Our Author of the Month for September 2025 is  the Australian writer, Jackie French.  As with previous notables, she is famous for her writing across several genres for both adults and children. In her historical fiction work she places great emphasis on strong female characters.

In her fiction and non-fiction writings she is a great chronicler of Australian history with references to early settlement, weather patterns and landscapes, Australian poets, world wars  and migration. Much of her historical fiction overflows from Australia to the United Kingdom and Europe and the historical figures of pre-World War Two.

 Her children’s novels emphasize native wildlife and flora. Her residential property contains a conservation refuge for rare and endangered species. She is an advocate for improving youth literacy, having suffered dyslexia in her youth. She has been involved in research of wombats and has raised funds for wombat preservation. She has also written an illustrated book on wombats [“Diary of a Wombat”], which is the only picture book to win the Australian Book Industry Award.

Much of the historical fiction of Jackie French runs through stories which take up several novels. The series beginning “Miss Lilly’s Lovely Ladies” [ five books in the series] is an example of this and runs through several generations of family. Her capacity to interweave Australian settings in these series gives you a real feel for our nation’s flora and fauna  and its historical development. Her characters are always interesting, and she can really put a twist in the tale.

On a stand-alone basis her treatment of the Crimean War and its aftermath is brilliantly set out in the stand alone novel “The Angel of Waterloo”, and in keeping with good historical fiction it reveals a lot of interesting information from which to learn.

This is an author who is highly recommended.