Richard Fidler
Richard Fidler
Author - Broadcaster

Boffins Bookshop Event at the University of WA.
Nov
3
6:30 PM18:30

Boffins Bookshop Event at the University of WA.

  • University Club Theatre, University of WA (map)
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Join Boffins Books and the University Club of Western Australia for an in-conversation event with writer-broadcaster and best selling author Richard Fidler on his new book The Book of Roads & Kingdoms. Richard will be joined in conversation with journalist William Yeoman.

A lost imperial city, full of wonder and marvels. An empire that was the largest the world had ever seen, established with astonishing speed. A people obsessed with travel, knowledge and adventure.

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Matilda Bookshop Event at the Burnside Ballroom, SA.
Nov
2
7:00 PM19:00

Matilda Bookshop Event at the Burnside Ballroom, SA.

We are absolutely thrilled to invite you in hearing our favourite writer-broadcaster, Richard Fidler, discussing his new book The Book of Roads & Kingdoms. This event is presented in association with Burnside Library. Richard, the bestselling author of The Golden Maze and Ghost Empire, will be in-conversation with Radio Adelaide's Deb Tribe at 7pm on Wednesday November 2nd at the Burnside Ballroom, talking all things medieval wanderers, lost worlds, empires, storytelling, and much much more.

The Book of Roads & Kingdoms is the story of the medieval wanderers who travelled out to the edges of the known world during Islam's fabled Golden Age; an era when the caliphs of Baghdad presided over a dominion greater than the Roman Empire at its peak, stretching from North Africa to India. Imperial Baghdad, founded as the 'City of Peace', quickly became the biggest and richest metropolis in the world. A lost imperial city, full of wonder and marvels. An empire that was the largest the world had ever seen, established with astonishing speed. A people obsessed with travel, knowledge and adventure. Fidler expertly weaves together these beautiful and thrilling pictures of a dazzling lost world with the story of an empire's rise and utterly devastating fall.

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Bookocino Event, at Moby Dick's, Whale Beach, NSW
Oct
31
6:00 PM18:00

Bookocino Event, at Moby Dick's, Whale Beach, NSW

A lost imperial city, full of wonder and marvels. An empire that was the largest the world had ever seen, established with astonishing speed. A people obsessed with travel, knowledge and adventure. Join us for a marvellous evening with our friend, Richard Fidler to discuss his new book: The Book of Roads and Kingdoms on the wonders of imperial Baghdad to the parklands at the ends of the earth.

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=968734&

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In conversation with Chloe Hooper at Readings Bookshop, Carlton.
Oct
28
6:30 PM18:30

In conversation with Chloe Hooper at Readings Bookshop, Carlton.

Imagine a lost imperial city, full of wonder and marvels. An empire that was the largest the world had ever seen, established with astonishing speed. A people obsessed with travel, knowledge and adventure. When Richard Fidler came across the account of Ibn Fadlan - a tenth-century Arab diplomat who travelled all the way from Baghdad to the cold riverlands of modern-day Russia - he was struck by how modern his voice was, like that of a twenty-first century time-traveller dropped into a medieval wilderness.

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Robinson's Bookshop, Glen Waverley, VIC.
Oct
27
6:30 PM18:30

Robinson's Bookshop, Glen Waverley, VIC.

  • Robinsons Bookshop, The Glen Shopping Centre (map)
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Join us with Richard Fidler, author of bestselling books The Golden Maze and Ghost Empire for an author event as he shares with us his new release The Book of Roads and Kingdoms at Robinsons, The Glen.

A lost imperial city, full of wonder and marvels. An empire that was the largest the world had ever seen, established with astonishing speed. A people obsessed with travel, knowledge and adventure.

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Author's Platform: Ryde Library
Oct
26
6:00 PM18:00

Author's Platform: Ryde Library

Join us at Ryde Library as noted Macquarie University academic-author Dr Peter Edwell converses with acclaimed writer-broadcaster Richard Fidler on his fascinating new work The Book of Roads and Kingdoms. Let them guide you through the wonders of Imperial Baghdad to the darklands at the ends of the earth.

Attendees on the night have a chance to win a signed copy. There will be on onsite bookseller for purchase of the book and Richard will be available for signing and questions.

In association with HarperCollins Australia and Macquarie University.

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Constant Reader Event at Stanton Library – The Book Of Roads And Kingdoms
Oct
26
1:00 PM13:00

Constant Reader Event at Stanton Library – The Book Of Roads And Kingdoms

A lost imperial city full of wonder and marvels. An empire that was the largest the world had ever seen, established with astonishing speed. A people obsessed with travel, knowledge and adventure.

