"The Thorn Birds (miniseries) The Thorn Birds is an American television miniseries broadcast on ABC from March 27 to 30, 1983. It starred Richard Chamberlain, Rachel Ward, Barbara Stanwyck, Christopher Plummer, Jean Simmons, Richard Kiley, Bryan Brown, Mare Winningham and Philip Anglim. It was directed by Daryl Duke and based on a novel of the same name by Colleen McCullough. The series was enormously successful and became the United States' second highest-rated miniseries of all time behind ""Roots""; both series were produced by television veteran David L. Wolper. Set primarily on Drogheda, a fictional sheep station in the Australian outback"
"Colleen McCullough Colleen Margaretta McCullough (; married name Robinson, previously Ion-Robinson; 1 June 193729 January 2015) was an Australian author known for her novels, her most well-known being ""The Thorn Birds"" and ""The Ladies of Missalonghi"", the latter of which was involved in a plagiarism controversy. McCullough was born in 1937 in Wellington, in the Central West region of New South Wales, to James and Laurie McCullough. Her father was of Irish descent and her mother was a New Zealander of part-Māori descent. During her childhood, the family moved around a great deal and she was also ""a voracious reader""."
"and causes"". McCullough also published five murder mysteries in the Carmine Delmonico series. Colleen McCullough Colleen Margaretta McCullough (; married name Robinson, previously Ion-Robinson; 1 June 193729 January 2015) was an Australian author known for her novels, her most well-known being ""The Thorn Birds"" and ""The Ladies of Missalonghi"", the latter of which was involved in a plagiarism controversy. McCullough was born in 1937 in Wellington, in the Central West region of New South Wales, to James and Laurie McCullough. Her father was of Irish descent and her mother was a New Zealander of part-Māori descent. During her childhood, the"
"books. One of these, ""The Thorn Birds"", became an international best seller and one of the best selling books in history, with sales of over 30 million copies worldwide, that in 1983 inspired one of the most-watched television miniseries of all time. The success of these books enabled her to give up her medical-scientific career and to try to ""live on [her] own terms."" In the late 1970s, after stints in London and Connecticut, she settled on the isolation of Norfolk Island, off the coast of mainland Australia, where she met her husband, Ric Robinson. They married in April 1984."
"everyday Australian themes. Emblematic of the Christian poets could be McCauley's rejection of Modernism in favour of Classical culture: Many Australian writers have examined the lives of Christian characters, or have been influenced by Catholic schooling. Australia's best selling novel of all time, ""The Thorn Birds"" by Colleen McCullough, writes of the temptations encountered by a priest living in the Outback. Many contemporary Australian writers have attended or taught at Catholic schools, including Robert Hughes, Nick Enright, Brian Castro, Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner; Gerard Henderson, Miranda Devine, Kimberley Starr, Melina Marchetta, Melvyn Morrow, Justin Fleming, Gerard Windsor and Anh Do."
"preacher. It had a huge response. I’ve had letters from people saying how emotional they felt about seeing Welsh history re-created on their national stage"". The show was described by critic Michael Kelligan as being the ""first great Welsh musical"". Bogdanov returned to musical theatre in 2009, directing a musical version of Colleen McCullough’s bestselling novel ""The Thorn Birds"" for the Wales Theatre Company. It has music by German opera composer Gloria Bruni and McCullough herself wrote the book and lyrics. It opened at the Grand Theatre, Swansea in April and then toured the UK, culminating at the Wales Millennium"
"South Australia, and is an Australian citizen. Colleen McCullough's ""The Thorn Birds"", 1977, is Australia's highest selling novel and one of the biggest selling novels of all time with around 30 million copies sold by 2009. Thomas Keneally wrote ""The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith"", 1972 and ""Schindler's Ark"", 1982. This latter work was the inspiration for the film ""Schindler's List"". Other notable Australian novels converted to celluloid include: Paul Brickhill's ""The Great Escape""; Pamela Lyndon Travers' ""Mary Poppins""; Morris West's ""The Shoes of the Fisherman"" and Bryce Courtenay's ""The Power of One"". ""Careful, He Might Hear You"" by Sumner Locke"
"Nick of the Woods Nick of the Woods; or, The Jibbenainesay is an 1837 novel by American author Robert Montgomery Bird. Noted today for its savage depiction of Native Americans, it was Bird's most successful novel and a best-seller at the time of its release. The novel was eventually published in twenty-three editions in English, and four translations, including a best-selling German translation by Gustav Höcker. The long popularity of the novel is evidenced by the fact that Mark Twain referenced the main character of the book in 1883's ""Life on the Mississippi"", presuming the audience would know the reference."
