Joanna Nell
Joanna Nell is a UK born writer and doctor. Her short fiction has won multiple awards and has been published in various journals and literary anthologies. In 2016 she was awarded a residency at The Bundanon Trust. Her bestselling debut novel The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village was published by Hachette Australia and Hodder & Stoughton (UK) in 2018.
A former ship's doctor, Joanna now works as a GP with a passion for women's health and care of the elderly. She writes character-driven stories for women in their prime, creating young-at-heart characters who are not afraid to break the rules and defy society's expectations of ageing.
Joanna lives on Sydney's Northern Beaches, and as the mother of teenagers enjoys long walks with her
If you like author Joanna Nell here is the list of authors you may also like
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Penny Haw
Penny Haw was the recipient of the 2024 Philida Literary Award for her “oeuvre of literary excellence” and won the 2022 Women's Fiction Writers Association Star Award.
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Her books feature remarkable women, illustrate her love for animals and nature, and explore the interconnectedness of all living things.
Penny’s works of biographical historical fiction are published by Sourcebooks Landmark and include The Invincible Miss Cust (2022), The Woman at the Wheel (2023), Follow Me to Africa (2025) and The Woman and Her Stars (2026). Her other books include The Wilderness Between Us (2021), which is contemporary fiction while Nicko (2017) is a children’s book.
Penny lives in Hout Bay near Cape Town, South Africa with her husband and three dogs, all -
Sandie Docker
Australian author, Sandie Docker grew up in Coffs Harbour, and first fell in love with reading when her father introduced her to fantasy books as a teenager. Her love of Women’s Fiction began when she first read Jane Austen for the HSC, but it wasn’t until she was taking a translation course at university that her Mandarin lecturer suggested she might have a knack for writing – a seed of an idea that sat quietly in the back of her mind while she lived overseas and travelled the world.
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Now back in Sydney, Sandie writes about love, loss, family and small country towns. Sandie is also the founder and director of The Northern Beaches Readers Festival.
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Meredith Appleyard
Meredith Appleyard lives in the Clare Valley wine-growing region of South Australia, two hours north of Adelaide. As a registered nurse and midwife, she has worked in a wide range of country health practice settings, including the Royal Flying Doctor Service. She has done agency nursing in London and volunteer work in Vietnam. After her first manuscript was rejected, she joined a writers' group, attended workshops and successfully completed an Advanced Diploma of Arts in Professional Writing with the Adelaide College of the Arts. And she kept working. When she isn't writing, Meredith is reading, helping organise the annual Clare Writers' Festival, or at home with her husband and her border collie, Daisy. The Country Practice is her first no
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Sophie Green
Sophie Green is an author and publisher who lives in Sydney. In her spare time she writes about country music on her website, Sunburnt Country Music.
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Sophie's debut novel, THE INAUGURAL MEETING OF THE FAIRVALE LADIES BOOK CLUB, was a Top Ten bestseller and was shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards for General Fiction Book of the Year 2018, and longlisted for both the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year 2018 and the Indie Book Award for Debut Fiction 2018.
Sophie Green is internationally published and THE SHELLY BAY LADIES SWIMMING CIRCLE, THURSDAYS AT ORANGE BLOSSOM HOUSE, THE BELLBIRD RIVER COUNTRY CHOIR and WEEKENDS WITH THE SUNSHINE GARDENING SOCIETY were also Top Ten bestsellers. -
Mary-Lou Stephens
Mary-Lou Stephens was born in Tasmania, studied acting at The Victorian College of the Arts and played in bands in Melbourne, Hobart and Sydney. Eventually she got a proper job - in radio, where she was a presenter and music director, first with commercial radio and then with the ABC.
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She received rave reviews for her memoir Sex, Drugs and Meditation (2013), the true story of how meditation changed her life, saved her job and helped her find a husband.
Mary-Lou has worked and played all over Australia and now travels the world slowly and writes, mostly.
Her debut novel The Last of the Apple Blossom was published by HarperCollins (HQ) in 2021.
The Chocolate Factory (HarperCollins HQ) 2024.
