Book lovers remember Australian author Colleen McCullough for her excellent research and wonderful characters.
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McCullough died on Thursday afternoon after suffering a series of small strokes. She had lost her sight from macular degeneration and was restricted to a wheelchair.
She was best known for her early books Tim and The Thorn Birds as well as her popular Masters of Rome series.
Charles Brownridge, who works at Book Now in Farmers Lane, Bendigo, said he was a fan of the Masters of Rome series.
"I am a very big fan of that," he said.
"I love the depth of research that is in them.
"It is incredible the amount of knowledge she gather about life in Rome and the amount of information in there about the characters she writes."
McCullough's last release was Bittersweet in 2013. The story followed four sisters in 1920s New South Wales.
"She put that out a couple fo years ago and had been very unwell for a number of years," Mr Brownridge said.
"My wife and I visited Norfolk Island where she lived four or five years ago and the locals were saying she was very unwell.
"It's amazing that she kept writing."
Mr Brownridge said he was expecting a few fans of McCullough to hunt down some of her books.
"We have had many people yet but I have been wondering if a rush (for her books) might happen."
McCullough worked as a neuroscientist in the United States before turning to writing full-time.
The Thorn Birds, a romantic Australian saga published in 1977, has sold 30 million copies worldwide and is the highest-selling Australian book, helped by the popular 1983 mini-series.
McCullough lived on Norfolk Island for most of the past 40 years and married Norfolk Islander Ric Robinson in 1983.
Her publisher at HarperCollins Australia, Shona Martyn, said McCullough had been dictating a sequel, set around World War II, into an old-fashioned dictaphone but had only completed a third of the novel when she died.
Bendigo Writers' Festival chair Rod Fyffe said McCullough had a huge influence on Australian writing.
"When you think of other popular writers such as Bryce Courtenay and even Tom Keneally, McCullough has perhaps been the most influential, a powerful writer whose lusty, lively writing made it impossible to ignore her," he said.
"She made Australian history popular, combining her research with a fast-paced, almost racy style.
"There was also the romance of her stories, so she broke through the barrier that the old-boy network had created, and which had kept women writers in this country 'in their place'."
Mr Fyffe said McCullough wrote books people love, enjoyed entertaining and was just "magnificent".
– with The Age