The actor and crime novelist on telling stories, not slowing down and the lessons his mother taught him

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Bryan Brown gives a barely perceptible nod of welcome after I arrive by ferry at Balmain wharf, as he steps out from under the semicircular roof of the late 19th-century timber shelter here, the last of its kind on Sydney harbour.

“How’s it going?” he asks, his Australian drawl at once familiar from his roles in 80-plus films and television series.