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Charlotte was Australia s first children s author. Under the pen name of A Lady Long Resident in New South Wales , she wrote and illustrated
A Mother s Offering to Her Children in 1841.
Before writing her landmark book Charlotte s dramatic shifts in fortune included falling in love at sea, losing her husband young, being brutalised by bushrangers, and becoming a penniless single mother who took her fight to the Supreme Court.
Growing up, author and fairytale specialist, Kate Forysth, was enchanted by stories of her distant forebear, Charlotte, and the grand sandstone house in which she d once lived. Romance and mystery swirled around her great great great great grandmother s life in Regency England and colonial New South Wales.
Searching for Charlotte, written with her sister Belinda Murrell.
One thing I have always wondered is whether my lifelong compulsion to write was encoded in my DNA. People often ask me, ‘when did you first decide you wanted to become an author?’
I always answer, ‘I was born wanting it’.
My sister Belinda Murrell is an author too. So is my brother. The three of us have published more than 90 books between us.
We are not the only writers in our family. There are poets, novelists, journalists and biographers going back generations. My sister and I have just spent the past 2 years researching and writing