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 also loved to create my own books and I wondered what it would be like to make readers feel the same way I did when I lost myself in a book.

Natasha Lester standing on steps holding black skirt

But when I left high school, there were no creative writing degrees at universities. I didn’t know how to become a 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.

DSC_3593RET reduced size.jpg

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.  

Natasha Lester walking up steps

And now my dream has come true! I began writing historical fiction in 2016. It combines my passion for history, research, travel, fashion and extraordinary women who blazed a trail.

Since then, I’ve been fortunate to have found readers from all around the world. I’m now an internationally bestselling author and, unbelievably, a New York Times bestseller too! And 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 …

When I’m not writing, I love collecting vintage fashion, travelling and practising the art of fashion illustration. I live with my husband and three children in Perth, Western Australia. 

Sign Up to
My Newsletter

Keep up to date.

Follow me on Instagram

This is going in the Author’s Note at the back of THE MADEMOISELLE ALLIANCE. A human authored book is a small, accessible work of art that will make you laugh and cry, think and feel, because it’s written by a person who does all of tho
The proofs of THE MADEMOISELLE ALLIANCE have arrived and I am very excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don’t forget the book is being published in April 2025 and you can preorder now at all good bookshops! PS: This is the North American cover and the N
Exciting news for book clubs! I’m taking a limited number of bookings from book clubs that would like me to visit them in person (if you live in Perth) or virtually via Zoom if you live elsewhere to discuss The Mademoiselle Alliance next year
If you’d like to read the rest of today’s post on Substack, please click the link in my bio. “For the past two years, I’ve been writing The Mademoiselle Alliance, a book about a woman named Marie-Madeleine Fourcarde who fough
Some more beautiful proof pages to show off! This is the internal design of the Australian/NZ edition of THE MADEMOISELLE ALLIANCE and it looks pretty good to me! Just over 4 months to go!!!!
I wrote about both Lee Miller and Kate Winslet and the extraordinary movie LEE on Substack. Here’s a taste: “From what I’ve read, there is no doubt that, without Winslet, LEE wouldn’t have been made. She poured her entire se
The first pass pages for THE MADEMOISELLE ALLIANCE have arrived! This is the point where it all starts to look like a real book and I have to read it over (again!), triple-checking every paragraph, line and word for errors. Hopefully none sneak thr
Yesterday was such a brilliant day at the @festivaloffiction. Huge thanks to superwoman @tesswoods_author for putting together a festival devoted to commercial fiction and for making it an astonishing success - and for feeding so many hungry authors,