Di Morrissey Books In Order

Publication Order of Lily Barton Books

Publication Order of Queenie and TR Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Di Morrissey is one of the most successful and prolific authors that Australia has ever introduced to the world. She published her first book in 1991 with great success and went on to reproduce that tremendous success at least 20 times over the intervening years.

She was inducted into the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Hall of Fame in 2017. She also received the Lloyd O’Neil Award for service to the Australian book industry. That honor was presented by her friend and fellow author, Tom Keneally.

Di Morrissey was born in Wingham, New South Wales on March 18, 1943. However, a few years later, when she was five years old, her parents moved to Pittwater, in the northern part of Sydney, which she described as “remote and magical.”

She actually grew up without a father. She had a stepfather, but he unfortunately died while she was still very young. She and her mother were fortunate, however, that her mother’s friend, Australian actor Chips Rafferty, helped provide for her and her mother after the death of her stepfather’s death. He was a mentor and friend to Di, and he helped raise money to send them overseas to California to live with her mother’s sister.

After a year in Los Angeles, where her mother studied and learned about the burgeoning television industry, they returned to Australia. Her mother began to make a name for herself in the Australian television and film industry. She was the first female television and film director at Artransa Studios and then worked later for the Australian Film Commission and Film Australia, in administration and marketing of local films.

Growing up without a father figure at her side was certainly not an easy thing to Morrissey. Even so, this did not stop her from living her life to the fullest. As a matter of fact, at the very young age of 17, she worked as a cadet writer in one of the more famous and reputable magazines in Australia, The Australian Women’s Weekly.

There is no question about the fact that Morrissey dreamed of becoming a writer and novelist from a very young age. In that very first job with the Australian Consolidated Press, she started out as a copy girl. From there, she honed her skills and spent four years learning journalism on the job.

After leaving The Australian Women’s Weekly, she never stopped chasing her writing dream. She moved to the UK and then for a number of years, worked for the Daily Mail as a journalist, earning her living and helping support her mother, as well.

While working, she met the man of her dreams. He was none other than Peter Morrissey, an American diplomat. She and Peter decided to get married after years of having a roller coaster, boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. After getting married, they moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S., to begin their family there.

During their stay in Hawaii, she got the chance to work with Hawaii’s CBC affiliate, KGMB television company. Here, she was given a special television project, her own morning talk show.

Also while in Honolulu, her acting prowess was tested when she was offered multiple appearances on the famous TV series on CBS, Hawaii Five-O. She appeared in a number of episodes in this television series and was afforded the opportunity to work with the series’ star, Jack Lord.

Even so, since Di Morrissey’s husband, Peter, was a diplomat, it is a requisite of diplomatic appointments to move from one posting to another. This was the main reason that she subsequently got the chance to live in a number of countries including Guyana and several Southeast Asian countries including Singapore, Thailand, and Japan.

After having a non-permanent address for a number of years, Di and her husband Peter finally were able to move back to Australia, which she had missed and which was home to her. She was offered a job as one of the original presenters on Australia’s Good Morning Australia, along with Gordon Elliott. The show premiered on Network Ten in 1981.

From then on, Morrissey enjoyed a successful television career in Australia, but despite her successful career, she still felt incomplete. The show was a lot of work and long hours, and she still wanted to write but had no time to do so. Finally, a friend and literary agent suggested that she turn something she had written for TV into a book.

In 1989, she left television and wrote her first-ever novel. She later said that it was “a lot of hard work,” but Heart of the Dreaming which was released in 1991 and it was a great success.

Morrissey generally is a writer of fiction and she initially wrote from the depth of her experience and knowledge of Australia. Her books gradually expanded to settings around the world, and she always visited the areas that she wrote about.

Aside from being a successful fiction writer, she was also an activist and environmentalist. As a matter of fact, her novels were written with many environmental inspirations. Some of her novels were focused on cultural and political issues around the world.

Heart of the Dreaming, her first published novel, is the story of Queenie Hanlon. Queenie was the one and only heiress of a family who owned the Tingulla Station. Tingulla Station was a famed outback property that was located in a remote place in the western part of Queensland.

At the very young age of 22, Queenie experienced a traumatic life experience in which she lost the loves of her life – her family. The only thing left for her was Tingulla Station, which was the only remembrance of her loved ones. The exciting part started when she was about to lose even Tingulla Station. This novel tells the story of a young woman’s adventures and fight to hang onto a treasured piece of her life.

Another award-winning novel written by Morrissey was The Last Rose of Summer, which was published in 1992. This was an engrossing story of two women who fought courageously for their principles. These two remarkable women were Kate and Odette. Kate was a strong-willed and extremely brave heiress who fought against Edwardian convention in order to keep her home from falling into ill-intentioned hands. On the other hand, Odette was a young journalist, a woman who was idealistic and independent enough to fight against the ruthless developers who had plans for destroying her beloved homeland, Zanana.