything from football to Joy Division. His latest book, ‘Last Train to Hilversum: A Journey in Search of the Magic of Radio’, explores our relat…
Adam Foulds
Adam Foulds is a celebrated poet and novelist who has been winning awards since he was first published – including being shortlisted for the Booker prize.
Sarah Churchwell
‘The American Dream’ and ‘America First’ are two of the most loaded, yet misunderstood, phrases in the US today. We discuss how they need to be understood afresh so that the true spirit of America can be reclaimed.
Cathy Rentzenbrink
Most of us have lost someone we love and know how difficult it is to cope with grief. Rentzenbrink has done more than just cope: she’s written about her experience in a powerful new book. We hear her personal story as she…
Adam Weymouth
Adam Weymouth spent most of his twenties as an environmental activist. More recently, he became aware of the plight of the king salmon in Alaska and went on a journey of more than 3,000km in a canoe up the Yukon River to…
John Lanchester
The Man Booker Prize longlisted author’s new book ‘The Wall’ examines climate change and the migrant crisis in a dystopian fiction. We discuss his latest work, his agoraphobia and his mother’s lifelong secret.
Douglas Kennedy
Bestselling author of ‘The Big Picture,’ ‘The Pursuit of Happiness,’ ‘Leaving the World’ and ‘The Moment’ joins Georgina Godwin in the studio. He talks about his jump from theatre to literature, as well as writing as a…
Julian Fuks
Fuks is one of Brazil’s rising literary talents who has won or been nominated for a clutch of prestigious prizes and seen his work translated into more than 10 languages. His latest book, ‘Resistance’, is an examination of…
Thomas Page McBee
Thomas didn’t start off as a man. As his body has changed, he’s explored the meaning of gender and how culture shapes our understanding of masculinity. He discusses it with Georgina Godwin.
Chris Bryant
Chris Bryant is a former priest and now a Labour party member of parliament. He talks about going from the House of God to the House of Commons, the biographies he has written including two volumes on parliament, his new…
Julian Sayarer
Julian Sayarer is a true adventurer: he broke a world record in his mid-twenties, he’s hitchhiked through middle America and travelled by boat to remote islands in Asia. It’s come together with his background in political…
