Join BookBrowse today and get access to free books, our twice monthly digital magazine, and more.

Colleen McCullough biography

Author Biography  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Colleen McCullough
Author photograph by Catherine Karnow

Colleen McCullough

Colleen McCullough Biography

Colleen McCullough was born in Australia. A neurophysiologist, she established the department of neurophysiology at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. In 1963 she moved to the United Kingdom where she met the chairman of the neurology department at Yale University at the Great Ormond Street hospital in London, who offered her a research associate job at Yale. McCullough spent ten years researching and teaching in the Department of Neurology at the Yale Medical School in New Haven, Connecticut. In the late 1970s she settled on Norfolk Island in the Pacific, where she met her husband, Ric Robinson, to whom she has been married since 1983. She now lives in Sydney.

Her writing career began with the publication of Tim, followed by The Thorn Birds, a record-breaking international bestseller. She has also written lyrics for musical theater.

McCullough's Masters of Rome series includes The First Man in Rome (1990), The Grass Crown (1991), Fortune's Favourites (1993), Caesar's Women (1995), Caesar: Let The Dice Fly, The October Horse (2002), and Antony and Cleopatra (2007)

Her other novels include Tim (1974), The Thorn Birds (1977), An Indecent Obsession (1981), A Creed for the Third Millennium (1985), The Ladies of Missalonghi (1987), The Song of Troy (1998), Morgan's Run (2000), Caesar (2003), The Touch (2003), Angel (2005), On, Off (2006), and The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet (2008).

She died aged 77 in January 2015, on Norfolk Island. Norfolk Island, population ~2000, is a self-governing territory of Australia located between Australia and New Zealand.



This bio was last updated on 01/29/2015. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Books by this Author

Books by Colleen McCullough at BookBrowse
The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet jacket Antony and Cleopatra jacket On, Off jacket Morgan's Run jacket
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Colleen McCullough but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Peter Carey

    Peter Carey

    Peter Carey was born in 1943, in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia. His parents, who had a General Motors dealership, sent him to Geelong Grammar School, one of the leading private schools, "where the children of Australia's... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Morgan's Run

    Try:
    True History of The Kelly Gang
    by Peter Carey

  • Patrick McGrath

    Patrick McGrath

    Patrick McGrath was born in London and grew up near Broadmoor Hospital, where for many years his father was medical superintendent. His novels include The Grotesque, Blood and Water and Other Tales, Spider, Dr. Haggard's... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Morgan's Run

    Try:
    Martha Peake
    by Patrick McGrath

We recommend 3 similar authors

View all 3 Read-Alikes

Non-members can see 2 results. Become a member
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Support BookBrowse

Join our inner reading circle, go ad-free and get way more!

Find out more


Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Icarus
    Icarus
    by K. Ancrum
    The titular protagonist of K. Ancrum's young adult novel Icarus lives a double life that mixes the ...
  • Book Jacket
    The Moon That Turns You Back
    by Hala Alyan
    The poignant, accessible poems in Palestinian American author Hala Alyan's fifth collection, The ...
  • Book Jacket: Dispersals
    Dispersals
    by Jessica J. Lee
    We so often think of plants as stationary creatures—they are rooted in place, so to speak&#...
  • Book Jacket: Fruit of the Dead
    Fruit of the Dead
    by Rachel Lyon
    In Rachel Lyon's Fruit of the Dead, Cory Ansel, a directionless high school graduate, has had all ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
Romantic Comedy
by Curtis Sittenfeld
A comedy writer's stance on love shifts when a pop star challenges her assumptions in this witty and touching novel.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    The Stolen Child
    by Ann Hood

    An unlikely duo ventures through France and Italy to solve the mystery of a child’s fate.

  • Book Jacket

    This Strange Eventful History
    by Claire Messud

    An immersive, masterful story of a family born on the wrong side of history.

Win This Book
Win Only the Brave

Only the Brave by Danielle Steel

A powerful, sweeping historical novel about a courageous woman in World War II Germany.

Enter

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

F T a T

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.