13th February celebrates World Radio Day, a wonderful opportunity to acknowledge the work Vision Australia Radio do to support the information needs of people living with print disabilities. Technological advances ensure Vision Australia Radio has never been more accessible than it is today, with a large offering of podcast content available on all major podcast services, 24/7 broadcasts across AM/FM and DAB+, and the ability to live stream content via varadio.org.
At Vision Australia Library, our favourite program remains Hear This with Frances Keyland. Although we are unashamedly biased, Frances has a loyal fan base of book-loving listeners who whole-heartedly agree with us! To celebrate World Radio Day, Maureen O’Reilly decided to turn the microphone around and chat to Frances about her hugely popular library program.
Frances, for our uninitiated library members, how would you describe your weekly program?
Hear This is a long-running program that highlights audio books from the Vision Australia Library, features Library events and news, literary trivia, and most importantly, Reader Recommendations.
What do you enjoy most about hosting Hear This?
I love hosting Hear This because I am an ardent believer in books being a pathway to better mental health. This can be on a light level as a distraction from everyday life, or to a deep and fundamental shifting of mindsets. I love being part of this mix.
You receive a lot of feedback from your listeners, what do they enjoy most about Hear This?
I think people appreciate the sense of community. The community can be audio book lovers, the Print Disability community, Library members, or just radio listeners who may enjoy the voices of everyday people rather than the popular commercial radio voices.
Hosting a weekly program is challenging, yet every week your show is fresh and new. Where do you get your inspiration and ideas from each week?
Inspiration comes from so many places, the most vital and exciting is when I have Library members letting me know what they have been enjoying. Often they suggest books, authors or narrators that I am unfamiliar with so I get to ‘discover’ these too. There's also social media and just browsing bookshops.
You’ve been sharing your knowledge and love of books with our listeners for nearly 17 years, do you have a favourite genre?
I do love crime, suspense if the main character is engaging. A lot of crime is a bit like fast food for me though; I consume it but can’t remember much about it afterwards. Some standouts for me are Jo Nesbo, Candice Fox, Nicci French. I love the propulsive nature of it; the killer needs to keep killing and the detectives need to keep chasing, the stakes get higher and higher…
I love dystopian fiction. Station 11 by Emily St John Mandel is fantastic. I love the extreme conditions of a destroyed society or decimated landscape where characters are navigating and surviving, with little but hope keeping them going.
Horror can slot very nicely into this, you can add zombies and vampires to these landscapes to add suspense.
I also love historical fiction when it is well researched. I would recommend Restoration by Rose Tremain, and The Crimson Petal and The White by Michel Faber.
We’re not supposed to have a favourite child, but do you have a favourite author? Or a favourite book?
Favourite author? Hard question! Daniel Mason is an author that I fell in love with in 2024. His novel, The North Wood, was so beautifully written. He was suggested for Hear This by a Library client. I have always envied readers who have a comfort read, a book they can pick up and re-read again and again. I find that I need the novelty of an unfamiliar book. I need to not know what is going to happen and put myself in the hands of the writer to take me somewhere in their shoes or the shoes of others.
A couple of novels that come to mind that I adored are The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Kate Joy Fowler.
The team at Vision Australia have enjoyed a two week break over the Christmas and New Year period, a wonderful time to relax with a new book. What did you spend your summer break reading?
Over the Christmas break I finally read High Wire by Candice Fox. This led to a couple of late-night readings as it is hard to put down.
I also read The Friday Afternoon Club, a family memoir by Griffin Dunne. Very gossipy about Hollywood of the 60s through to the 80s. The Dunne family’s tragedy was that Dominique Dunne, who starred in The Poltergeist in 1980, was murdered by her ex-partner soon after the release. The book is available in the Library narrated by Griffin Dunne.
