AustLit

One of five children of hoteliers Jack and Marie Anna Daniher, Patricia Shaw was educated at the Star of the Sea College in Gardenvale, Victoria, and later Melbourne Teachers' College. Shaw taught primary school then spent a year in London and Europe with her parents. From the mid 1950s she lived on the Queensland Gold Coast. She worked as a teacher, a political journalist and an oral historian before pursuing a literary career. She began writing in the mid 1970s as secretary to the federal Liberal MP for McPherson, Eric Robinson, producing his local newspaper column. She then won awards for her short stories and poetry. After Robinson's death in 1981, Shaw was employed by the federal Parliamentary Library to record the stories of retired members of parliament; her work became known as the Voices of the Past series.

Another historical work, Pioneers of a Trackless Land, strengthened her interest in Australian history. Her publisher influenced her to shift to fiction writing and, after taking out a bank loan to finance it, her first novel, Valley of Lagoons, appeared in 1989. Her novels are a 'combination of historical fact and imaginative fiction'. (The Courier-Mail). Shaw had sold around eight million copies of her novels in Germany by 2006 with book clubs, hard back publishers and mass paperback producers all publishing her work. Twelve European publishers print her novels in ten languages. Shaw also wrote a biographical study, Brother Digger : the Sullivans 2nd AIF (1984). She is a life member of the Animal Welfare Association.

(Source: Adapted from Malcolm Cole 'Uncommon Market' The Courier-Mail, (22 April 2006))