Geoffrey Blainey is one of Australia's most significant and popular historians. He has written some thirty-six full-length books including The Tyranny of Distance, Triumph of the Nomads, Black Kettle and Full Moon, A Short History of the 20th Century, and the bestselling A Short History of the World. Professor Blainey held chairs in economic history and then in plain history at the University of Melbourne for twenty-one years. He was a delegate to the 1998 Constitutional Convention and also chaired various Commonwealth government bodies, including the Australia Council, the Literature Board, the Australia-China Council, and the National Council for the Centenary of Federation. He is one of the few Australians whose biography appears in Encyclopaedia Britannica. John Gregg is an Australian actor and NIDA graduate. His early work includes TV series Contrabandits and Delta for ABC TV, two seasons of plays for MTC and two years with the Royal National Theatre in London. John has also worked in musical theatre, in the Victoria State Opera’s production of My Fair Lady, How To Succeed In Business for GFO and The Threepenny Opera for SATC. More recent TV appearances include Rake, Crownies and Old School.