Life without the Boring Bits

'Written with heart and humour, (McCullough) takes us on a bumpy ride full of surprises, laughs, tears and the odd lecture. She shines as a bright unquenchable spark that poverty, familial cruelty and tragedy could not extinguish, A little ripper.' Woman's Day

World-famous writer and national treasure Colleen McCullough has always resisted the idea of writing an autobiography. But her mind has a life of its own. Here, finally, is its portrait.

Among the personal reminiscences and thought-provoking musings lie clues as to the shaping of this extraordinary mind: the confused, impulsive, thoughtlessly cruel mother; the miserly absentee father; the far-reaching effects bureaucrats can have on the lives of strangers; the riddle of Time ...

If Colleen McCullough has any lesson to teach in Life Without the Boring Bits, it is that nothing above, below, or on the surface of the Earth can keep a good mind down, let alone break it.

About the Author

Colleen McCullough was born in western New South Wales in 1937. A neuroscientist by training, she worked in various Sydney and English hospitals before settling into ten years of research and teaching in the Department of Neurology at the Yale Medical School in the USA. In 1974 her first novel, Tim, was published in New York, followed by the bestselling The Thorn Birds in 1977 and a string of successful novels, including the acclaimed Masters of Rome series. In 1980 she settled in Norfolk Island, where she lives with her husband, Ric Robinson, and a cat named Shady.