ONE-DAY LITERARY CELEBRATION
Words at Wagstaffe
Saturday 14 March 2026, 9:45 – 16:15
Wagstaffe Hall, 55 Wagstaffe Avenue, Wagstaffe, Central Coast, NSW.
DAY PASS $89 + booking fee
Power & Intrigue
Words at Wagstaffe, a one-day literary celebration held in partnership between Words on the Waves Writers Festival and The Bouddi Society, will return to Wagstaffe Hall for its sixth spectacular year on Saturday 14 March 2026.
What happens when a former French spy, a policy advisor-turned-media disruptor, a humanist philosopher and a true crime writer meet in a secluded location to peel back the layers of Power and Intrigue that govern our personal and political worlds?
In the spirit of secret meetings in stunning and remote locations, we invite you to hear from these brilliant minds in the charming Wagstaffe Community Hall, a breathtaking location only reachable via picturesque ferry ride or a scenic drive through the dense forest of Bouddi National Park. Here, they will unveil treasured insights from the halls of power and inside the minds of our world’s most powerful – and dangerous – people.
We’ll be treated to gritty tales of espionage from The Frenchman trilogy with spy-turned-author Jack Beaumont; close encounters with criminal minds as recalled by veteran true crime writer Mark Dapin; exclusive insights from the trusted advisors to our world’s most powerful people from Phoebe Saintilan-Stocks’ investigations into the role of The Right Hand (penned in Wagstaffe!) and startling revelations from Renaissance man and esteemed British philosopher AC Grayling as authoritarianism looms and the erosion of democratic structures beckons an urgent response from the people, For The People.
We are deeply honoured to be included in Grayling’s Australian tour… a coup for the Central Coast and our book-loving community!
The Day Pass entitles you to four (4) fascinating author talks followed by book signings. BOOKFACE will be onsite as festival bookseller.
See you there!
The doors will open at 9.00am, and the event will start at 9:45am with Acknowledgement of Country and welcome notes. Your promptness is appreciated.
Program
9:00am
Doors Open
9:50am – 10:00am
Acknowledgement of Country with Melissa-Jane Fogarty
Join us for an Acknowledgement of Country with proud Mununjali woman Melissa-Jane Fogarty. Melissa-Jane lives on Darkinjung Country and is the author of the non-fiction series Our Lands, including her debut picture book Tubowgule: A Sydney Opera House History. The next title in the series, Narm-Jaap: A Flinders Street Station History is set to be released in March 2026.
10:00am – 11:00am
On Intrigue & Murderers with Mark Dapin
Mark Dapin in conversation with Suzanne Leal
After a thirty year career spanning journalism, screenwriting, fiction and history, Mark Dapin returns to his school days to write about the first murderer he ever met, a boy called Ian. From that encounter, he traces the real people and events behind the criminals he has known and written about, separating fact from myth in cases involving figures such as Chopper Read, John Killick and Gary Jubelin.
“These encounters are better than a ring-side seat to the underworld: Dapin gets in the ring. A must read for all lovers of true crime.” – Forest Hill College Library
11:00am – 11:30am
Book Signings with BOOKFACE
11:30am – 12:30pm
On Power & Politics with Phoebe Saintilan-Stocks
Phoebe Saintilan-Stocks in conversation with Fiona MacDonald
Jacinda Ardern, Justin Trudeau, Nelson Mandela, John Howard… we all recognise the names. But what about the people standing in the shadows, helping turn ideas into action? In The Right Hand, Phoebe Saintilan-Stocks sits down with the chiefs-of-staff to the most prominent presidents and prime ministers of our era. Exploring loyalty, leadership, power and pressure, this is an eye-opening and strictly behind-the-scenes account from the biggest world moments of the 20th and 21st centuries.
‘If you’ve got the political bug – you will love this book. If you don’t, this book will give it to you.’
Kate Jenkins, Chair Australian Sports Commission
12:30pm – 1:30pm
Book Signings & Lunch Break
1:30pm – 1:45pm
Winner of the Bouddi Foundation for the Arts Grant
A conversation with Meg McDonald and John Bell (Bell Shakespeare).
1:45pm – 2:45pm
On Intrigue & SpyCraft with Jack Beaumont
Jack Beaumont in conversation with Anna Downes
Jack Beaumont is the nom de plume of a former French intelligence officer whose years spent undercover now inform his fiction. Drawing on first-hand experience, Beaumont’s novels move beyond the mechanics of espionage to explore its human cost, moral uncertainty, and the very real stakes of intelligence work in the modern world. This is writing shaped by lived experience, offering rare insight into a profession defined as much by silence and compromise as by secrecy.
“It’s a richly detailed cloak-and-dagger thriller reminiscent of the novels of John le Carre …” – Stephen Romei, The Australian.”
2:45pm – 3:15pm
Book Signings with BOOKFACE
3:15pm – 4:15pm
On Power & People with AC Grayling
AC Grayling Talk
Esteemed philosopher AC Grayling has spent a lifetime pondering the challenging questions that face humanity. A true Renaissance man, his intellectual work roves over boundless diverse landscapes: the moon, cancel culture, friendships and god. There’s almost nothing his brilliant mind hasn’t touched, and today he will treat us to an insight into some recent explorations: democracy, authoritarianism, and how to make the world a better place.