The Jam Maker (HarperCollins HQ) 2025
Praise for The Choco -
Tricia Stringer
Tricia Stringer is a bestselling and award-winning author. Among others, her books include commercial fiction titles Table For Eight, The Model Wife and The Family Inheritance, the rural romances A Chance of Stormy Weather and Come Rain or Shine and historical sagas Heart of the Country, Dust on the Horizon and Jewel in the North, set in the 19th Century Flinders Ranges. Tricia lives in the beautiful Copper Coast region of South Australia, often exploring Australia's diverse communities and landscapes, and shares this passion for the country and its people through her authentic stories and their vivid characters.
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For behind the scenes info and special giveaways, sign up to Tricia's newsletter at http://www.triciastringer.com
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Tea Cooper
Tea Cooper writes Australian contemporary and historical fiction. In a past life she was a teacher, a journalist and a farmer. These days she haunts museums and indulges her passion for storytelling.
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Amanda Hampson
Melbourne-based author, Amanda Hampson has been writing professionally for more than 30 years and is the award-winning author of nine novels: The Olive Sisters, Two for the Road, The French Perfumer, The Yellow Villa, Sixty Summers, Lovebirds, The Tea Ladies, The Cryptic Clue and The Deadly Dispute.
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A runaway bestseller, The Tea Ladies won the 2024 Danger Awards for Best Crime Fiction and was Shortlisted for 2024 Davitt Awards Best Adult Crime & 2024 Ned Kelly Awards Best Fiction.
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Susan Duncan
Susan Elizabeth Duncan was an Australian author, journalist and editor of The Australian Women's Weekly and New Idea.
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Frances Maynard
I teach English part-time to adults with learning difficulties, including Asperger's.
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I'm married with one grown-up daughter and live in Dorset, on the south coast of England. I also spend time in Blackheath, south-east London.
The Seven Imperfect Rules of Elvira Carr is my first novel. It was runner-up in the Good Housekeeping 2014 First Novel Award and shortlisted for both the 2016 Mslexia First Novel Competition and the Lucy Cavendish Prize. My second book, Maggsie McNaughton's Second chance, comes out June 27th 2019. -
Deborah Rodriguez
Deborah Rodriguez is a hairdresser, a motivational speaker, and the author of the bestselling memoir Kabul Beauty School.
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She spent five years teaching at and later directing the Kabul Beauty School, the first modern beauty academy and training salon in Afghanistan. Rodriguez also owned the Oasis Salon and the Cabul Coffee House.
She currently lives in Mexico. -
Liz Byrski
Liz Byrski is a writer and broadcaster with more than 40 years experience in the British and Australian media. She is the author of eleven non-fiction books and five novels, and her work has been published in national and international newspapers and magazines.
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In the nineties Liz was a broadcaster and executive producer with ABC Radio in Perth and later an advisor to a minister in the Western Australian State Government; she now lectures in Professional and Creative Writing at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, and has PhD in writing with a focus on feminist popular fiction.
Liz was born in London and spent most of her childhood in Sussex. As an only child she spent a lot of time alone, much of it buried in books. She began her workin -
Maggie Groff
Maggie Groff is a multi-award-winning novelist, columnist and non-fiction writer living and working in Australia. She is the author of two non-fiction books: the best-selling Mothers Behaving Badly (1999) which showcased her hilarious experiences as a mother, and Hoax Cuisine (2001) which garnered a loyal following and led to a regular column in Fairfax weekend newspapers.
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Her first novel Mad Men, Bad Girls (originally titled Mad Men, Bad Girls and the Guerilla Knitters Institute) was published in 2012 and received rave reviews. It was nominated for the Ned Kelly Award and went on to win both Australian Sisters in Crime 13th Davitt Awards for crime fiction – Best First Fiction and Best Adult Novel. Her second novel Good News, Bad News was a -
Joy Chambers
Joy Chambers was an author, company chairman and a business woman, born in 1947. In 1990 she began writing; this could have been called her fifth career, for until that time she had combined actor and television panelist with that of business partner and wife of media mogul, Reg Grundy. A lover of history and never idle, Joy wrote Fact-Based Fiction.
