http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/conversations-robert-lukins/9605920
Robert Lukins has worked a series of unusual jobs including being a potato chip taster, a rubbish sorter at a council tip, and archivist of objects from Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition of 1892.
For a year, Robert was a village postman, in Shropshire, England.
He would clock on at 3am, don a heavy coat and set out on his bicycle to deliver the mail.
The last stop on his postal route was the door of a grand, abandoned manor house surrounded by vast fields.
While working these and many other jobs, Robert gained degrees in engineering, teaching, and art history.
As a young person, Robert modelled himself on the fictional character Adrian Mole, a prodigious reader and writer
Over the years he continued to write novel after novel as a kind of private apprenticeship.
It wasn't until Robert wrote a novel set in that abandoned Shropshire manor, that he had something he wanted to publish.
Further information
The Everlasting Sunday is published by UQP
Duration: 49min 16sec
Broadcast: Fri 6 Apr 2018, 11:00am
http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/conversations-robert-lukins/9605920