Colleen McCullough

Give "Tim" a try one I think of her lesser known. There,s a film of it with a very young Mel Gibson.

I agree, she is a wonderful writer. I haven't read anything of hers recently. Not sure if she is still writing, or even alive. -
- Just googled her, sadly she died a few years ago.

I didn’t know ‘Tim’ was a book Yammy. I’ve seen the film a couple of times.

I'm reading 'Tim' right now Yammy! That's one of the reasons I posted. It's charming and so well judged. Also it's so easy to visualise..

A long time ago now, possibly thirty years, I remember being rivetted by A Creed for the Third Millennium.

Thanks. Sounds like another one for me to seek out.
She was very prolific. I find writing to be quite hard work. Sometimes stories feel like I'm dragging out the words one by one. Other times, rare times, it just flows.

If you do read it you might want to try Sarah Hall's Carhullan Army alongside. Both deal with similar themes of catastrophic climate change. In Creed, it's a new ice age covering the whole of Canada and the northern USA. In Carhullan it's a rise of sea levels flooding the South of England. Populations must cram into what is left of habitable land. Extreme measures are taken to manage and control those populations and out of these emerge new leaders to take control and forge a new future. Futuristic stories ... or maybe not so.

I know what you mean. The ideas tend to flow at bedtime. My mind is in overdrive but I am too physically tired to jot down more than a few words. Next day, I struggle to articulate what I want to say when it all seemed so clear one sleep ago.

Hmmmm. I'm not keen on post apocalyptic type novels. I find them unsettling and disturbing. The only one I enjoyed was the Hopkirk Manuscript by RC Sherriff and even then it kept me awake at night. I know. I'm a sissy!
I think I'm more comfortable reading about the past even the more immediate past.

Aveline

I'm reading 'Tim' right now Yammy! That's one of the reasons I posted. It's charming and so well judged. Also it's so easy to visualise..

See if you can see the film somewhere it's a really good adaptation of the book. Mel Gibson to die for about the time when he made Gallipoli or Mutiny on the Bounty. I'm glad you are enjoying the book. I got started reading her books years ago as we had a reli in Queensland who recommended the Thorn Birds.

Aveline

Hmmmm. I'm not keen on post apocalyptic type novels. I find them unsettling and disturbing. The only one I enjoyed was the Hopkirk Manuscript by RC Sherriff and even then it kept me awake at night. I know. I'm a sissy!
I think I'm more comfortable reading about the past even the more immediate past.

Fair enough. I think Margaret Atwood would call them futuristic as she does with her Maddadam trilogy - when such things are a possibility - maybe not a new ice age in our lifetime but flooding could be.

McCullough also wrote seven long Roman novels which I have - picked up as a job lot in a charity shop - but haven't yet read. More up your street?

I must like books about Australia or Australian authors because I have read quite a few of Neville Shutes. His post Apopalictic one "On the beach ", again was a film with Gregory Peck and Ava Gardiner? I read it as a teenager and asked my dad about all the Nuclear bombs it was very unsettling, they had just opened Sellafied a few miles south of where we lived.

"NorthFace* I see she's also written a series of detective novels as well as the Rome ones. How on earth did she manage to produce so many books?! Some are really long too.

Driven, I suppose.

I didn't know about the detective novels. I see that Audible have four out of the five Carmine Delmonicos - not the first one. I might give number two a try.

Borrowbox have the first five of the Rome series as e-books and Tim as an e-audiobook.

I read The Thorn Birds years and years ago, thought it was wonderful, I've never read anything else by her, can't think why now

I have recently finished her Masters of Rome series, 7 thick tomes! Apparently she spent 13 years on the research and it shows… a mass of brilliant detail. If you’re at all interested in Roman history, these books put the flesh on its bones

I hadn't read any of Colleen McCullough's books for years but read The Touch last year and can recommend it.

Another author whose books about early Australia are well-researched and engrossing is Patricia Shaw.
I've read all of hers.

Other authors I can recommend are:

Nancy Cato
Kate Grenville

Yammy, I also loved Neville Shute’s On The Beach, and the film. I have just finished “Wool” by Hugh Howey, which is also post-apocalyptic, but found it a bit hard-going at times.
Tim, by Colleen McCullough, is one of my favourite books.

I'm currently reading The Touch by CMc and enjoying it very much.

Over the years I have read many of her books and liked most of them, favourites being Thorn Birds, Tim, Indecent Obsession and Angel Puss. However I could not get along with A Creed for the Third Millennium.

Callistemon21

I hadn't read any of Colleen McCullough's books for years but read The Touch last year and can recommend it.

Another author whose books about early Australia are well-researched and engrossing is Patricia Shaw.
I've read all of hers.

Other authors I can recommend are:

Nancy Cato
Kate Grenville

Thanks, Callitemon for the recommendations I've jotted those authors down. As I said up stream Australian authors and films have always fascinated me. I just recently rewatched "Picnic at Hanging Rock", for about the third time. I like the eerie unworldliness some of them have.
I have convict ancestors who were sent to near Perth and I read a book I think by kate Grenville about the awful lives they lead until given their freedom.

Yammy Anna Jacobswrote books about the Perth area in the early days of colonisation.

The Trader's Series and Swan River Saga as far as I remember.

Callistemon21

Yammy Anna Jacobswrote books about the Perth area in the early days of colonisation.

The Trader's Series and Swan River Saga as far as I remember.

I think I have read one of the Swan River books. My relation was sent to somewhere near there,he always kept in contact with his relations back home and his descendants still do. He was in a fight along with his brother a chap fell and banged his head the unmarried brother took the rap for manslaughter and was transported.
I enjoyed an Indecent obsession as well. DH kept asking what I was reading about.
Thanks, everyone for the recommendations.

Northface, I was really taken with The Creed for the Third Millennium too. It was the first ' post Apocalyptic' novel I had read so I was quite impressed. I had read The Thorn Birds previously, and I was amazed at how different they were.
Spice, I recommended it for our Bookgroup and they slated it!

Was it ever made into a film or TV movie?

Grannmarie, do you mean The Touch? Not made into a movie as far as I know but I wouldn't swear to that.

Hello 👋 Spice! I was wondering if The Creed for the Third Millennium had been made into a film?