Season 6 – Episode 012 - Speakola - Tony Wilson - Writer, Speak and Larrakin

Tony Wilson has had a successful and varied creative career. He’s written twenty books for children, ranging from bestselling picture books like The Cow Tripped Ove the Moon and Hickory Dickory Dash, to middle-grade titles such as The Selwood Boy and A Boy Called Bob, to books for adults, including his most recent, a sports history on a footballing epic, ‘1989: The Great Grand Final’. http://tonywilson.com.au/1989-the-great-grand-final-signed-copies He’s written memoir, non fiction, fiction, and rhymes for kids. He’s written animations for children (Kitty is Not a Cat) and co-produced and directed a feature-length sports history documentary (‘The Galahs’) He’s penned magazine features, ads for the AFL and speeches for CEOs and politicians. His love for speeches encouraged him to embark upon his Speakola project (https://speakola.com/#/sport/), a website and podcast dedicated to great speeches, both famous and otherwise. On Richard Fidler’s Conversations show, Tony told the story of how he became ‘The Speech Collector’. https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/tony-wilson/12191158 His Speakola site now has more than 2000 speeches and attracts more than 1.3 million hits per year. His break into the media came through the ABC travel documentary show, Race Around the World’, which he won in 1998. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5O1LvWhUMc