Broadcaster Richard Fidler on the politicians he would never interview

Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we’re told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they’re given. This week, he talks to Richard Fidler. The broadcaster, 58, is a presenter of the popular podcast Conversations on ABC Radio, and author of bestselling history books Ghost Empire and The Golden Maze. His latest book is The Book of Roads & Kingdoms.

MONEY

What did your parents do for money? Mum was a nurse and had all this extensive medical knowledge. With that kind of intelligence, I once said to her, “You should have been a doctor, Mum. You would have been brilliant.” She didn’t accept the premise of my comment. She was brought up to be the consort of an impressive man. So, when she met an impressive man – my dad, who was a businessman – she got married.

Growing up, what did you want to do for a living? I had no idea. Throughout my childhood, I lived in fear of the future. Partly it was because of our precarious economic state: Dad had grown up in abject poverty amid terrible cruelty. He had a business career that went well for a while, then went very badly. So, for some years, he was unemployed and lived off what Mum was earning as a geriatric nurse. That was a horrible time, so I used to think of the future with dread.

Later, you got famous performing in the Doug Anthony All Stars. Did it make you rich? It afforded us the opportunity to travel. The first thing we did when we left Australia was go to London, go straight to Covent Garden, and start busking. We made £130. Then we went to Edinburgh and, very quickly, things started to take off for us.

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Did you want to do it forever? No. I remember our first manager saying to us at the time, “What you do is so very good. You should do it until you can’t stand it any longer.” So we did it until we couldn’t stand it any more, which was 10 years.

You’re now the host of Conversations; you’re also an author. What does the work pie chart look like for you? I work on Conversations four days a week; three [of my] episodes go to air each week. Sarah Kanowski does two at the other end of the week. Then on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I work on my books – such a different activity, such a different kind of pleasure. One is a balance for the other.

POLITICS