Michael Cathcart
Michael Cathcart
Michael Cathcart has been a RN listener for as long as he can remember. He joined the ABC in 2000 as the presenter of Arts Today, later presenting the Famous Radio National Quiz and Bush Telegraph, and now Books & Arts.
He has a passion for the arts. He has a first-class honours degree in English literature. In the early 1990s, he chaired the board of the Melbourne Writers’ Festival and has been a regular participant in writers’ festivals ever since. He has also worked as a theatre director, dramaturge and script editor. He is married to the playwright Hannie Rayson.
Michael’s other passion is Australian history. You may also know him the history programs which he has presented on ABC TV: Rewind, Rogue Nation and Australia on Trial.
Michael has taught courses in Australian history and culture at Deakin University and at the University of Melbourne, from where he has a doctorate. He is the author of Defending the National Tuckshop (1988), a study of conservative responses to the Great Depression in Victoria. He has also produced an abridgement of Manning Clark’s epic A History of Australia and an anthology of Australian speeches. Michael’s book The Water Dreamers (2009) is an award-winning study of the influence of water and aridity on Australian culture. His most recent book is Starvation in a Land of Plenty (2013), a lavishly illustrated account of the life and death of the explorer William Wills.
