Local author Tristan Bancks, great-great-nephew of Ginger Meggs creator, to tackle the reading crisis at Byron Writers Festival

TRISTAN Bancks is a man on a mission. The Byron Bay-based author is determined to address the reading crisis – a worldwide decline in recreational reading and literacy skills among young people at a time when smartphones and social media dominate their attention.

He is preparing to join a panel discussion on the issue at this year’s Byron Writers Festival in August.

Bancks said when he visits schools for author talks teachers are constantly telling him about the difficulties they face getting children to read, with the problem emerging at younger ages.

“Previously, it might have been a challenge to inspire year 9 students to read – now it is slipping into the upper years of primary school,” he said. “But there are proven ways to arrest the slide. At the Byron Writers Festival I’ll be exploring, with authors Sarah Armstrong and Ruby Jean Cottle, the crisis, possible solutions and ways that we can all help increase literacy levels for the next generation, and for ourselves.”

For Bancks, reading offers both reflection and escape.

“It’s proven to lower stress levels, increase attention span, open minds and to give us greater compassion for other humans whose lives may or may not be like our own,” he said. “All of these things are vital for young people, particularly in an age where attention is so fragmented and we are increasingly fragmented as a society. As a child, reading with a close family member is such a strong point of connection.”

Bancks has written more than 20 books over the past two decades, with many set in Kings Bay, a fictionalised version of Byron Bay inspired by the town and its surrounding hinterland.

He began his career as an actor, best known for playing Tug O’Neale on Home and Away in the 1990s, before turning to writing, preferring the freedom of telling his own stories.

 

“Writing books is much more flexible and free,” he said. “I can do it anywhere, any time. I don’t need to write what other people tell me is hot right now. And my stories aren’t bound by budget, only imagination. So, I can write the biggest, most extraordinary scene in history and never have to compromise based on how much it might cost to produce.”

Bancks’s latest novel, Raised by Wolves, follows the success of his bestselling Two Wolves, which follows 12-year-old Ben Silver and his seven-year-old sister Olive as they are taken on the run by their parents after they commit a crime.

Inspired by questions from readers, the new novel is a standalone story told from Olive’s perspective.

Set on the night her father returns after five years on the run, the story follows Olive and her brother Ben – now 18 and just two days away from graduating from the police academy – as they try to track him down and bring him to justice. Along the way, Olive is determined to discover whether her father ever truly loved her.

Storytelling runs in Bancks’s family. His great-great-uncle, Jimmy Bancks, created the iconic Ginger Meggs comic strip, and Tristan wrote the official book marking the character’s 100th anniversary published in 2021.

“I’ve always been super-proud of this connection,” he said. “He died in 1952 so I never met him, but his legend taught me that someone in my family had made a living telling stories and drawing pictures, which made it seem possible and inspiring to me.”

Tristan Bancks will host the children’s program and will appear on the Reading Crisis panel at the Byron Writers Festival on Sunday 16 August.

For more information and tickets, visit byronwritersfestival.com