A writer’s journey, when fact & fiction collide.

The Nelson Institute presents author Chris Stuart’s talk – A writer’s journey, when fact and fiction collide. Chris’s crime novel, For Reasons of their Own, won  the 2021 Ngaio Marsh Award for best first novel.

For Reasons of Their Own is a bleak chronicle of implacable fate, revenge, and murder set in 2014 in and around Melbourne, Australia, Originally, this novel was conceived as an autobiography but turning it into fiction has allowed the author to write with more creative freedom. Chris calls herself a writer with a social conscience and is fascinated by the social context in which a murder takes place and this is at the beating heart of her novel.

   Crime Fiction Critic, December 8^th, 2021, USA: Anyone who enjoys reading excellent crime, mystery, and thriller writing will love this book. I’m left eagerly anticipating what Stuart will do for an encore after writing such a brilliant and extraordinary debut novel.

Chris has worked for twenty years as a humanitarian worker with Red Cross, Oxfam and the UN in war zones and disasters, mainly in the Middle East. She’s witnessed the best and worst of humanity and deeply admires the strength and resilience of people who endure and thrive despite the most harrowing of circumstances. She’s influenced by Charles Dickens, Colin Dexter, Graeme Greene, Ian McEwan and PD James and likens her detective to a combination of characters she’s met in her humanitarian work.

NB. Because of road works approach Fairfield House from Trafalgar St. Usual parking pertains, either road side or carpark.