He's world renowned for writing 'Schindler's Ark', which went on to become Spielberg's film 'Schindler's List'. The multi-award winning author is also currently shortlisted for the 2010 Miles Franklin Literary Award with his latest book 'The People's Train'. However, it was writing a little-known book titled 'Outback' that took Tom Keneally out amongst the Spinifex and terracotta dirt of Australia's desert during the early 1980s. He's about to head out that way again to host a 'Writing Under The Stars' event from 9 - 11 July at Voyages Longitude 131 luxury camp in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park at Ayers Rock. Here he will chat about how his own experiences have inspired his writing and help guests to get started on writing about their own. Other journeys across the weekend include learning about Aboriginal art and its connection to the land from an artist-in-residence, a sunrise walk around Uluru, dinner under the stars and a helicopter ride over Kata Tjuta, all done in a level of luxe the adventuresome Keneally has become accustomed to.

So, wandering around little Arctic islands off the Siberian or Alaskan coast by day in Zodiacs, then coming back to luxury. The combination of biting wind in your face and also the bulkiness of heavy gear with having to wear the equivalent of ski gear and long johns, then to come back into a really pleasant room and to go to public rooms and bars and meet people and talk over the events. And the shower - one of my ideas of luxury is the ensuite. When I was young you stayed in a pub in a country town and the shower was along the hallway and along a front veranda, so an ensuite is terrific. I like that combination.

There's a place called Cape Adare which had always lived in my imagination. I'd only seen it from the air. We were going to land in the first hut in Antarctica - we had to pick up three New Zealanders and a Pom - but we couldn't get in because of ice. The beserk Russian captain - the Russians are extraordinary people - he said, never mind, out there is a 200km long iceberg and we'll go and find it and have a party on top. We found it in the perpetual daylight and it dwarfed the ship. It was 50 metres high. And the captain lifted us up there by helicopter and we had a cocktail party on top of an iceberg.

Out of all the places I thought I might go, I would have considered on top of an iceberg an impossibility. But we drank champagne before it froze and had a wander around with cross country skis on top of this iceberg.

Going to the South Pole when I was young, that was an experience too but it was utter desolation. The ice is 8,500 feet (2590 metres) deep and you're standing on top of this ice cone, the only advantage being that you can walk around the world in three or four steps.

The travel company involved is Deep Ocean Expeditions. Briefly, this ship before the collapse of the Soviet was lying in dry dock. The Soviets didn't have the money to run this ship and then [movie director] James Cameron came along and said I want you to do some diving for me. So it's been used on all sorts of movies. You see a glimpse of them on the wreckage of the Titanic at the start of the movie. They thought if we can sell dives to these great depths to the members of the public who are crazy enough to go with us well....so it's thanks to James Cameron, and Conde Nast in my case, and others they're able to keep those scientific vessels shunting along.

My absolute favourite restaurant is M on the Bund. [Its founder], this Australian woman, Michelle [Garnaut] is legendary. I also remember having dinner in 1980 on an Australian mission in Madame Chiang Kai-shek's summer villa with an old jazz band from prior to WWII playing - that is luxury.

In Shanghai, I find along the Bund fascinating with its combination of Europe and Asia. Places like the Yuyuan Garden are just wonderful. The architecture is so distinctive; it's a long way from a Georgian building. So, the wonder of the architecture and the attention to detail in the gardens and the fact that it all came from shifts of history - Manchu dynasty, the Republic, world invasion by Japan, WWII, the Russian revolution, the cultural revolution, the death of Mao, the commercialisation of China, and the fact that at the end of it all you have these wonderful places remaining that seem to have sort of said well, we're just sitting pretty through all this. Going for a ride on the Huang Pu River is also exciting.

Oh India, Calcutta! It is a fascinating city. I used to travel a great deal, but I've calmed down and accepted there are places that I'm never going to see.

We've done a lot of cross country skiing that is luxury. If you can combine really nice quarters with a day's skiing...It's that combination of being cold and a little bit scared but highly stimulated and the validation of coming inside. We've stayed in a lot of primitive places too when we ski - a yurt in winter on the north rim of the Grand Canyon - but we've also gone to Colorado, Lake Tahoe near Squaw Valley and we've downhilled at Aspen and Beaver Creek. I'd love to go to Austria, but I'd better hurry up I think.

To me the centre of New York is Washington Square and southwards along West Broadway across to the East Village. I lived down in that area and I always felt I was going home when I was going there. That's where you've got all the bars. Mind you, a lot of the old gritty bars have been done up. New York is bar heaven. When I went there I had to watch myself because I was drinking too much for the atmosphere. There are also great museums. My favourites are the Guggenheim, the Frick Museum, which is a little old house on 5th Avenue, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I've been to a lot of hotels in my life. In America I was in a different hotel every day and as every traveller tells you they do blur. It's hard to remember the really good ones. In New York there are some great ones - the Waldorf Astoria. The St Regis. The Pierre - they're all the older ones the ceilings are high and the rooms are spacious. I've only stayed there when I'm doing a book tour. They're great places to come home to when a room isn't anonymous.

A hotel I really enjoyed when I was in California was the old Hotel Laguna. It's a hotel that in the 30s the movie stars used to motor down to have a drink in. It's a grand old-fashioned hotel. Basically a grand old-fashioned hotel with internet and ensuite is all you need.

In LA there's also the Beverly Wilshire. And in Italy I like Hotel Hassler at the top of the Spanish Steps. There are a lot of really good hotels but none of them excite me as much as what you do during the day.

One of the greatest libraries I've worked in with beautiful gardens is out in Pasadena - it's called the Huntington Library. There's an art gallery and library that has incredible riches but you've virtually got to get a reference from Obama to get in there. But the magnificent old Huntington House is surrounded by gardens honouring every nation, so there's an Australian garden there. It is a magnificent place to visit.

Going to America I used to be tied by the umbilical to United Airlines. I liked the fact that all the women who were stewards were all grannies. They were worldly-wise women and I like that about United.

KENEALLY'S CHOICE