Colleen McCullough

Colleen McCullough was born in rural New South Wales, Australia, to a working-class family of Irish descent. A voracious reader from a young age, she initially pursued medicine but switch course after developing a severe allergy to the surgical soap used in hospitals. She pivoted to neuroscience and became a researcher at Yale Medical School in the 1960s, where she began writing fiction in her spare time. Her first novel, Tim (1974), drew attention for its emotional sensitivity, but it was The Thorn Birds (1977) that catapulted her to international fame. The novel became a global phenomenon, selling over 30 million copies and inspiring a widely watched miniseries in 1983. McCullough went on to write many other novels, including the historical Masters of Rome series, which demonstrated her formidable research skills and literary ambition. Other works include Morgan’s Run (2000), The Ladies of Missalonghi (1987), and Angel Puss (2004). She spent her final decades on Norfolk Island with her husband, Ric Robinson, continuing to write until her death in 2015.