1.23am BST

Good morning. Fuelled by flat whites, Jane, Bethanie and me (Alex) are back in the bunker for another day at the Sydney writers' festival. We've got loads of great stuff coming up today including an interview with Alexis Wright, Adam Brereton on Malcolm Fraser and Bob Carr, and a review of last night's session on "humour and debauchery".

I saw a very moving panel last night called What is normal, anyway? Andrew Solomon, Jo Case, Robert Hoge and AM Homes discussed identity in the context of family (being – or having – a child who turns out to be different from its parents). It was the end of a long day but I welled up several times, particularly when Hoge discussed the first couple of weeks of his life. He was born with a tumour in the middle of his face that distorted his features and badly disabled legs; his mother refused even to go and see him for the first week of his life. His parents didn't want to take him home, but finally decided to after asking their four older children (aged between ten and four), who had been to the hospital to see and hold their baby brother, whether they should. The kids all said yes.

Solomon told several stories from his experiences interviewing the parents of "difficult" children for his book Far From the Tree. He had interviewed several women who had been raped and tortured during the Rwandan genocide. At the end of his interviews he always asks his subjects if they have any questions for him, to level the playing field. One asked him for his advice on how to love her daughter, who was conceived when she was raped. The woman said that she tried, but "every time I look at her, it reminds me of this terrible event". Floored by her words, Solomon said that it was only a couple of days afterwards that he realised how much love the question had contained.

Some tweets:



Dianne Masri (@media_pixels) Getting ready for writers' reflections in Glorious Sydney at #SWF14 pic.twitter.com/CwBwnVWYJ7

Bec Melrose (@becfrolics) Looking forward to Australia and the World with Malcolm Fraser and Bob Carr. What we need is better pyjamas. #SWF14

And this is great for Alice Walker fans – a link to a transcript of her talk on Wednesday night.