"on ""The New York Times"" Best Seller list, and have been translated into over 30 languages, with total sales estimated at 70 million in 1991. ""The Painted Bird"", Kosiński's controversial 1965 novel, is a fictional account that depicts the personal experiences of a boy of unknown religious and ethnic background who wanders around unidentified areas of Eastern Europe during World War II and takes refuge among a series of people, many of whom are brutally cruel and abusive, either to him or to others. Soon after the book was published in the US, Kosiński was accused by the then-Communist Polish"
"Jan Thornhill Jan Thornhill (born 1955 in Sudbury, Ontario) is a Canadian writer and illustrator of educational books on science and nature for children. She was the 2015 winner of the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People, a lifetime achievement award presented by the Writers' Trust of Canada, and won the Norma Fleck Award in 2007 for her book ""I Found a Dead Bird: The Kids’ Guide to the Cycle of Life & Death"". A graduate of the Ontario College of Art, Thornhill has illustrated many but not all of her own works. She won UNICEF's Ezra Jack"
"literature are not overtly Christian in character. The writings of great 20th century authors like Manning Clark or Patrick White are therefore filled with allusions to biblical or Christian themes. Many Australian writers have examined the lives of Christian characters, or have influenced by Christian educations. Best selling author Tim Winton.s early novel ""That Eye, the Sky"" tells the story of a family's conversion to Christianity in the face of tragedy. Australia's best selling novel of all time, The Thornbirds, by Colleen McCullough writes of the temptations encountered by a priest living in the Outback. Many contemporary Australian writers including"
"The Mockery Bird The Mockery Bird is a humorous novel by Gerald Durrell, published in 1981 by William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd. The book, like the other works of the author, contains a strong environmental message. The story takes place on a (fictitious) tropical island called Zenkali. The island seems to be populated by the most eccentric people who came there from all around the world, along with the two indigenous tribes, the Fangoua and the Ginka. The Ginkas used to worship a dolphin god, while the Fangouas worshipped a strange avian, the Mockery Bird, which was hunted to"
"The Bluebird Books The Bluebird Books is a series of novels popular with teenage girls in the 1910s and 1920s. The series was begun by L. Frank Baum using his Edith Van Dyne pseudonym, then continued by at least three others, all using the same pseudonym. Baum wrote the first four books in the series, possibly with help from his son, Harry Neal Baum, on the third. The fifth book is based on a fragment by Baum and written by an unknown author. The last five books were written by Emma Speed Sampson. The origin of the title is uncertain,"
"Harper Lee Nelle Harper Lee (April 28, 1926February 19, 2016) was an American novelist widely known for ""To Kill a Mockingbird"", published in 1960. Immediately successful, it won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature. Though Lee had only published this single book, in 2007 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution to literature. Additionally, Lee received numerous honorary degrees, though she declined to speak on those occasions. She was also known for assisting her close friend Truman Capote in his research for the book ""In Cold Blood"" (1966). Capote"
"am (and believe me, I am) I would hate to lose this aspect of creativity. There are some wonderful things that can ONLY come out of collaboration."" Tad Williams Robert Paul ""Tad"" Williams (born 14 March 1957 in San Jose, California) is an American fantasy and science fiction writer. He is the author of the multivolume ""Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn"" series, ""Otherland"" series, and ""Shadowmarch"" series as well as the standalone novels ""Tailchaser's Song"" and ""The War of the Flowers"". Most recently, Williams published ""The Bobby Dollar"" series. Cumulatively, over 17 million copies of Williams's works have been sold. Williams's"
"The Birds (story) ""The Birds"" is a horror story by British writer Daphne du Maurier, first published in her 1952 collection ""The Apple Tree"". It is the story of a farmhand, his family, and his community that are attacked by flocks of birds and seabirds in ""kamikaze"" fashion. The story is set in du Maurier's native Cornwall shortly after the end of the Second World War. By the end of the story it becomes clear that all of Britain is under aerial assault. The story was the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock's film ""The Birds"", released in 1963, the same year"
