Colleen McCullough’s Bittersweet
Broadcast Tue 1 Oct 2013 at 11:35am
It’s been 36 years since Colleen McCullough’s hugely successful romantic epic The Thorn Birds was published. It was made into a mini series starring Rachel Ward and Richard Chamberlain in 1977. But Colleen hated it and she famously refused to write a sequel. Determined not to be typecast, she has roamed boldly across genres to write the acclaimed Masters of Rome series of historical novels and the Carmine Delmonico crime series, as well as a memoir. But now she’s returned to the sweeping epic in her new book called Bittersweet, it’s the story of two sets of twin sisters growing up in the fictional Australian town of Corunda in the 1920’s and 1930’s.They all train as nurses, but their desires and ambitions are very different. Edda wants to be a doctor; Tufts wants to organise the world. Grace hates mess, and Kitty wishes people saw more than just her beauty. And as the Depression has its impact on the country, the story of what’s possible for these women proves surprising.
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