Helen Garner is one of Australia’s most respected writers. Her novels, short stories, essays, journalism, and more recently her diaries—including her latest instalment, How to End a Story: Diaries: 1995–1998—have influenced generations of Australian writers and are a fixture of Melbourne’s collective consciousness.

Over a long lunch at Montalto, she joins Sean O’Beirne, author of the recent monograph On Helen Garner, to discuss her immense contribution to Australian literature, and the unmistakable currents of candor and independence that have run through her writing life.