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She began her television career in Australia and won Logie Awards for her performances in the 1970s; (think Emmys and Baftas) appearing in numerous Australian productions including the international hit Neighbours in which she played the role of Rosemary Daniels. At its height Neighbours was seen in 76 countries.
In the early years of her career Joy wrote for numerous Grundy shows and worked as a -
Rosamund Lupton
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Thank you for visiting this bio. My books are not easy to slot into a particular genre, and you can usually be found under 'contemporary fiction', 'literary fiction', 'political thriller' and 'psychological thriller.' If you try one I hope you enjoy it.
From the publisher:
Three Hours was chosen by the Times as their thriller of the year. The Sunday Times called Three Hours 'a brilliant literary thriller...reminiscent of both Greek tragedy and Shakespeare’
Ruth Jones, author and actress, said 'It's gob-smackingly, heart-stoppingly, breath-holdingly brilliant.. the tension will blow your mind....'
Her debut novel, 'Sister' was a BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime, a Sunday Times and New York Times best seller and the fastest selling debut in WHSmiths -
Shirley Barrett
Shirley Barrett is best known for her work as a screenwriter and director. Shirley's first film, Love Serenade won the Camera D'Or (Best First Feature) at Cannes Film Festival in 1996. The script for her film South Solitary won the Queensland Premier's Prize (script) 2010, the West Australian Premier's Literary Prize (script) 2010, and the West Australian Premier's Prize 2010. Rush Oh! is Shirley's first novel. She lives in Sydney, Australia.
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Matthew S. Wilson
Matthew is an independent writer from Melbourne, Australia. His first book, The Devil’s in the Detail, was released in October 2012.
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You can find more of his work and short-fiction at www.matthew-s-wilson.com. For other musings, follow him on Twitter at @Matthew_SWilson. -
Kaye Dobbie
Kaye Dobbie lives in an old house in the old gold rush town Bendigo, in the state of Victoria, Australia. She has been writing professionally ever since she won the Big River short story contest at the age of eighteen. Her career has undergone many changes, including writing Australian historical fiction under the name Lilly Sommers, to romance written as Sara Bennett/Sara Mackenzie and published by Avon in the USA. Her books have been translated into many languages. She is currently writing under her 'proper' name, Kaye Dobbie, and is published by Harlequin Mira in Australia and Weltbild in Germany. Kaye lives on the central Victorian goldfields, where she creates her stories and in her spare time researches her family tree.
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Emma Young
After five years in bookselling, Emma retrained as a journalist and has been reporting since 2011: first for community papers, then as a digital journalist for WAtoday, the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. The Last Bookshop was shortlisted for the inaugural Fogarty Literary Award in 2019.
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Phaedra Patrick
Phaedra Patrick studied art and marketing and has worked as a stained glass artist, film festival organiser and communications manager. An award-winning short story writer, she now writes full time in Saddleworth where she lives with her family.
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Her debut novel, The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper, was translated into over twenty languages worldwide and has been optioned by a major Hollywood film studio.
Her second novel, Rise and Shine, Benedict Stone (named Wishes Under the Willow Tree in the UK), has been made into a Hallmark Movie and will premiere on TV in Autumn 2021.
Her third novel is The Library of Lost and Found, and the fourth one is titled The Secrets of Love Story Bridge (The Secrets of Sunshine in the UK).
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Victoria Purman
Victoria Purman is an Australian bestselling author.
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If you want to know more about her and her books, visit www.victoriapurman.com or follow her on facebook at Victoria Purman Author or on twitter @VictoriaPurman. -
Sophie Green
Sophie Green is an author and publisher who lives in Sydney. In her spare time she writes about country music on her website, Sunburnt Country Music.
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Sophie's debut novel, THE INAUGURAL MEETING OF THE FAIRVALE LADIES BOOK CLUB, was a Top Ten bestseller and was shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards for General Fiction Book of the Year 2018, and longlisted for both the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year 2018 and the Indie Book Award for Debut Fiction 2018.
