Don Watson, author of the 2002 memoir  Recollections of a bleeding heart; a portrait of Paul Keating PM, has had to cancel his appearances at the festival, and his slot has been taken by Blanche d'Alpuget, who published the bestselling Robert J. Hawke: A Biography in 1982 and subsequently married her subject.

”While we are of course very disappointed to not have Don with us as planned, the festival rolls on, and at very short notice we are pleased to announce the addition of a new guest to fill the Saturday afternoon Featured Talk session,” festival organisers said on their Facebook page.

Blanche D’Alpuget’s new session on Saturday at 2.30pm is titled ‘12th Century Vs 21st Century women – Lives of Women in 12C England and France’.

Her most recently published works are part of an as yet unfinished quartet subtitled ‘The Birth of the Plantagenets’, with the first two The Young Lion (2013) and The Lion Rampant (2014)  being described by Thomas Keneally as “fresh and invigorating and absolutely gripping. The revision she provides of the motives and character of Thomas Becket will rivet readers as they have not been riveted since Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell."

Another  last minute change to the festival program is that Peter Greste’s Keynote Address on Saturday June 9 from 6pm-7pm will be immediately followed by the panel on journalism, with no 30-minute break in between as previously advertised.

Also, Caroline Baum has had to cancel her appearances at the festival, so her advertised Saturday afternoon ‘In Conversation’ session at Cedar Bar will not be taking place.