TAMARA MCKINLEY was born in Launceston, Tasmania, and was forced to come to England with her grandmother to finish her education at an all girls’ boarding school in Sussex. Her childhood experiences and the enduring memories of her amazing grandmother and two extraordinary great-aunts, form the back-bone of her novels which are coloured with the red, green and gold of her beloved Australia.

Having raised her three children in the Eastbourne area she started to write psychological thrillers before returning to her roots in the form of Australian family sagas set against the backdrop of the outback pioneers. She is now household name in Germany where her books go straight into the bestsellers list with each title selling around 4 million copies. Her books are also popular in Scandinavia, especially Sweden where her first saga, Matildas Last Waltz was voted the booksellers novel of the year. In her homeland of Australia she is considered by many to be Britains Best Kept Secret.

Her eight Aussie sagas to date are published in at least 15 different languages and can be found worldwide.

Tamara now lives and writes on the south coast of England but travels to her homeland every year to promote her work, carry out research and visit her eldest son and her two grandsons.

Psychological Thrillers: Reap the Whirlwind and Queens Flight (Hodder & Stoughton)

Family Sagas: Matildas Last Waltz (2000), Jacaranda Vines (2001), Windflowers (2002), Summer Lightning (2003), Undercurrents (2004) and Dreamscapes (2005) (Piatkus Books)

Lands Beyond the Sea, the first book of her Oceana trilogy, has been published in hardback and paperback by Hodder Stoughton. A Kingdom For The Brave, the second in the trilogy, was published in hardback in the UK on 6th March 2008.