When Richard Fidler came across the account of Ibn Fadlan - a tenth-century Arab diplomat who travelled all the way from Baghdad to the cold riverlands of modern-day Russia - he was struck by how modern his voice was, like that of a twenty-first century time-traveller dropped into a medieval wilderness. On further investigation, Fidler discovered this was just one of countless reports from Arab and Persian travellers of their adventures in medieval China, India, Africa and Byzantium. Put together, he saw these stories formed a crazy quilt picture of a lost world.

"The Book of Roads & Kingdoms" is the story of the medieval wanderers who travelled out to the edges of the known world during Islam's fabled Golden Age; an era when the caliphs of Baghdad presided over a dominion greater than the Roman Empire at its peak, stretching from North Africa to India. Imperial Baghdad, founded as the 'City of Peace', quickly became the biggest and richest metropolis in the world. Standing atop one of the city's four gates, its founder proclaimed: Here is the Tigris River, and nothing stands between it and China.

In a flourishing culture of science, literature and philosophy, the citizens of Baghdad were fascinated by the world and everything in it. Inspired by their Prophet's commandment to seek knowledge all over the world, these traders, diplomats, soldiers and scientists left behind the cosmopolitan pleasures of Baghdad to venture by camel, horse and boat into the unknown. Those who returned from these distant foreign lands wrote accounts of their adventures, both realistic and fantastical - tales of wonder and horror and delight.

Fidler expertly weaves together these beautiful and thrilling pictures of a dazzling lost world with the story of an empire's rise and utterly devastating fall.

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Marrickville Library
Oct
25
6:30 PM18:30

Marrickville Library

  • Marrickville Library and Pavilion (map)
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Richard Fidler discusses his new book The Book of Roads and Kingdoms, the story of the medieval wanderers who travelled out to the edges of the known world during Islam's fabled Golden Age; an era when the caliphs of Baghdad presided over a dominion greater than the Roman Empire at its peak, stretching from North Africa to India.

Richard will be joined in conversation by Karen Dwarte, Collections Coordinator – Inner West Libraries.

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Richard Fidler in conversation with Alex Sloan at the Australian National University, Canberra.
Oct
24
6:00 PM18:00

Richard Fidler in conversation with Alex Sloan at the Australian National University, Canberra.

Award-winning author, Richard Fidler, will be in conversation with Alex Sloan on Richard’s new book, The Book of Roads & Kingdoms, the story of the medieval wanderers who travelled out to the edges of the known world during Islam's fabled Golden Age-an era when the caliphs of Baghdad presided over a dominion greater than the Roman Empire at its peak, stretching from North Africa to India. An empire that was the largest the world had ever seen.

https://www.anu.edu.au/events/in-conversation-with-richard-fidler

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The Art of Armchair Travel at the Sydney Writers Festival
May
1
10:00 AM10:00

The Art of Armchair Travel at the Sydney Writers Festival

Getting lost in a book is more than just a turn of phrase; a great read can transport us to continents and cultures far beyond our own. In lieu of overseas travel, what books can we count on to carry us across the globe or to different times? Join a panel of renowned guests as they celebrate the escapist joys of reading and reveal the writers they rely on to whisk them away from their reading nooks to far-flung locales. Featuring Richard Fidler, Heather Rose and Maxine Beneba Clarke.

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Richard Fidler & Ramona Koval at the Sydney Writers Festival
Apr
30
2:00 PM14:00

Richard Fidler & Ramona Koval at the Sydney Writers Festival

Journalist and author Caroline Baum Only sits down with two of Australia’s favourite broadcasters and authors to discuss the stories that inspire them. Host of ABC’s Conversations Richard Fidler has turned his love affair with Prague into a personally curated history – The Golden Maze – a work that is both a biography of a city and the stories and people that define it. Former host of Radio National’s Book Show Ramona Koval recently embarked on a global quest to better understand the ingenuity, the science and the tales that make us human in A Letter to Layla.

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Feb
27
2:30 PM14:30

Richard Fidler Live at Adelaide Writers' Week

  • Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden (map)
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The Golden Maze with Richard Fidler / Chaired by Michael Williams.

In Richard Fidler’s love letter to the city of Prague, The Golden Maze: A Biography of Prague, he describes it as a city “written in pencil, erased, rewritten and erased again... a fabulous palimpsest of stories.” Richard interweaves his own visits, experiences and impressions of Prague with its broader history, giving us a brilliant living portrait of a city of fairy tales, violent crusades and dark secrets. His passion and love for the city infuse the pages of a book that captures its very essence.

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Feb
20
2:30 PM14:30

Richard Fidler at the Perth Festival

Renowned ABC broadcaster Richard Fidler (appearing via live stream) talks to Geoff Hutchison about The Golden Maze, his deeply nostalgic history of Prague. In a pre-COVID world, Richard returns to Europe’s most instagrammed city to wander the streets, recalling his time there in 1989 during the heady weeks of the Velvet Revolution. The book takes off from here, providing a personally curated guide through gothic towers, baroque palaces and zig-zag lanes.

