Q: What’s the connection between jazz great Thelonious Monk and a dachshund called Charlie Barker? A: A cartoonist named Michael Heath. But we’ll get to that later.

Heath arrives for our interview at the Chauvel Cinema in Sydney’s trendy Paddington accompanied by his companion of over three years, Hilary, an Aussie girl who he met when she was working in The French House, described as a compact Soho bar with photos, where the literary crowd prefer wine to beer and observe the no-tech rule.