Episode Details

At 48, Bill Hayes moved to New York. He took up photography, and fell in love with his neighbour, Dr Oliver Sacks.Doctor Oliver Sacks was a neurologist, a naturalist and a university professor.

He became famous for writing case histories of his patients in books, including The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, and An Anthropologist on Mars.

At 75 years old, Oliver had never been in a relationship, until he fell deeply in love with his neighbour Bill Hayes, who was decades younger than him.

Bill and Oliver lived together until Oliver Sacks died in 2015, in his early eighties.

Further information

Bill's memoir Insomniac City was published in 2017 by Bloomsbury

This conversation was recorded at the 2017 Sydney Writers' Festival

The producer was Nicola Harrison and the Executive Producer was Eliza Kirsch.