Like Harper Lee with her book "To Kill a Mockingbird" and Jerome Salinger with his short story "The Catcher in the Rye", the Australian writer Colleen McCullough is remembered around the world for one work — "The Thorn Birds". This book is considered the best-selling in the history of Australian literature — since its publication, 33 million copies have been sold, and according to one of the London universities, even now two copies are sold every minute in the world.
Colleen McCullough was born in June 1, 1937 in Wellington, New South Wales, Australia to James and Laurie McCullough. Her father was Irish and her mother was a New Zealander with Maori blood. The McCullough family moved frequently and little Colleen did not have time to make friends. She devoted all her energy and free time to books, drawing, and writing poems.
After years of traveling, the McCullough family settled in Sydney. Colleen went to Holy cross Catholic College and began to show an interest in science and the humanities. At the same time as studying, the girl worked as a primary school teacher, librarian, bus driver and journalist.
The desire for research prompted the future writer to enter the University of Sydney in the department of neurosurgery. However, in her first year, she developed an allergy to medical soap and had to give up her dream of becoming a surgeon. Colleen found an alternative and devoted herself to neuroscience. After graduating from the university, she took a job at the Royal North Shore hospital in Sydney.
In 1963, McCullough moved to the United Kingdom. One day, at great Ormond street hospital in London, the head of the neurology Department at Yale University noticed her and offered her a job. Colleen devoted 10 years, from 1967 to 1976, to the Department of Neurology at Yale Medical School in New-Haven, Connecticut, USA. There, combining an inner attraction to books and an interest in science, she wrote her first work.
In 1974, the novel "Tim" was published. Then, in 1977, the family saga "The Thorn Birds", a masterpiece of world literature, was published. The actions cover half a century - from 1915 to 1969. Sometime later, in 1983, a film adaptation of the book was released. The series won several Golden Globes and Emmys, and broke all imaginable viewing records. And McCullough called it " utter puke."
At the same time, she meets Rick Robinson and the Australian writer starts to have personal life. In 1983, the couple engaged. In the 1980s, McCullough experimented with genres. She creates a fantasy novel, "The Creed of the Third Millennium", the story "The Ladies of Missalonga", historical novels “The Song of Troy" and "Morgan’s Run". In 1990, McCullough presented the first book from the historical cycle "Masters of Rome" — "The First Man in Rome". She described the events of 110-100 BC, when the Roman generals Maria and Sulla made their first successes in the military craft. To ensure that the events in the cycle "Masters of Rome" were factually correct, Colleen conducted scientific research. For this, in 1993, she was awarded an honorary doctor of science from MacQuaire University.
In 2003, Colleen McCullough releases another Saga in the hope of repeating the triumph - "The Touch". Despite the touching descriptions of human grief and frustration, readers note that the text is overloaded with descriptions of technological progress: gold mining, engineering, etc.
Colleen further disappoints fans with the novel "The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet" - a sequel to Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice". The Jane Austen society of Australia is literally going to war on the writer.
In the 2000s, McCullough wrote detective stories and published a series of books about the investigations of Carmine Delmonico. There are five stories in the series; the last one was released in 2013. The final work of the writer was "Bittersweet".
On January 29, 2015, the writer died in a hospital on Norfolk island at the age of 77. The cause of death was several strokes.
Mekezhanov Yerassyl,
librarian of the Department of the International Book
