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Judy Nunn - Black Sheep

Author Talk

Judy Nunn's new blockbuster is a sweeping historical novel about a prosperous sheep-farming family and the enigmatic young man with a dark past they let into their lives...

Black sheep - there's one in every family

Orphaned at sixteen, James Wakefield was determined to be a gun shearer like his father. Now he’s killed twice, changed his name, and is on the run from the law.

He had his reasons for both murders, and he felt no joy in taking life … Or did he?

Ben McKinnon, meanwhile, is heir to the vast Glenfinnan sheep property near Goulburn, New South Wales. He too has a secret that, if ever revealed, would shatter the privileged lives of his father, Alastair, and his sisters, Jenna and Adele.

When fate brings James and Ben together, a powerful friendship is forged, both men gladly become the keeper of the other’s secret.

Then Ben insists his new friend come to work at Glenfinnan Station. Has James finally found the family he’s always longed for? Or has the McKinnon dynasty just unwittingly adopted a black sheep?

From the Shearing Wars of Queensland to the close colonial community of Goulburn, to the trenches of the Western Front, Judy Nunn once again brings Australian history vividly to life.

About the author:

Judy Nunn’s career has been long, illustrious and multifaceted. After combining her internationally successful acting career with scriptwriting for television and radio, Judy decided in the 90s to turn her hand to prose. 

Her first three novels, The Glitter Game, Centre Stage and Araluen, set respectively in the worlds of television, theatre and film, became instant bestsellers, and the rest is history, quite literally in fact. She has since developed a love of writing Australian historically-based fiction and her fame as a novelist has spread rapidly throughout Europe where she has been published in English, German, French, Dutch, Czech and Spanish. 

Her subsequent bestsellers, Kal, Beneath the Southern Cross, Territory, Pacific, Heritage, Floodtide, Maralinga, Tiger Men, Elianne, Spirits of the Ghan, Sanctuary, Khaki Town and Showtime! confirmed Judy’s position as one of Australia’s leading fiction writers. She has now sold over one million books in Australia alone.

In 2015 Judy was made a Member of the Order of Australia for her "significant service to the performing arts as a scriptwriter and actor of stage and screen, and to literature as an author".

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