Lisa Wilkinson

I know how much work goes into his books.

And

And I'm spending all of my time involved in a court case at the moment and I don't know that I've got the strength or the energy to be able to do this.

And she said, Lisa, I think you do and I'm just going to leave that idea with you for a couple of days.

Well, Vanessa didn't wait a couple of days.

She waited exactly three hours because three hours after that conversation, news broke around the world about the Ocean Gate submersible going missing and

and everyone on board was believed to have not survived, and they were looking for the Titanic.

And so Vanessa called me and said, have you heard the news?

And I said, yes, I have.

And she said, how are you feeling?

And I said, I think Evelyn and I are about to go on a journey.

I had a moment when I was about 13 watching an old black and white movie one weekend, you know, which for those who can remember, that's one of the great joys of growing up at the time that I did.

And I was watching it on my own and it was a movie called A Night to Remember and

about the sinking of the Titanic, and it absolutely punched me in the heart.

It's the first movie I ever remember bawling my eyes out watching, just that, the scale of human tragedy and, you know, those moments like the band playing until...

the ship finally went down, more than 1,500 people perishing amidst all of this glamour and luxury and this upstairs, downstairs life on board.

And it just never left me.

And so, you know, at that level, I remember it as a teenager.

And then probably like everyone listening, I saw the James Cameron movie, so therefore I'm a Titanic expert.

But the difference here, and one of the beautiful things about discovering Evelyn's story, is that Jack and Rose weren't real.