"his interests in birds, evident in ""The Road from Elephant Pass"" and ""The Ginirella Conspiracy"". He became famous at age 63 with the novel ""The Road From Elephant Pass,"" published in 2003. The story revolves around a Tamil woman who had been a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and a Sinhalese man who is an army officer. Thought to be natural and initial enemies, the pair are able to overlook their political differences to overcome the hostilities between them and get safely to Colombo, protecting an explosive secret. This book sold over three thousand copies in its"
"Tye Sheridan and Jennifer Aniston. The Yellow Birds The Yellow Birds is the debut novel from American writer, poet, and Iraq war veteran Kevin Powers. It was one of ""The New York Times""'s 100 Most Notable Books of 2012 and a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award. It was awarded the 2012 The Guardian First Book Award, and the 2013 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. Much of the novel draws upon Powers's experience serving a year as a machine gunner in Mosul and Tal Afar, Iraq, from February 2004 to March 2005 after enlisting in the Army at the age of"
"birds, while John James Audubon's enormous and impressive images of birds in his 1827–1838 ""Birds of America"" are among the most admired by art critics and by collectors: early editions fetch among the highest prices paid for any printed books. The ornithologist John Gould's bird illustrations, in books such as ""A Century of Birds hitherto unfigured from the Himalaya Mountains"" (1830–1833) with 80 plates, and his 7-volume ""The Birds of Australia"" (1840–1848) with 600 plates, related directly to his research, were both beautiful and scientifically useful. Birds are popular characters in children's books, which are often handsomely illustrated. Beatrix Potter's"
"outstanding books of 1972. It was also a National Book Award finalist. They completed a sequel in 1976, ""The Terrible Troll Bird"", an adaptation of one of their earlier works, ""Ola and Blakken"". Since 2006 the small California-based publishing company, Beautiful Feet Books, has republished several d'Aulaire titles including their biography series that feature historical characters significant to American history including Christopher Columbus, Pocahontas, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Leif Ericson, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Benjamin Franklin. This work by Beautiful Feet Books has been a key to a new generation of readers discovering the works of Ingri and Edgar Parin"
"""The Twinkie Squad"". Gordon Korman Gordon Korman (born October 23, 1963) is a Canadian American author. Korman has written over 80 children's and young adult fiction books. Korman has sold more than 28 million books over a career spanning four decades and has appeared at number one on ""The New York Times"" Best Seller list. Korman was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where he lived until 1970. He grew up in Thornhill, Ontario just north of Toronto, Ontario and attended German Mills Public School and public high school at Thornlea Secondary School in Thornhill, Ontario. He then moved to the"
"The Birds (novel) The Birds, original Nynorsk title Fuglane, is a novel by Norwegian author Tarjei Vesaas. It was first released in 1957, and has been translated into several languages, including English. The story revolves around the inner world of Matthew, who is mentally challenged and lives with his sister. Being regarded as one of Vesaas' most important novels, it was included in the major Norwegian publisher Gyldendal Norsk Forlag's 30 picks for ""Norway's national literature"" both in 1967 and 1996. In 2007, the Norwegian Festival of Literature included it in a best-of list of 25 Norwegian literary works, picked"
"Ellen Wood (author) Ellen Wood (née Price; 17 January 181410 February 1887), was an English novelist, better known as Mrs. Henry Wood. She is best remembered for her 1861 novel ""East Lynne"", but many of her books became international bestsellers and widespread in the United States. In her time, she surpassed the fame of Charles Dickens in Australia. Ellen Price was born in Worcester in 1814. In 1836 she married Henry Wood, who worked in the banking and shipping trade in Dauphiné in the South of France, where they lived for 20 years. On the failure of Wood's business, the"
"The Yellow Birds The Yellow Birds is the debut novel from American writer, poet, and Iraq war veteran Kevin Powers. It was one of ""The New York Times""'s 100 Most Notable Books of 2012 and a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award. It was awarded the 2012 The Guardian First Book Award, and the 2013 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. Much of the novel draws upon Powers's experience serving a year as a machine gunner in Mosul and Tal Afar, Iraq, from February 2004 to March 2005 after enlisting in the Army at the age of 17. After his honorable discharge,"
"Jack Higgins Henry Patterson (born 27 July 1929), known by his pen name Jack Higgins, is a British writer. He is one of the best-selling authors of popular thrillers and espionage novels. His breakthrough novel ""The Eagle Has Landed"" (1975) sold over 50 million copies and was adapted into a successful film by the same title. Some of his other notable books are ""A Prayer for the Dying"" (1987), ""The Eagle Has Flown"" (1991), ""Thunder Point"" (1993), ""Angel of Death"" (1995), ""Flight of Eagles"" (1998), and ""Day of Reckoning"" (2000). His 85 novels in total have sold over 150 million"
