AN ICON of Australian entertainment, Nambucca Valley farm owner and author Bryan Brown has been named as Patron of the Bellingen Readers and Writers Festival (BRWF) for 2024.

The highly reputed Festival returns to Bellingen Showground on the King’s Birthday Long Weekend (June 7-9, 2024).

As Festival Patron, Bryan will participate live in various events to be announced.

It was in 2022 that Bryan last appeared at the BRWF to discuss his debut book, a crime novel entitled ‘Sweet Jimmy’.

His latest penning, ‘The Drowning’, was published in October 2023.

Another crime novel, The Drowning is set in a small coastal town that might seem quite familiar to residents on the Mid North Coast.

The story includes First Nations viewpoints and characters, and Brown acknowledges individuals from the Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-operative in Nambucca Heads and the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW in assisting him.

A Better Reading review of The Drowning said the novel had “all the hallmarks of great Aussie crime writing”.

“Brown’s punchy prose makes this novel absolutely devourable, and all will be revealed in due time.

“The Drowning is highly recommended holiday reading,” the review read.

Looking ahead to its crowd-pulling festival, the BRWF Committee is already at work shaping the 2024 program.

“It’s an interesting journey for a bloke who only read his first book at age 25, arriving as a Patron of the Bellingen Readers and Writers Festival a number of years later… many years later,” Bryan Brown said.

“I’m pleased I came at reading without being badgered like at school.

“The places and ideas that writers take us to widen our humanness.

“How lucky are we?”

For more information visit www.bellingenwritersfestival.com.au.

By Andrea FERRARI