Michael Moran

Michael Moran has led a varied and adventurous life. Born and educated in Australia and Europe, he spent his twenties wandering the islands of Polynesia and Melanesia. He finally settled among the descendants of the Bounty mutiny on Norfolk Island off the eastern Australian coast. As the Broadcasting Officer for the Administration, he helped establish the radio station.

Subsequently pursuing a career in music, he studied the piano and harpsichord professionally in London for many years, facilitated by his academic work as an English teacher. He has lectured on a variety of subjects, ranging from the music of Fryderyk Chopin and François Couperin to British art and architecture and the colonial history and culture of the South Pacific region. His historical novel, 'Point Venus', set in the former British penal settlement on Norfolk Island, was successfully published in Australia. (Brandl & Schlesinger, Sydney 1998).

Posted for some years to Poland shortly after the fall of communism, his life-long fascination with Melanesia drew him to the work of the enigmatic Polish anthropologist, Bronislaw Malinowski. This encounter and an abiding interest in the German Pacific Empire precipitated his latest return to the South Seas. 'Beyond the Coral Sea: Travels in the Old Empires of the South-West Pacific' was the fruit of this expedition through the island provinces of Papua New Guinea (HarperCollins, London 2003 and Flamingo 2004). The book was short-listed for the 2004 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award and is still in print.

He has also written 'A Country in the Moon : Travels in Search of the Heart of Poland', a memoir,residence, cultural and historical book chronicling his adventures in Poland immediately following the fall of communism. Published by 'Granta'. The book continues to be popular both in the English and Polish translation (Kraj z Księżyca: Podróże do serca Polski Wydawnictwo Czarne, Warszawa 22 Marzec, 2010r.) In April 2017 the author was presented with The Distinguished Achievement Award in Travel Literature by the University of Florida and the Eric Friedheim Foundation for this book.

More recently he was competitively awarded a generous literary grant by the Australia Council (the cultural arm of the Australian government) to write the biography of his great-uncle, the once internationally famous and glamorous but now forgotten Australian concert pianist Edward Cahill (1885-1975). This pianist was active in the 1920s and 1930s in London, Paris and the French Riviera. A severely edited version of his colourful life featured in the Prologue to A Country in the Moon. The book is entitled 'The Pocket Paderewski: The Beguiling Life of the Australian Concert Pianist Edward Cahill'. It was published in 2016 by Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne. Re-mastered historic recordings of Chopin and Liszt made by Cahill in the 1930s are available through an internet link in the book.

A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a lecturer there and an incessant traveller, he lives and works in Warsaw, Sydney and London.

For more details on books,reviews,video interview, blog and work in progress:

Website: www.michael-moran.net

Blog 'Classical Music in Poland': www.michael-moran.com

Video Interview: http://off-press.org/main/multimedia/off_video/