Julia Gregson
I have always wanted to be a writer, but left school very young (16) after a fairly hit and miss education, longing to travel and have adventures. I worked as a jillaroo in the Australian outback, a girl groom, a shearer’s cook, and later, back in England, as a house model for Hardy Amies in London.In the seventies, back in Australia again, love of horses led to riding out with Mick Jagger on the set of Ned Kelly and my first published article in The Sydney Morning Herald. Gave up paid employment, poverty and panic followed, but eventually got more work as a journalist. Secretly wrote short stories that were never published. I eventually started to write regularly for Australian magazines. In the seventies, I was sent to Vietnam and India to write stories, and later to New York as a foreign correspondent for a group of Australian magazines (Sungravure) where I also worked for Rolling Stone Magazine.During this time, spent four days with Muhammad Ali in a boxer’s training camp in Pennsylvania, interviewed Buzz Aldrin in Houston; Ronnie Biggs in a Brazilian jail at midnight; president’s wives, film stars in Hollywood and several notorious criminals. All good grist to my story-writing mill.I enjoy writing short stories and have had many published in places like The Literary Review, The Times, Good Housekeeping, and read on the B.B.C.Orion published my first novel, THE WATER HORSE, in 2005. I rode a horse across Wales to do the research- a wonderful experience- and then went to Istanbul and Scutari where the rest of the novel is set.Writing EAST OF THE SUN involved two research trips to India, A great highlight, I’m married, have one daughter and four stepchildren and live in Monmouthshire with two Welsh cobs, a Shetland and two dogs.
I have always wanted to be a writer, but left school very young (16) after a fairly hit and miss education, longing to travel and have adventures. I worked as a jillaroo in the Australian outback, a girl groom, a shearer’s cook, and later, back in England, as a house model for Hardy Amies in London.In the seventies, back in Australia again, love of horses led to riding out with Mick Jagger on the set of Ned Kelly and my first published article in The Sydney Morning Herald. Gave up paid employment, poverty and panic followed, but eventually got more work as a journalist. Secretly wrote short stories that were never published. I eventually started to write regularly for Australian magazines. In the seventies, I was sent to Vietnam and India to write stories, and later to New York as a foreign correspondent for a group of Australian magazines (Sungravure) where I also worked for Rolling Stone Magazine.During this time, spent four days with Muhammad Ali in a boxer’s training camp in Pennsylvania, interviewed Buzz Aldrin in Houston; Ronnie Biggs in a Brazilian jail at midnight; president’s wives, film stars in Hollywood and several notorious criminals. All good grist to my story-writing mill.I enjoy writing short stories and have had many published in places like The Literary Review, The Times, Good Housekeeping, and read on the B.B.C.Orion published my first novel, THE WATER HORSE, in 2005. I rode a horse across Wales to do the research- a wonderful experience- and then went to Istanbul and Scutari where the rest of the novel is set.Writing EAST OF THE SUN involved two research trips to India, A great highlight, I’m married, have one daughter and four stepchildren and live in Monmouthshire with two Welsh cobs, a Shetland and two dogs.
