Gabrielle Lord

About the Author

Gabrielle Lord survived being 'razed' by the nuns, acquired an education despite this, and after working in many different areas, sales, teaching, brick-cleaning, peach-picking and packing, and in the Public Service as an employment officer, started writing seriously aged 30.

Her first two manuscripts ended up composting the tomatoes at her market garden - another attempt to make a living - but the third one Fortress was picked up internationally and made into a feature film starring Rachel Ward. A later novel Whipping Boy was made into a telemovie starring Sigrid Thornton. The film rights money, coinciding with her daughter leaving school, allowed Gabrielle to resign and instead of getting up at 4.30am and writing for several hours before heading off for work, she could write full-time and lead a more 'normal' writer's life - hanging around with scientists and detectives, badgering forensic anthropologists (she studied some Anatomy at Sydney university) and doing work experience with a busy private security business and of course, writing.