Colleen McCullough

Born in 1937, Colleen McCullough was a neuroscientist by training and worked in various Sydney and English hospitals before settling in the Department of Neurology at Yale Medical School in the USA. Her hugely successful novel, The Thorn Birds, wa published in 1977 followed by a string of bestselling books. Colleen lived for many years on Norfolk Island and died there in 2015 aged 77.