Cheng Lei was riding high in a successful career as a news anchor in China when her life changed in an instant.

Lei is a Chinese born Australian citizen and mother of two, who spent more than three years detained in a Beijing prison after being wrongly accused of illegally supplying state secrets.

In this emotional and candid conversation, Julia and Lei delve into her early life in China and then Melbourne, her exciting journalism career around Asia and the ordeal that changed her and her family’s lives forever.

Show notes

Cheng Lei’s book A Memoir of Freedom is published by Harper Collins and is available at all good bookstores.

Her documentary Cheng Lei: My Story is available via Sky News.

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In this month’s book club episode Julia Gillard and Kathy Lette discuss Fundamentally, by Nussaibah Younis.

It’s the British author’s debut novel and it follows the story of Nadia Amin - an academic disowned by her mother and dumped by her long-term partner, who accepts a job with the United Nations in Iraq to rehabilitate ISIS women so their home countries will take them back.

While struggling to get the program off the ground amidst the opaque world of international aid, Nadia meets Sara, a fellow Londoner who was radicalised when she was just 15 years old.

Julia and Kathy delve into the book’s dark humour and complex characters, and its exploration of faith, identity and family.

Fundamentally is published by Orion, an imprint of Hachette Australia.

https://www.hachette.com.au/nussaibah-younis/fundamentally-shortlisted-for-the-2025-womens-prize-for-fiction

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In this episode of Julia's Book Club, Julia and co-host Sarah Holland-Batt delve into Theory & Practice by Australian author, Michelle de Kretser.

Short-listed for the Stella Prize, the seventh novel from the Miles Franklin winner tells the story of a first generation immigrant from Sri Lanka living in Melbourne in the 1980s.

The young academic is writing a thesis on Virginia Woolf, who this podcast is named in honour of, when she begins a love affair with a man who is in a "deconstructed relationship".

Part fiction, part essay, Julia and Sarah explore the themes of feminism, class, jealousy, maternal relationships and how to cope when the failings of those we most admire come to light.

Theory & Practice is published in Australia by Text Publishing.

https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/theory-practice

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