Author. She will be remembered for penning the bestseller "The Thorn Birds" (1977). The novel was adapted into a highly-viewed miniseries in 1983 which starred Richard Chamberlain as the Catholic priest who encountered a forbidden love affair with a young woman in the Australian Outback. Raised in Sydney, she received her bachelor's degree in Neurophysiology and founded a unit in that field at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. She moved to England in 1963 and earned a master's degree in Neurophysiology from the University of London and four-years later, she took a teaching position at the Yale University School of Medicine. During this period, she began writing stories in her spare time and the result would be her first novel "Tim" (1974). The story about a mentally challanged man was made into a 1979 film adaptation which starred Mel Gibson. Her novel "An Indecent Obsession" (1981) was made into a 1985 motion picture adaptation. In addition, she was known for her "Masters of Rome" book series which began in 1990 and ended with the novel "Anthony and Cleopatra" (2007). In 2006, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia.

Author. She will be remembered for penning the bestseller "The Thorn Birds" (1977). The novel was adapted into a highly-viewed miniseries in 1983 which starred Richard Chamberlain as the Catholic priest who encountered a forbidden love affair with a young woman in the Australian Outback. Raised in Sydney, she received her bachelor's degree in Neurophysiology and founded a unit in that field at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. She moved to England in 1963 and earned a master's degree in Neurophysiology from the University of London and four-years later, she took a teaching position at the Yale University School of Medicine. During this period, she began writing stories in her spare time and the result would be her first novel "Tim" (1974). The story about a mentally challanged man was made into a 1979 film adaptation which starred Mel Gibson. Her novel "An Indecent Obsession" (1981) was made into a 1985 motion picture adaptation. In addition, she was known for her "Masters of Rome" book series which began in 1990 and ended with the novel "Anthony and Cleopatra" (2007). In 2006, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia.

Bio by: C.S.