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Aug
15
10:30 AM10:30

The PASSION of PRAGUE, Richard Fidler live at the CANBERRA WRITERS’ FESTIVAL

The inimitable Simon Winchester turns the microphone around on beloved broadcaster Richard Fidler and interviews him on the magical city that is Prague. From its origins in medieval darkness, via the Velvet Revolution, to an uncertain present, this is an unmissable conversation between two passionate storytellers.

Presented by the ACT Government @ the Canberra Theatre Centre

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Feb
20
6:00 PM18:00

Prague City of Literature - an evening with Richard Fidler.

  • LITTLE VILLA OF THE MUSEUM OF CZECH LITERATURE (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Richard Fidler, the author of Ghost Empire and co-author of Saga Land, will be in conversation with journalist David Vaughan, at Prague’s Museum of Czech Literature.

Richard Fidler is currently writing a history of Prague, fused with personal experience and mythology. It includes the weeks he spent in Prague during the Velvet Revolution, and much more.

A radio broadcaster of the awarded Conversations on ABC Radio presented across Australia. An original member of comedy trio The Doug Anthony Allstars.

The encounter is hosted by the journalist David Vaughan.

Hosted by Prague City of Literature and the Museum of Czech Literature.

Texts translated into Czech by Tomáš Míka, performed by Kajetán Písařovic.

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Sep
23
3:00 PM15:00

A Conversation with Richard Fidler About Conversations

Richard Fidler’s ‘Conversations’ has become one of Australia’s most loved radio programs and is Australia’s most downloaded podcast. 

Over the last twelve years Richard has developed a singular approach to interviewing, combining deep research with immediate empathy to produce a program which is never less than compelling. ‘Conversations’ draws you deeper into the life story of someone you may, or may not, have heard about - someone who has seen and done amazing things.

Richard has interviewed prime ministers, astronauts, writers and scientists, but the program often features remarkable people who are unknown to the wider world.  

It’s time someone had a conversation with Richard Fidler. 

Favourites interviews, the disasters, the how , the why and the art of ‘Conversations’,  this will be a broad ranging and revelatory conversation conducted by fellow ABC host James Valentine.

Audiences can expect a never-before-heard insight into the most popular broadcast interviewer in Australian history in this special live show experience.

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Sep
22
8:00 PM20:00

A Conversation with Richard Fidler About Conversations

Richard Fidler’s ‘Conversations’ has become one of Australia’s most loved radio programs and is Australia’s most downloaded podcast.

Over the last twelve years Richard has developed a singular approach to interviewing, combining deep research with immediate empathy to produce a program which is never less than compelling. ‘Conversations’ draws you deeper into the life story of someone you may, or may not, have heard about - someone who has seen and done amazing things.

Richard has interviewed prime ministers, astronauts, writers and scientists, but the program often features remarkable people who are unknown to the wider world.

It’s time someone had a conversation with Richard Fidler.

Favourite interviews, the disasters, the how, the why and the art of ‘Conversations’, this will be a broad ranging and revelatory conversation conducted by fellow ABC host James Valentine.

Richard is the author of the best-selling books ‘Ghost Empire’; the story of his journey to Istanbul with his son Joe, to uncover the history of the lost civilization of Byzantium; and ‘Saga Land’¸ co-written with his friend, Kari Gislason.

In another life Richard was a member of Australian comedy trio The Doug Anthony Allstars (DAAS), which played to audiences all over the world.

Audiences can expect a never-before-heard insight into the most popular broadcast interviewer in Australian history in this special live show experience.

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May
3
1:30 PM13:30

Sydney Writers' Festival: Saga Land

ABC’s Richard Fidler and author Kári Gíslason are good friends connected by an unusual bond: a deep attachment to the sagas of Iceland. Saga Land is the account of their journey across the island nation to uncover the true stories of the first Viking families who settled there in the Middle Ages, as well as Kári’s own quest to resolve a longstanding family mystery. The two appear in conversation with Tony Birch to discuss their travels and the folklore of a starkly beautiful country.

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Saga Land at Adelaide Writers' Week
Mar
3
5:00 PM17:00

Saga Land at Adelaide Writers' Week

Richard Fidler and Kári Gíslason are good friends who share a passion for the sagas of Iceland. Filled with the rough and tumble of the Middle Ages – blood feuds, fearless women, murder – the sagas are amongst our greatest stories. This fascination takes Fidler and Gíslason on an epic journey of their own across Iceland in search of both the sagas and a family mystery.

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