Robert Dessaix is best-known as a writer of literary non-fiction (memoirs, essays and autobiography), but has also published two novels, several short stories and one play.  

From 1985 to 1995, after teaching Russian language and literature for many years at the ANU and the University of NSW, he presented the weekly Books and Writing program on ABC Radio National. His most widely read books, all translated into several European languages, are his autobiography A Mother’s Disgrace, the novels Night Letters and Corfu, and two collections of essays and short stories: (and so forth) and As I Was Saying. 

His travel memoirs Twilight of Love grew out of a fascination with Russian literature, while Arabesques explores the life of the French writer André Gide.His latest books are the memoir—meditations on love, friendship and mortality—What Days Are For, set in a hospital ward after a heart attack, The Pleasures of Leisure. His last book, The Time of Our Lives, on growing older well, was published by Brio Books to great acclaim in October 2020. And now Brio brings us Abracadabra, a collection of Robert’s talks and addresses.

He has also published translations of works by Dostoyevsky, Turgenev and a number of Russian poets. His translations of plays by Anton Chekhov have been produced in theatres around Australia.

A full-time writer since 1995, Robert Dessaix lives in Hobart, Tasmania.