Of the many books in today’s marketplace trying to explain the anxiety-ridden woes of government and society, I feel that this one hit the bull’s eye and with a needed force. Your mind and heart will be opened by this captivating philosopher’s remedy for today’s struggles. – Robert Louis Semes (Review of Discriminations: Making Peace in the Culture Wars)
4:15pm – 4:45pm
Book Signings with BOOKFACE
Speakers
Melissa-Jane Fogarty
Melissa-Jane Fogarty is a proud Mununjali woman with both Aboriginal and British ancestry who lives on Darkinjung Country. She is a freelance editor and children’s author. Melissa’s titles include the non-fiction picture book Tubowgule: A Sydney Opera House History, and a second book in the Our Lands series titled Narm-Jaap: A Flinders Street Station History due out in March 2026.
AC Grayling
A. C. Grayling CBE MA DPhil (Oxon) FRSA FRSL is the Principal of Northeastern University London, and its Professor of Philosophy. He is also a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford. He is the author of over thirty books of philosophy, biography, history of ideas, and essays. He has contributed to many leading newspapers in the UK, US and Australia, and to BBC Radios 4, 3 and the World Service, for which he did the annual ‘Exchanges at the Frontier’ series. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Vice President of Humanists UK, Patron of the Defence Humanists, Honorary Associate of the Secular Society, and a Patron of Dignity in Dying.
Jack Beaumont
Jack Beaumont is the pseudonym of a former operative in the clandestine operations branch of the French foreign secret service, the DGSE. He joined ‘the Company’ after being an air force fighter pilot and later flying special operations and intelligence missions.
Anna Downes
Anna Downes is the internationally bestselling author of The Safe Place, The Shadow House, Red River Road (shortlisted for the 2025 ABIA General Fiction Book of the Year), and the audio exclusive Break Me Down. Born and raised in Sheffield, UK, she studied acting at RADA and worked professionally until 2011 when she moved to Australia and turned her hand to writing. Her novels have been optioned for both film and TV, and translated into over ten different languages. She now lives on the NSW Central Coast with her husband and two children.
Phoebe Saintilan-Stocks
Phoebe Saintilan-Stocks is the founder of Missing Perspectives, a media startup platforming female storytelling worldwide. Established in June 2021, Missing Perspectives currently reaches more than 3 million people a month, and launched an app that connects newsrooms with young female journalists. Prior to founding Missing Perspectives, Phoebe was a policy adviser, working stints at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Australian Human Rights Commission, the United Nations Secretariat and in the private sector. Her work sits at the intersection of media, power and gender.
Fiona MacDonald
Fiona MacDonald is an award-winning science and health journalist, and the co-founder of popular news site ScienceAlert.com. She has written for publications including Vogue Australia, Harper’s Bazaar, GQ, and the Sydney Morning Herald.
Mark Dapin
Mark Dapin is the author of The Nashos’ War, a highly acclaimed history of the Vietnam-era national service scheme in Australia. He is also editor of the Penguin Book of Australian War Writing and another Penguin anthology, From the Trenches: the Best ANZAC Writing of World War One, and a PhD candidate in history at UNSW@ADFA. In addition to his work as a historian, Mark is a very well known journalist, and the author of several novels, all of them set in different times and places, from the Burma Railway in World War Two to Kings Cross in the 1960s.
Suzanne Leal
Suzanne Leal is the author of novels The Watchful Wife, The Teacher’s Secret and The Deceptions, winner of the Nib People’s Choice Prize. Her novel for middle-grade readers, Running with Ivan, is on the Children’s Book Council of Australia Notables List for Younger Readers and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s History Awards and the ARA Historical Novel Prize. An experienced facilitator and interviewer, Suzanne is the founder of Thursday Book Club, a relaxed book club connecting readers online. The Year We Escaped is her new novel for middle-grade readers.
Meg McDonald (Bouddi Foundation for the Arts Grant winner)
Meg McDonald is a lecturer and tutor in Creative Writing at the University of Wollongong, where she is currently completing a PhD in Creative Writing. The Bouddi Foundation grant funds a writing trip to the Central Coast with a focus on climate change and response to a changing world.
John Bell
John Bell is one of Australia’s most acclaimed theatre personalities. In a career of acting and directing, John Bell has been instrumental in shaping the Australian theatre industry as we know it. In 1990, Bell founded the theatre company Bell Shakespeare.
Event Partners
The Bouddi Society is a community group which organises public events and publications aimed at displaying and fostering the artistic, historical and cultural life of the local community. It administers the Bouddi Foundation for the Arts which is dedicated to supporting and encouraging young artists on the Central Coast of NSW.
BOOK FACE is a small group of local, independent bookstores whose first store opened its doors in November 2014. Owned by Paul and Leo Berkelouw, BOOK FACE currently has stores at Port Macquarie (NSW), Pacific Fair (Gold Coast, QLD), Erina Fair (NSW), Gungahlin (ACT), St Ives (NSW) and Northbridge (NSW).
BOOK FACE offers an extensive range of genres and titles, including bestsellers, new books by international and local authors, a wide range of literary and popular fiction, non-fiction, biography, lifestyle books, teenage fiction and children’s books. Our collection also includes carefully selected ranges of books on food and wine, photography, philosophy, architecture, history, science, business and self-development among others. We also sell a range of beautiful and sometimes quirky gift items, cards and paper.
