Robert Dessaix is a writer, interviewer, translator and broadcaster. From 1985 to 1995, after teaching Russian language and literature at ANU and UNSW, he presented the weekly Books and Writing program on ABC's Radio National. His best-known books, published around the world, are the autobiography A Mother's Disgrace, the novels Night Letters and Corfu, a collection of essays and short stories (and so forth) and the travel memoir Twilight of Love. He has also published translations of works by Chekhov, Dostoyevsky and Turgenev.