Author Talk: Mandy Sayer

The trailblazing McDonagh sisters were the first women in Australia to form their own film production company. Between 1926 and 1933, while they were in their mid-twenties, these sassy sisters produced four feature films and a number of documentaries. The youngest, Paulette, was at the time one of only five women film directors in the world. Phyllis produced, art directed and conducted publicity. And the eldest, Isabel, under her stage name Marie Lorraine, acted superbly in all the female leads.

Together, the sisters transformed Australian cinema’s preoccupations with the outback and the bush – and what they mocked as ‘haystack movies’ – into a thrilling, urban modernity. Their personal lives were just as adventurous, and their suitors included an internationally famous magician, a wealthy rubber broker, a defrocked Anglican priest, and a number of silent film stars.

Mandy Sayer is an award-winning novelist and narrative non-fiction writer. Her work has been published in the UK, the United States, Brazil, Germany, Japan and China. Sayer’s honours include the Vogel Award, the National Biography Award, the South Australian Premier’s Award for Non-Fiction, The Age Book of the Year for Non-fiction and the Davitt Award for Young Adult Fiction. She was the recipient of the 2021 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship, which supported her research and writing of Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters. She lives in Sydney with her husband, writer Louis Nowra, and their rescue dog, Basil.