She can’t remember the first story she ever wrote, but she does remember her first publishing deal. Her father ‘commissioned’ her to write a novel for him and offered an advance of $1. She had no agent, so accepted his first offer and wrote a three volume epic called ‘The Mystery of Dead Man’s Island.’ Only volume 2 remains in print.

After leaving school, Liane worked in advertising and marketing and did a business degree. She got excellent marks at university until her last semester, when she did a subject which ‘brought together’ everything she had learned in her degree thus far. She only just passed. (No-one mentioned you were meant to retain that stuff.)

She became quite corporate for a while and wore big-shouldered suits and fretted about the size of her office. She eventually left her position as marketing manager to run her own (not especially successful) business called The Little Ad Agency. After that she worked as a freelance advertising copywriter, writing everything from websites and TV commercial to the back of the Sultana Bran box.

She enrolled in a Masters degree at Macquarie University in Sydney. As part of that degree, she wrote her first novel, Three Wishes. It went on to be published around the world. Since then she has written eight more novels: The Last Anniversary, What Alice Forgot, The Hypnotist’s Love Story, The Husband’s Secret, Big Little Lies, Truly Madly Guilty, Nine Perfect Strangers and Apples Never Fall, as well as the ‘Nicola Berry’ series for children.

Liane is now a full-time author. She has sold over 20 million copies of her books worldwide and her novels have been translated into forty languages.

She lives in Sydney with her husband, son and daughter. When she’s not writing she can be found reading, demanding coffee, being taken for a brisk walk by her Labrador, skiing like she’s thirty years younger than she is, recovering from skiing injuries, talking to old friends about getting old, and begging her children for help with technology.

Visit Liane Moriarty’s website