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. 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.
But when I left high school, there were no creative writing degrees at universities where I lived. I didn’t know how to become a real writer.
So I completed a degree in Marketing and Public Relations and for the next 10 years I worked for companies like L’Oreal in Australia as 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.
One day, I quit my fabulous job and went back to uni to study Creative Writing.
The first thing I ever submitted for publication was a poem. It was immediately accepted – and it was the best $100 I’d ever earned.
But it wasn’t easy. I had three babies over the five years of writing my first book. My manuscript was rejected 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 and I won the TAG Hungerford Award for Fiction for my first novel, What is Left over, After.
And now I’m living my dream! I write novels that combine my passion for history, research, travel, fashion and the lives of extraordinary women who blazed a trail.
I’ve been fortunate to have found 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.
More about me …
I love collecting vintage fashion, furniture and magazines; travelling the world; swimming in the ocean; running and reading Tarot Cards! I have three kids and live in beautiful Cottesloe, Western Australia.
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