Q&A host Tony Jones is moving to China, but first he's coming to Newcastle.
His wife, Four Corners journalist Sarah Ferguson, will take on a new role as the ABC's China bureau chief.
But, despite Topics' suggestion, Tony won't be putting his feet up while Sarah is hard at it in China.
Tony [laughing]: "I wouldn't call it having a rest [he'll work on his third novel and learn Mandarin while in China], but Sarah's always wanted to be a foreign correspondent. I spent eight or nine years overseas in the United States, Europe and travelling more broadly with [ABC show] Foreign Correspondent. I'm very happy to be going along for the ride as it were".
Before he heads to China, Tony will visit Newcastle in November to discuss his new novel - a political thriller titled In Darkness Visible. Newcastle Writers Festival director Rosemarie Milsom will interview Tony.
"He is a consummate interviewer and it will be interesting to be the one asking him the questions. The audience will have an opportunity to do so as well," she said.
The book follows the same characters from his first novel, The Twentieth Man.
In Darkness Visible begins with Croatian-Australian Marin Katich living under an alias in "a very beautiful town on the Adriatic coast of Croatia" in 2005.
Marin is running a tourism business in the area, which is known for its snorkelling, fishing and "sapphire-coloured" waters.
"He's interrupted by a couple of suspicious tourists who ask too many questions. He realises that elements of his past, the things he's hiding from, have come back to haunt him," Tony said.
"He's more or less dragged away from this beautiful place by Croatian special forces, who are operating on behalf of the International War Crimes Tribunal."
Tony said the book was inspired by "years of working on the ground in Eastern Europe and, in particular, the former Yugoslavia".
"And understanding the extent of the terrible war crimes that went on there, some of which involved Australian citizens who returned to fight in battles in Bosnia, Slovenia, Croatia and Kosovo," he said.
"They were drawn back by their old connections of blood that tied them to their homeland in the former Yugoslavia."
A key character in the book is Australian freelance journalist Anna Rosen, who was close to Marin in their university days. She investigates whether her former lover really did commit the war crimes he's accused of.
Tony said his experiences reporting on conflict in the former Yugoslavia "stayed with me".
It gradually started forming in his mind that he would write a novel - then a series of novels - related to these experiences.
"There are elements of the story which reflect my experience as a journalist."
The novel navigates the "murky world of national and international secret agencies", amid a "dangerous pursuit of justice and revenge".
The story extends back to the end of the Second World War when war criminals came to Australia from Eastern Europe. In return for information given to Western intelligence services, such men were given a clean slate to live in countries like Australia.
Tony is proud of the book. He hopes people accept it "not just as a political novel, but a thriller and a fascinating, wild yarn".
He'll speak at the Playhouse in Newcastle on Friday, November 8 at 7.30pm. Tickets at newcastlewritersfestival.org.au.
