New York Times bestselling author
My dream of becoming a writer …
When I was a child, I loved nothing more than to escape into the world of a story. Some of my favourites were the Nancy Drews and Sweet Valley Highs, as well as Little Women, Jane Eyre and Lois Lowry’s A Summer to Die. I thought it must be the best feeling in the world to make readers feel the way I did when I lost myself in a book. So I started writing (and illustrating!) my own books. And I decided that, one day, I’d be an author too.
But when I left high school, there were no creative writing degrees offered at universities near where I lived. I didn’t know how to become a real writer.
So I completed a degree in Marketing and Public Relations. For the next 10 years I worked for companies like L’Oreal in Australia, where I was the Marketing Manager for Maybelline. It was great fun; I had more lipsticks than anyone could ever need. But it wasn’t what I really wanted to do.
I still wanted to be a writer. And finally, the universities offered a course that might help me become one.
So, one day, I quit my fabulous job and went back to uni to study Creative Writing.
One of my university tutors encouraged me to submit a poem I’d written for an assignment to a journal. I was skeptical, but …
I did some research into literary journals, found one that I liked called Overland, and I sent my poem off in the post with a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Remember those?!
It was accepted – and it was the best $100 I’d ever earned because it made me believe that my writing was good enough to be published.
But it wasn’t always that easy. I had three babies over the five years of writing my first book. That manuscript was rejected many, many times. But I loved writing, so I kept going through all the babies and all the doubt and all the rejections.
Finally, someone believed in my first book as much as I did. I won the TAG Hungerford Award for Fiction for my first novel, What is Left over, After.
It meant that my book would be published! That awards ceremony was the best night of my life.
Then in around 2013, I had an idea for a novel about a woman from history fighting for the right to do something that men at the time took for granted. The more I researched, the more I couldn’t believe the huge injustices faced by women in the past. And the more grateful I was to the women who pushed back against those injustices.
I’d found the thing I was meant to do: write books about incredible women who’ve somehow been forgotten by history, even though they changed the world in ways both small and large.
Now I’m living my dream! I write sweeping stories about extraordinary women who blazed a trail, and I combine my passions for fashion history, travel and (often!) France into my novels.
I’m so fortunate to have readers all around the world. I’m now an internationally bestselling author and award-winning author and, unbelievably, a New York Times bestseller too! My books have been translated into twenty-one different languages.
I hope you enjoy escaping into the world of one of my novels.
When I’m not writing, I love …
collecting vintage fashion, midcentury furniture and old magazines
travelling the world
swimming in the ocean
running
reading Tarot Cards!
spending time with my three kids
I live in the most beautiful part of the world: Cottesloe, Western Australia.
About Natasha: For Media and Events
Need a bio, author photos of information about Natasha’s books for media or events? Natasha is available for:
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In the early 2000s, Natasha Lester made the move from marketing manager for Maybelline cosmetics to writing novels and she regrets nothing—except that she no longer gets free lipstick. She is now a New York Times bestselling and award-winning author. Her latest novel is The Chateau on Sunset.
Career Highlights:
New York Times bestseller list
USA Today bestseller list
Globe & Mail bestseller list
Top 10 Australian bestseller
Dual winner of the RNA Award for Historical Fiction
Winner of the Hungerford Award
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