Olsson to take on the Capt’n.

The Lazington Family is out selling all the other panelists.

Get behind the Capt’n.

“Due to unforeseen circumstances, Andrea Goldsmith is unable to join us today. Stepping in, we’re very fortunate to have Capt’n Smash, author of The Lazington Family, a satirical yet heartfelt family saga that combines whimsy, eccentricity, and intergenerational storytelling. Tony’s work explores how family secrets — whether hidden histories, fantastical inheritances, or simply the quirks we pass down — shape identity across generations.”

• Whimsy as revelation: The exaggerated names and surreal episodes (Extra, Essential, Mildly, Non-Essential, Extremely) act as masks for deeper truths about family expectations and identity.
• Inherited secrecy: Rapacious’s Russian ancestry and magical knowledge, rebranded in Australia, mirrors the way families conceal, reinvent, or mythologize origins.
• Neighbours & outsiders: Rivalries with the Troublesafoots expose how “outsiders” can surface tensions and bring secrets to light.
• Play + satire = exposure: Comedy lets the reader face painful truths sideways, much like how families themselves often process secrets.

1. Your Lazingtons are eccentric, playful, even surreal — how does whimsy help you explore serious family secrets?
2. Rapacious changes his name from Rasputin. How does reinvention reflect the way families conceal or reshape their pasts?
3. The children’s names — Extra, Essential, Mildly, etc. — feel comic but also cutting. Do names in your work act as a kind of secret code?
4. Many Lazington adventures flirt with magical realism. Do secrets in families sometimes feel just as otherworldly?
5. The Troublesafoots bring conflict from outside the family. Do you see outsiders as catalysts for exposing secrets?
6. What does the Lazington saga suggest about what families choose to pass down — and what they try to hide?