The rise and rise of Thomas Keneally

Since then, he has become one of Australia's most prolific and successful authors.

"I was a failed priest," he says. "And I started writing because in our community there was a terrible old thing - a term that was brought from Ireland by the immigrants - the failed priest. [People would say] ... 'no wonder he's an alcoholic, he's a failed priest.'"

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As a result, Keneally knew he had to find a new career. "I had no social skills. But once I wrote a novel, when girls asked me what I did I found it easier to say I'm a novelist because that was a real boast in 1964. Saying you're a failed monk was not a good pick up line!"

Keneally says he always had an interest in words, from his early childhood in Kempsey in NSW and then growing up in Homebush in Sydney's west. However, it was during his time at the seminary where he was able to flex his creative muscles writing for the seminary magazine and participating in its literary society.

This was the foundation that eventually spawned his debut novel The Place at Whitton in 1964, followed by a string of commercial and literary successes a mile long. To name just a few: the Booker-prize shortlisted Confederates in 1979, the Miles Franklin award-winning An Angel in Australia in 2000, and his latest books, Corporal Hitler's Pistol and A Bloody Good Rant, both released this year.

Corporate Hitler's Pistol is a novel set in Kempsey where a pistol that once belonged to Adolph Hitler is used to kill an IRA turncoat. It melds together the themes of major historical events - World War 1 and the Troubles in Ireland - against the backdrop of a small country town in Australia. Here, the story begins when a white woman walks down the street and sees a young Indigenous boy who bears an unmistakable resemblance to her husband.

Also a master of non-fiction, A Bloody Good Rant is a collection of memoir-infused essays that covers everything from politics and religion to women and the wonders of grandparenting.

The author, who turned 86 this month, shows no signs of slowing down. "I try to work from 9am at the latest, although that's got a bit shaky in old age, and work till 1pm, when I have lunch," he says. "Then I go for a walk for about an hour and then return to the manuscript and write till about 7pm."

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Keneally can be seen regularly traipsing around his neighbourhood in his daily walks in Manly where he has lived for the past 12 years. "We live in a flat in Manly near North Head between the Pacific and the Harbour," he says. "There's always air movement here. It's a place in Sydney where there's always spirits coming and going. It feels like an auspicious place. You've got to find a place that, for one reason or another, has some spirits in it ... some presences. It helps to live somewhere like that. I wrote my first novel in Homebush, which has as much presence as a toothbrush. But you can write anywhere of course."

Before Manly, Keneally and his wife Judy lived in Avalon Beach for 40 years where they raised their two daughters, Janet and Meg, who is also an author. If you wander into iconic Avalon bookshop Bookoccino, you'll find the poem crafted by Keneally on display in the store; he wrote it for the store's opening in 1992. Owner, Sally Tabner, says "Tom is a patriarch of Australian literature and really sets the tone and pace for a lot of our literary culture. He has such a natural range and can write about anything."

It was also in Avalon, in his home overlooking Bilgola Beach, that Keneally penned the internationally famous novel, Schindler's Ark. Published in 1982, it's about Nazi Party member Oskar Schindler, who saves the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust. The story was then immortalised on the big screen in the Oscar-winning film Schindler's List, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley and Liam Neeson in the titular role.

Its origin story is the stuff of literary and movie folklore. Keneally went into a luggage shop in Los Angeles to buy a briefcase where he encountered the shop owner Leopold Pfefferberg Page, also known as Poldek. After learning that Keneally was a novelist, Holocaust-survivor Poldek tried to convince him to write the story, showing him extensive research, evidence and the promise to connect him to people who could speak about their first-hand experiences.

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Keneally describes Poldek as a "force of nature" and completed the research for the book within six months, thanks to Poldek's help and enthusiasm for the project. The book, like many of his novels, was a hit and won the Man Booker Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction.

Soon after, Poldek began his efforts to turn the book into a movie and, with connections to Spielberg's mother through the Jewish community in Hollywood, the script eventually landed in the hands of the legendary director. Keneally remembers the day he got the call that his book was going to hit the big screen. "The night Bob Hawke became Leader of the Opposition was the night I flew out to America. I was meeting with the head of Universal Pictures. Boys from Homebush and Kempsey do this all the time!" laughs Keneally.

While Keneally proudly clings to his roots in the country and the west, he has been a northern beaches resident for most of his adult life and has developed into an obsessive Sea Eagles fan, often yelling from the sidelines or, more recently, at the television. "My father played rugby league very well," he says. "He used to start fights to get things going in the game so there would be a big brawl. And my father first spoke to my mother at the end of one of these brawls he started. So, in a sense, I owe my existence to this strange game.

"I tried to play, like my father, and failed. But I had a good time. And so there was a time when I ran with both the jocks and the nerds!"

Keneally's interest in the game never abated. One former Manly player, Matt Nable, was an aspiring novelist when he wasn't on the field. Back in 2003, as an unpublished young writer, Nable reached out to the veteran novelist for some advice. "Tom was a mad Manly fan and when I finished my manuscript, I was full of self doubt," says Nable. "He encouraged me to keep at it."

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After Frenchs Forest-based Nable penned his second manuscript, he also sent that to Keneally. "I remember he said to me: 'Son, this is what you should be doing. I wouldn't tell you that if I didn't believe it because it would be immoral of me.' So Tom is directly responsible for giving me the encouragement to go on that journey. Without him, I wouldn't have done it."

Nable has long since hung up his football boots and carved out a successful career as an actor, screenwriter and novelist. His fourth novel Still was published this year. With a friendship now forged over decades, the authors can also be sometimes found at Brookie Oval together when their favourite team is playing. Nable says: "That guy is a legitimate national treasure and I feel remarkably humbled to be in his circle and call him a dear friend. He's as kind-hearted and generous a person that you could ever meet. In the literary world, where there is smoke and mirrors and pretence, he's as down to earth as they come."

It's a humble description of someone who has been awarded an Order of Australia and named an Australian Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia. Also founder of the Australian Republican Movement and ambassador of the Asylum Seekers Centre, Keneally manages to combine his multiple interests and passions with his ever growing canon of books.

Talking to the man is like delving into an encyclopedia of world events and issues. He is just as comfortable talking about elections in Eritrea or the life of Abraham Lincoln - he wrote a biography on the United States President who led the country through the Civil War - as he is about the fact that Manly's Tommy Turbo (Trbojevic) won the Dally M Medal at the recent rugby league awards.

When he's not beavering away on his next manuscript at home, Keneally can also be found soaking up the atmosphere in his favourite local cafes, like Three Beans on Darley Road and Bella Vista in North Head Sanctuary. "You can look right down the coast and right down the harbour there," he says. "I occasionally write in cafes. If you get something written in an odd place, it's as if you're stealing words. When you're sitting at your computer [at home], you're supposed to write. But if you're somewhere like a cafe or airport lounge, I think I'm stealing words from someone. I love it."

For a fancier night out, Keneally says he enjoys Hugo's and the (now under new ownership) Manly Pavilion. "I go there when the royalty cheques come in!" he says.

These days, he has another obsession: his grandchildren. "I just like being with them. There is a sort of grandparental intoxication," he says. "You don't become their raisers; you become their fellow conspirators. The toy that parents don't want them to have. The lolly their parents are suddenly willing to give them. And they give you the capacity to renew yourself."

Valerie Khoo is CEO of the Australian Writers' Centre and co-host of the weekly podcast So you want to be a writer

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