Tell us a little about yourself.
My name is Hannah Kent and I’m a novelist and screenwriter. I live on Peramangk Country in the beautiful Adelaide Hills with my wife and our two little kids. I grew up in the Hills, and although I’ve spent many years living interstate and abroad, it’s lovely to be back here. It’s a special corner of the world.
What’s your favourite restaurant?
Adelaide is an amazing city for food and picking a favourite restaurant is impossible. That said, I always become stupidly excited whenever I get an opportunity to go to Golden Boy. Salty, spicy, sweet, sour perfection. Arrive very hungry, order the “Tuk Tuk” to get a bite of as much as possible, and share the joy with a cohort.
It’s your birthday – where are you going and what are you doing?
First up, a quick trip to Uraidla Republic Cafe, Bakery & Brewery for pastries and coffee (ideally someone else is fetching this while I read in bed), then into town for picnic supplies from the Adelaide Central Market. Tram it down to Glenelg for some beach time and lunch, drop the kids with their babysitter and then back into the city for bookshop browsing and a movie at Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas. Dinner at Daughter in Law, walk to La Buvette for drinks, and then dancing at Mary’s Poppin or My Lover Cindi.
Where do you brunch or breakfast?
I love Ballaboosta. Think woodfired, deeply savoury breakfasts. I like the vegetarian flatbread and the woodfired shakshuka. With a coffee, of course, sitting outside.
What are your favourite shops?
My children are still young (three and one), so I don’t have many opportunities to shop at leisure. That said, I love browsing in Matilda Bookshop, Imprints and Mostly Books. Aptoz Cruz Galleries in Stirling is my (previously) secret go-to for very special gifts of art, design goods and homewares. For clothes I really like Mekko Market. The rent-a-rack market supports sustainable fashion, and you can always find bargains there.
You want to impress someone, where are you taking them?
My wife is from Melbourne, and when we were first dating I was at pains to stress how wonderful SA is and took her to lots of beaches and wineries. I’d do the same again. Lunch at Coriole vineyards and then a walk along Maslin Beach or Port Willunga. Or I would wait until March, and then throw them into the thrilling mayhem of festival season.
What’s one of the city’s most underrated places?
I don’t even know if I’d call it underrated, but the Adelaide Botanic Gardens on North Terrace is a family favourite. It’s beautifully designed, and I love that you can slip out of the city into a place of calm tranquillity. I used to go there to read, and now we go to let the kids roam and explore and watch the ducklings and turtles.
Do you think there's an essential Adelaide book?
I don’t believe that any place can be adequately represented in one book. That is surely why a city needs its community of artists and writers: to collectively capture and question and subvert the ever-changing, multi-faceted soul of a place. South Australia has a vibrant community of writers, many of whom set their work here. Any good bookseller will know the books that speak to Adelaide – I would recommend talking to them.
Give a shout to a place that makes Adelaide a better place.
I used to live very close to Hutt Street and learned a lot about the incredible work done by the Hutt Street Centre. The support services they offer, and the work they do to not only help people experiencing homelessness, but to educate the wider community about homelessness is incredible. I’m grateful that such compassionate organisations exist in the heart of our city.
Hannah Kent’s latest book, Devotion, is published by Pan Macmillan. Her first novel, Burial Rites, was an international bestseller translated into 30 languages. It won a number of awards including the Indie Awards Debut Fiction Book of the Year and the Victorian Premier’s People’s Choice Award. It’s being adapted into a film. Her second novel was The Good People.
This is the first instalment of My Adelaide, a regular column discovering the places and spaces that captivate and entice Adelaide’s well-known residents.
