Australian fans of UK author Dolly Alderton have walked away furious after her event in Melbourne, claiming she was overshadowed by a male host.
Alderton, 36, was discussing her latest book, Good Material, at an event hosted by podcaster Hugh van Cuylenburg at Melbourne’s Hamer Hall on Thursday night.
Attendees criticised the host for diverting attention away from Alderton and instead sharing personal anecdotes that were perceived as ‘male-centric.’
The audience grew frustrated, with some members reportedly shouting, ‘Let her speak,’ as reflected in comments on social media.
Alderton fan Kate Sansone told The Age she felt that van Cuylenburg dominated the event.
‘In that first half, people were kind of starting to echo, being like: “Ask her a question, ask her a question”, but not really loud.’ she told the publication
Ms Sansone added that the situation escalated after the event’s intermission when van Cuylenburg continued to dominate the conversation, despite the protests from the audience.
‘And then we came back [from intermission], and then they sat down. And then [van Cuylenburg] was like, “All right, I’m gonna tell you a story,” and the entire room just groaned.’
Another attendee, Jasmine Ecott, also voiced her displeasure with van Cuylenburg in a lengthy response video posted to TikTok.
‘It was so awkward,’ she began. ‘Our host was a man – the only man on her whole tour interviewing her.’
Ms Ecott added she felt van Cuylenburg was a ‘terrible’ choice to host the event given the heavily female-centric subject matter Alderton deals with in her books.
‘It was a terrible choice to make a man the host because Dolly writes about the female experience, female friendship, female love. How can a man possibly relate to that?’ she said.
‘Even if he has good intentions, how could he possibly contribute to that conversation?’
Echoing Ms Sansone’s sentiment, Ms Ecott added that van Cuylenburg insisted on making the show about himself.
‘He told us about his all male group chat called Dads and Beers and Stuf which at that point I tuned out because that sounds like something Dolly would’ve made fun of in one of her books,’ she continued.
Ms Ecott’s expansive post was flooded with comments, with many echoing her displeasure at van Cuylenburg’s hosting performance.
‘The event was literally called “A night with Dolly Alderton” how could he think anyone wanted to hear him speak so much??’ one asked.
Another chimed in: ‘My fave part was when the audience collectively groaned at the start of the second half.’
A third added: ‘Bad/awkward for him when people asked him to stop talking but seriously… I had this whole idea of how the night would be and it just wasn’t it and I’m really disappointed.’
Another anonymous attendee told The Age that, while they believed van Cuylenburg acted with the best of intentions, they accused him of displaying an unconscious patriarchal bias.
‘I think it’s, you know, indicative sometimes of, yes, you can try to do things right, and you can try to show vulnerability, and you can try to come at things a different way, but patriarchal standards are so ingrained that sometimes you just don’t notice when those things come out,’ they said.
Dolly’s memoir Everything I Know About Love became an instant bestseller when it was published in 2018 and has sold over 800,000 copies around the world.
It also won a National Book Award for autobiography in 2018 and has been adapted into the eponymous BBC drama series.
Following the success of her memoir, Dolly published Ghosts – a fictional novel about modern dating – and Good Material, which follows a 35-year-old comedian after his girlfriend abruptly ends their relationship.
She began writing a dating columnist for the Sunday Times in 2015 before moving into her Dear Dolly agony aunt colum for the publication in 2020
Meanwhile, podcaster and auathough van Cuylenburg, founded the Resilience Project in 2011 and rose to prominence for his work concerning healthy masculinity.
Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Hugh van Cuylenburg for comment.