"outside immediately and pick up the pages,"" Shields wrote. When the novel was finally ready, the author opted to use the name ""Harper Lee"", rather than risk having her first name Nelle be misidentified as ""Nellie"". Published July 11, 1960, ""To Kill a Mockingbird"" was an immediate bestseller and won great critical acclaim, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. It remains a bestseller, with more than 30 million copies in print. In 1999, it was voted ""Best Novel of the Century"" in a poll by the ""Library Journal"". Like Lee, the tomboy Scout of the novel is the"
"Horn Book-Boston Globe Honor Award, a Parent's Choice Gold Award, a designation of ""Best Book Of the Year"" by ""Publishers Weekly"", a ""Notable Books"" designation by the ""New York Times Book Review"", and a New York Book Show Award (for ""Woody Guthrie, Poet of the People"" in 2001). Bonnie Christensen Bonnie Christensen (January 23, 1951 – January 12, 2015) was an American author and illustrator best known for writing biographies and other illustrated non-fiction books for children and young adults. Christensen died of ovarian cancer on January 12, 2015, aged 63. Christensen received a number of book awards including an"
"who, together with Ross, changes into a blackbird and flies off into the sky. At the time of publication, R. L. Stine was 59 years old and had already authored over 330 books for children and young adults, including the ""Fear Street"" and ""Goosebumps"" series of books. Published in the 1990s, both his ""Fear Street"" series, which was oriented towards young adults, and his ""Goosebumps"" series, oriented towards children, were successful, with the ""Goosebumps"" series selling more than 300 million books. Stine had both series on hiatus while writing other novels. Living in New York City, Stine recalls walking a"
"United States during World War I. The Bluebird Books The Bluebird Books is a series of novels popular with teenage girls in the 1910s and 1920s. The series was begun by L. Frank Baum using his Edith Van Dyne pseudonym, then continued by at least three others, all using the same pseudonym. Baum wrote the first four books in the series, possibly with help from his son, Harry Neal Baum, on the third. The fifth book is based on a fragment by Baum and written by an unknown author. The last five books were written by Emma Speed Sampson. The"
"""Unreal!"" (1985) and ""Unbelievable!"" (1987); many of the stories were adapted as episodes of the award-winning television show ""Round the Twist"". The world's richest prize in children's literature has been received by two Australians, Sonya Hartnett, who won the 2008 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award and Shaun Tan, who won in 2011. Hartnett has a long and distinguished career, publishing her first novel at 15. She is known for her dark and often controversial themes. She has won several awards, including the Kathleen Mitchell Award and the Victorian Premier's Award for ""Sleeping Dogs"", Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the Aurealis Award,"
"The Birds' Christmas Carol The Birds' Christmas Carol is a novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin printed privately in 1886 and published in 1888 with illustrations by Katharine R. Wireman. Wiggin published the book to help fund the Silver Street Free Kindergarten, which she founded in 1878. The story is about Carol Bird, a Christmas-born child, a young girl who is unusually loving and generous, having a positive effect on everyone with whom she comes into contact. She is the youngest member of her family and has several devoted older brothers. At about the age of 5, Carol contracts an unspecified"
"Phyllis Ann Karr Phyllis Ann Karr (born July 25, 1944) is an American author of fantasy, romances, mysteries, and non-fiction. She is best known for her ""Frostflower and Thorn"" series and Matter of Britain works. Karr was born Phyllis Ann Karmilowicz in Oakland, California. Karmilowicz was later shortened to Karr, under which name she married and writes. She married, June 2, 1990, in Washburn County, Wisconsin, Clifton Alfred Hoyt, who died November 4, 2005 in Solon Springs, Wisconsin. She lives in Drummond Wisconsin. Karr's primary literary interests, reflected in both her fiction and non-fiction, include Arthurian legend, William Shakespeare, the"
"who was inspired by Capote's memories of Lee as a child, was played by Aubrey Dollar. Harper Lee Nelle Harper Lee (April 28, 1926February 19, 2016) was an American novelist widely known for ""To Kill a Mockingbird"", published in 1960. Immediately successful, it won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature. Though Lee had only published this single book, in 2007 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution to literature. Additionally, Lee received numerous honorary degrees, though she declined to speak on those occasions. She was also known for assisting"