Ten Terrifying Questions with Chip Le Grand!

by |August 8, 2022

Chip Le Grand is the chief reporter for The Age. He has worked as a journalist with The Australian and The Age newspapers for thirty years and has spent most of that time writing about the people and politics of Melbourne. During the pandemic, he worked from home with his wife, three teenage children, and two large dogs, reporting on the COVID crisis, and at one point wondering how to cook a frozen duck bought in panic when the shelves of his local supermarket were otherwise bare. His previous book, The Straight Dope, an investigation into the Essendon and Cronulla doping scandals, won the Walkley Book Prize and William Hill Australian Sports Book of the Year.

To celebrate the release of his new book, Lockdown, Chip takes on our Ten Terrifying Questions! Read on …


1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?

I was born in Blacksburg Virginia, a college town in the foothills of
the Appalachians. My father came to Melbourne to teach for one
year and never went back. I grew up in Melbourne, went to school
and university here, and now write about the city and its people for
The Age newspaper.

2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?

At twelve I wanted to play football for St Kilda, at eighteen I wanted
to help St Kilda win a premiership and at 30 I just hoped I’d see
one in my lifetime.

3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you don’t have now?

There are hidden meanings in every line Tim Winton writes.

4. What are three works of art – this could be a book, painting, piece of music, film, etc – that influenced your development as a writer?

Charlie Musselwhite’s ‘harpin’ on a riff’ (Musselwhite is a
Mississippi-born blues musician and the subject of the first story I
had published), Paul Kelly’s Triumph and Demise (a masterful work
of long-form political journalism about the Rudd/Gillard years
which inspired me to write my first book), Bonfire of the Vanities
(Tom Wolfe’s depiction of the insecurities and foibles of a mid-life
journalist remains hilariously accurate).

5. Considering the many artistic forms out there, what appeals to you about writing non-fiction?

Getting that perfect quote, confirming an elusive fact,
understanding something today you didn’t the day before.

Lockdown by Chip Le Grand

6. Please tell us about your latest book!

It’s the story of Melbourne’s pandemic experience. Given we spent
longer in lockdown here than any other city on earth, I was determined to understand why that happened, what it did to us, and whether we could have better responded to the pandemic while still protecting lives.

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7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?

An open mind.

8. Who do you most admire in the writing world and why?

Gideon Haigh. The man seems incapable of writing an unoriginal
sentence. Maddening.

9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?

To get the next yarn.

10. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

Write.

Thank you for playing!

Lockdown by Chip Le Grant (Monash University Publishing) is out on the 18th of August!

Lockdownby Chip Le Grand

Lockdown

by Chip Le Grand

How does a city go from being the world's most liveable to its most locked down? For 262 days, Melbourne was cocooned by stay-at-home orders. Businesses were forcibly closed, classrooms shuttered, and community and social life relegated to an impersonal online world. To stop the spread of a virus, people were prevented from saying goodbye to dying loved ones, children were separated from their parents, and playground equipment was taped off like a crime scene. Through successive COVID winters, the state of Victoria was isolated from the rest of the federation and Melbourne from the rest of the state.

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