Hear a lost story from the late crime writer Peter Temple

How RN ended up with a lost story from Peter Temple

In the list of credits for RN’s new audio fiction series, Untrue Crime, one comes as a particular surprise.
You might know Peter Temple as the creator of the Jack Irish novels, which later became films and a TV series. He also won the Miles Franklin for his novel Truth – the first time a crime writer had been awarded a prize of this prestige anywhere in the world.
But when Temple died two years ago, the story we’re sharing with you – The Price – was seemingly destined to be lost to history.
For a decade, it had been sitting in the inbox of Sydney writer and journalist Mark Dapin. When it first arrived, Mark was working for a magazine and talking to Temple about publishing some of his work.
“Due to a bizarre misunderstanding, the magazine never received the story – but I did,” Mark recalls.
Then Mark came to the ABC with an idea about curating a series of crime fiction from Australian writers for audio.
“I happened to mention to the producer at RN that I had this piece, and maybe it’d work for the series – at which point she looked at me like I was a complete idiot, and said, ‘Well, yes, I think it would.’”
Peter’s widow, Anita, kindly gave us permission to record The Price, starring Claudia Karvan and Mark Coles Smith.
You can hear it on the Radio National Fictions podcast now, along with Cate Kennedy’s Immersion, also starring Claudia Karvan.
More great writers will be coming over the next few weeks.
Until next time,
Rosie Ryan, digital editor

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