Sophie Green is internationally published and THE SHELLY BAY LADIES SWIMMING CIRCLE, THURSDAYS AT ORANGE BLOSSOM HOUSE, THE BELLBIRD RIVER COUNTRY CHOIR and WEEKENDS WITH THE SUNSHINE GARDENING SOCIETY were also Top Ten bestsellers. -
James Roxburgh
James Roxburgh is an audiologist who specializes in the care of the elderly with hearing loss. He combines his passion for writing and the experiences he has shared with his patients to create heart-warming and captivating characters who defy the norms of ageing. James lives in Sydney with his wife and two daughters. The Banksia House Breakout is his debut commercial fiction novel.
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Benjamin Gilmour
Benjamin Gilmour was born in Germany in 1975, but has lived most of his life in Australia. He is an award-winning filmmaker and writer. His first book, Warrior Poets – Guns, Movie-making and the Wild West of Pakistan, was published in 2008, based on his experiences directing the feature film Son of a Lion. His best-seller Paramedico is published in numerous countries. His latest book is The Gap (Penguin Random House).
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Tamara McKinley
TAMARA MCKINLEY was born in Launceston, Tasmania, and was forced to come to England with her grandmother to finish her education at an all girls’ boarding school in Sussex. Her childhood experiences and the enduring memories of her amazing grandmother and two extraordinary great-aunts, form the back-bone of her novels which are coloured with the red, green and gold of her beloved Australia.
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Having raised her three children in the Eastbourne area she started to write psychological thrillers before returning to her roots in the form of Australian family sagas set against the backdrop of the outback pioneers. She is now household name in Germany where her books go straight into the bestsellers' list with each title selling around 4 million copi -
Pat Backley
Pat Backley is English, but decided to become a Kiwi when she was 59. She now lives in Auckland New Zealand.
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She wrote and published her first book just before her 70th birthday and having discovered her passion, she now intends to write till she dies! -
Susan Duncan
Susan Elizabeth Duncan was an Australian author, journalist and editor of The Australian Women's Weekly and New Idea.
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Peta Miller
Peta Miller has been in the book trade for over twenty years, in both publishing and retail. When not writing, she works part-time at Berkelouw Books in Eumundi on the Sunshine Coast.
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In November 2018, Peta received the Charlotte Waring Barton Award for her unpublished manuscript, "Sing Us Home", the prize being a mentorship with a HarperCollins author. After development, this manuscript has become The Ship's Midwife which is her debut novel. -
Melissa Pimentel
Melissa Pimentel grew up in a small town in Massachusetts in a house without cable and therefore much of her childhood was spent watching 1970s British comedy on PBS.
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At twenty-two, she made the move to London to do an MA in Modern Literature at University College London. She has lived there happily for ten years, though she still adamantly refuses to eat a scotch egg. Before meeting her fiancé, she spent much of her time trawling the London dating scene for clean, non-sociopathic sexual partners and blogging about it, which became the inspiration for her first novel.
These days, she spends much of her time reading in the various pubs of Stoke Newington and engaging in a long-standing emotional feud with their disgruntled cat, Welles. She wor -
Lisa Ireland
Lisa Ireland is an Australian writer of contemporary women’s fiction. After working for many years as a primary school teacher, Lisa is a now a full-time writer.
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Her novel, Feels Like Home, is an Australian Bestseller. In 2015 Lisa was one of the Top Ten Debut Fiction Authors in Australia. She has five books published to date, and her sixth novel, THE SECRET LIFE OF SHIRLEY SULLIVAN, will be released in MAY 2020.
When she’s not writing, Lisa can be found running (okay, shuffling), drinking coffee at her favourite cafes, or perusing the shelves of her local bookstore.
She loves eating but not cooking, is an Olympic class procrastinator, and (most importantly) minion to a rather large dog. -
Wendy Harmer
Wendy Harmer is an Australian author, writer, radio show host and comedienne. A former political journalist, Wendy is the author of seven books for adults: It's a Joke, Joyce (1989), Backstage Pass (1991), Love Gone Wrong (1995), So anyway-- : Wendy’s words of wisdom (1997) (a collection of her weekly columns from The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Weekend Magazine), Farewell My Ovaries (2005), Nagging for Beginners (2006), Love and Punishment (2006), and Roadside Sisters published in April 2009.
