Lives Less Ordinary
Lives Less Ordinary
BBC World Service
How my mysterious childhood became a best-selling novel
40 minutes Posted Nov 25, 2024 at 12:30 am.
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Show notes

Trent Dalton discovered he was on the fringe of one of Australia’s biggest crime stories. 

Back in the 1980s, when Trent was a kid growing up in Brisbane, he discovered that there was a secret underground room behind his stepfather's wardrobe. There were plenty of other strange things happening to him too. Like when he found a bundle of cash in the pocket of his bathrobe. Or there were the rumours that his babysitter was a murderer. It took Trent many years before he untangled these mysteries and found out the reality of his childhood. He used his life story as inspiration for his debut novel Boy Swallows Universe, which became the fastest selling in Australian history.

Presenter: Saskia Collette

Producers: Saskia Collette and Andrea Kennedy

Get in touch: liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784