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Colleen McCullough’s Followers (3,131)

Colleen McCullough

Born

in Wellington, New South Wales, Australia

June 01, 1937

Died

January 29, 2015

Genre

Historical Fiction, Romance, Memoir

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Colleen Margaretta McCullough was an Australian author known for her novels, her most well-known being The Thorn Birds and Tim.

Raised by her mother in Wellington and then Sydney, McCullough began writing stories at age 5. She flourished at Catholic schools and earned a physiology degree from the University of New South Wales in 1963. Planning become a doctor, she found that she had a violent allergy to hospital soap and turned instead to neurophysiology – the study of the nervous system's functions. She found jobs first in London and then at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

After her beloved younger brother Carl died in 1965 at age 25 while rescuing two drowning women in the waters off Crete, a shattered McCullough quit writing. S ...more

Combine Editions
Colleen McCullough’s books

Average rating: 4.19 · 493,583 ratings · 17,376 reviews · 129 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Thorn Birds 4.25 avg rating — 364,345 ratings — published 1977 — 127 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The First Man in Rome (Masters of Rome, #1) 4.13 avg rating — 24,297 ratings — published 1990 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Grass Crown (Masters of Rome, #2) 4.33 avg rating — 13,252 ratings — published 1990 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fortune's Favorites (Masters of Rome, #3) 4.40 avg rating — 8,735 ratings — published 1993 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Caesar (Masters of Rome, #5) 4.40 avg rating — 8,394 ratings — published 1997 — 60 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Caesar's Women (Masters of Rome, #4) 4.29 avg rating — 7,739 ratings — published 1996 — 60 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bittersweet 3.51 avg rating — 8,363 ratings — published 2013 — 70 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The October Horse (Masters of Rome #6) 4.34 avg rating — 6,587 ratings — published 2002 — 48 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Touch 4.07 avg rating — 6,853 ratings — published 2003 — 95 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Antony and Cleopatra (Masters of Rome, #7) 4.05 avg rating — 6,269 ratings — published 2007 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Colleen McCullough…

Series by Colleen McCullough

Masters of Rome (7 books)
by

Colleen McCullough

4.26 avg rating — 75,272 ratings

Gospodari Rima (17 books)
by

Colleen McCullough

4.08 avg rating — 6,856 ratings

Carmine Delmonico (5 books)
by

Colleen McCullough

3.48 avg rating — 5,539 ratings

Quotes by Colleen McCullough (?)

“Never forget, Caelius, that a great man makes his luck. Luck is there for everyone to seize. Most of us miss our chances; we're blind to our luck. He never misses a chance because he's never blind to the opportunity of the moment.”
― Colleen McCullough, Caesar

1167 likes

“There is a legend about a bird which sings just once in its life, more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. From the moment it leaves the nest it searches for a thorn tree, and does not rest until it has found one. Then, singing among the savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine. And, dying, it rises above its own agony to outcarol the lark and the nightingale. One superlative song, existence the price. But the whole world stills to listen, and God in His heaven smiles. For the best is only bought at the cost of great pain… Or so says the legend.”
― Colleen McCullough, The Thorn Birds

tags: inspirational, legend

646 likes

“There are no ambitions noble enough to justify breaking someone's heart. ”
― Colleen McCullough, The Thorn Birds

342 likes

See all Colleen McCullough's quotes »

Polls

2nd Quarter 2018 (April-June) Long Read Poll

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, 1849, 882 pages

62 votes, 15.7%

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, 1847, 867 pages

61 votes, 15.5%

The Arabian Nights, 800, 1049 pages

42 votes, 10.7%

Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley, 1976, 729 pages

35 votes, 8.9%

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, 1008, 1182 pages

29 votes, 7.4%

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell, 1866, 679 pages

27 votes, 6.9%

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough, 1977, 692 pages

23 votes, 5.8%

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, 1996, 1088 pages

22 votes, 5.6%

Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family by Thomas Mann, 1901, 731 pages

20 votes, 5.1%

The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, 1353, 909 pages

20 votes, 5.1%

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing, 1962, 640 pages

15 votes, 3.8%

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, 1925, 859 pages

11 votes, 2.8%

The Histories by Herodotus, 400 BCE, 716 pages

9 votes, 2.3%

Daniel Deronda by George Eliot, 1865, 796 pages

6 votes, 1.5%

The Golden Bough by James George Frazer, 1890, 880 pages

5 votes, 1.3%

The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman, 1982, 936 pages

4 votes, 1.0%

Five Smooth Stones by Ann Fairbairn, 1966, 933 pages

3 votes, 0.8%

394 total votes

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