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Harmer's books have been described as being in the genre of Chick lit. They are popular light novels and very humorous.
Wendy Harmer has also written a series for young readers called the Pearlie in the Park . They are bestsellers in Australia and ha -
Lilly Sommers
Kaye Bennett was born on 17 November 1957 in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. She spent much of her childhood in New South Wales. She reads a great deal, and although she will read anything - mystery, thrillers and horror - romance is her favorite. She has had a varied career that has included working in the Department of Justice in Brisbane and working as a clerk with the Commonwealth government. To survive a series of mind-numbing jobs, she turned to writing. She then sold a number of short stories to Australian magazines, and when she won a local short story contest, suddenly her name was in the newspaper, and she dreamed of becoming a full-time writer. She has always had an interest in history, and she started writing historical romances a
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Rebekah Campbell
My early memories are of Dad fossicking around in his study writing stories. I was 13 when he entered the New Zealand Sunday newspaper's shorty story competition. I noticed there was a 'high school' category and I mustn't have had anything to do that weekend so I decided to try my hand at crafting an entry. It was a descriptive piece about a young nurse visiting an elderly psychiatric patient with a twist at the end (heavily influenced by Roald Dahl).
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I was shocked when a man called up a month later to tell me I'd won! They published my funny little story in the newspaper and sent a cheque for $500 to my school.
I fell in love writing then. First, when I wrote the story and felt completely emerged in something I'd created in my head. And then -
Duncan Barrett
Duncan grew up in London and read English at Jesus College, Cambridge. He is the editor of Ronald Skirth's First World War memoir The Reluctant Tommy (Macmillan, 2010) and co-author of Star Trek: The Human Frontier (Polity, 2000) and Zippy and Me: The Remarkable Life in Puppets of Rainbow's Ronnie Le Drew (forthcoming, 2011). He also works as an actor and occasional theatre director.
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David Farrell
David Farrell, the author of The Wilde Collection fictional memoir series, lives in a rural village on the banks of the Mighty Waikato River.
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While planning his next book, he walks through the magnificent landscapes of Aotearoa, New Zealand with his new muse, Zelda, by his side. A Kiwi Heading Dog rescued from the pound.
With his partner Jeanne and daughter Amy, they now live a harmonious life after a challenging journey from Southern Africa
Connect with David on social media he loves to connect with his readers. -
Jennifer Dupee
Jennifer Dupee grew up on the North Shore of Boston near the seaside communities of Manchester-by-the-Sea and Beverly Farms. Her debut novel, THE LITTLE FRENCH BRIDAL SHOP, was chosen as Good Housekeeping magazine’s April 2021 Book of the Month. Jennifer is a graduate of Brown University, where she studied under published authors Meredith Steinbach and Carole Maso, and received her honors in Creative Writing. She is an active member of the Grub Street writing community in Boston and has published in The Feminist Press. She was a semi-finalist for the 2016 James Jones First Novel Competition and a semi-finalist for the 2016 Faulkner-Wisdom competition. Jennifer lives just outside of Boston with her family. Her first published novel is The Li
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Beth Corby
Beth Corby began life in a small Welsh mining village, and pursued her interest in music through to a PhD. Finding academic writing constricting, she tried creative writing and fell for comedic storytelling at the first pen stroke. Beth relishes time writing, daydreaming, plotting and capturing those moments when her characters misbehave. Where There's a Will... is her debut novel.
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Matt Baker
Clarence Matthew Baker was an American comic book artist best known for drawing early comics heroines such as the costumed crimefighter Phantom Lady, and romance comics. Active in the 1940s and 1950s Golden Age of comic books, he is the first known African-American artist to find success in the comic-book industry. He also penciled an early form of graphic novel, St. John Publications' digest-sized "picture novel" It Rhymes with Lust (1950).
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Baker was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2009.