#191: Anna Funder, non-fiction author and novelist

Always Take Notes

Rachel and Simon speak to the non-fiction author and novelist Anna Funder. After training as an international human-rights lawyer in Australia, Anna moved to Germany and published "Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall" in 2003; the book won the Samuel Johnson Prize (now known as the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction). Her debut novel, "All That I Am", followed in 2011. It fictionalised the true story of a group of friends who fled the Nazi regime for London in the early 1930s. The novel won the Miles Franklin Prize, Australia's most prestigious fiction award, and has been published in more than 25 languages. Her latest book, "Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life" (2023), is a biography of Eileen O’Shaughnessy, George Orwell's first wife, and combines original research with fictional reconstructions. It was longlisted for the inaugural Women's Prize for Non-Fiction. We spoke to Anna about moving from the law to writing, investigating the secret police of East Germany in "Stasiland", and "Wifedom".

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