Colleen McCullough (38 works by) (a.k.a. Colleen McCullough Robinson; Colleen Margaretta McCullough )
Born: Established: 1 Jun 1937 Wellington Wellington area Wellington - Dubbo - Narromine area Central West NSW New South Wales ;
Gender: Female

BiographyHistory

Colleen McCullough was born at Wellington, New South Wales, and was educated at the University of Sydney. After working as a school-teacher, library assistant and journalist, she trained and worked as a neurophysiologist in Sydney, England and the United States of America between 1967 and 1976. In 1974 she published her first novel, Tim, attracting some commercial success and receiving further exposure when it was adapted to film. But with her second novel, The Thorn Birds (1977), she became an international success and saw her novel produced as a highly popular television series in 1983. In the 1990s, she wrote a series of six novels set in ancient Rome before returning to an Australian setting with Morgan's Run (2000). McCullough also wrote a cookbook Cooking with Colleen McCullough and Jean Easthope (Harper & Row, 1982) and a biography, Roden, V.C. (Random House, 1998).

McCullough's romances have been extremely popular, but they have attracted limited critical approval. Nevertheless, she won the Italian Premio Scanno for The Song of Troy (1998); and in 1993 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Macquarie University for the meticulous research she conducted for her Roman novels.

Colleen McCullough has resided on Norfolk Island since 1980. She has been patron and board member of various scientific and medical organisations in Australia and overseas. In 1993 she learned she was suffering from a degenerative eye disease. This did not stop her writing and she continued to publish.

Most of McCullough's works have been widely translated into other languages. Many of these have not yet been listed in AustLit (2006).

Awards

2006 Order of Australia — Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) — General Division For service to the arts as an author and to the community through roles supporting national and international educational programs, medico-scientific disciplines and charitable organisations and causes.
1997 Australian National Living Treasure
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Awards for Works

Naked Cruelty , 2010 novel single work

'America in 1968 is in turmoil and the leafy Holloman suburb of Carew is being silently terrorised by a series of vicious and systematic rapes. When finally one victim finds the courage to speak out and go to the police, the rapist escalates to murder.

'For Captain Carmine Delmonico, it seems to be a case with no clues. And it comes as the Holloman Police Department is troubled: a lieutenant is out of his depth, a sergeant is out of control, and into this mix comes the beautiful, ruthlessly ambitious new trainee, Helen MacIntosh, daughter of the influential president of Chubb University.

'As the killer makes his plans, Carmine and his team must use every resource at their disposal - including a team of highly motivated neighbourhood watch, the Gentlemen Walkers...' (From the publisher's website.)
2011 nominated Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing — Best Novel
Too Many Murders : A Carmine Delmonico Novel , 2009 novel single work

'The year is 1967 and the world teeters on the brink of nuclear holocaust as the Cold War goes relentlessly on. On a beautiful spring day in the little city of Holloman, Connecticut, home to prestigious Chubb University and armaments giant Cornucopia, chief of detectives Captain Carmine Delmonico has more pressing concerns than finding a name for his infant son: twelve murders have taken place in one day, and Delmonico is drawn into a gruesome web of secrets and lies.

Supported by his detective sergeants Abe Goldberg and Corey Marshall, and new team member the meticulous Delia Carstairs, Delmonico embarks on what looks like an unsolvable mystery. All the murders are different, and they all seem unconnected. Are they dealing with one killer, or many? How is the murder of Dee-Dee Hall, a local prostitute, related to the deaths of a mother and her disabled child? How is Chubb student Evan Pugh connected to Desmond Skeps, head of Cornucopia? And as if twelve murders were not enough, Carmine soon finds himself pitted against the mysterious Ulysses, a spy giving Cornucopia′s armaments secrets to the Russians. Are the murders and espionage different cases, or are they somehow linked?

As the overtaxed police force contends with small town politics, academic rivalry, and corporate greed, the death toll mounts, and Carmine and his team discover that the answers are not what they seem -- but then, are they ever?' Source: www.harpercollins.com.au/ (Sighted 17/03/2010).

2010 shortlisted Davitt Award — Best Adult Crime Novel
The Song of Troy , 1998 novel single work
2000 International Awards — Premio Scanno (Italy)
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