Who is Kate Grenville?
Kate Grenville is an Australian novelist, born in Sydney in 1950, best known for The Secret River, a 2005 novel about a convict settler and conflict with Aboriginal people on the Hawkesbury River.
The Secret River follows William Thornhill, a London boatman transported to New South Wales in 1806, who takes up land on the Hawkesbury and becomes drawn into violent conflict with the Darug people.
Grenville based the story partly on research into her own ancestor, Solomon Wiseman, a convict who settled on the Hawkesbury. She described this research in her book Searching for the Secret River.
Awards and adaptations
The Secret River won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It was adapted into a stage play by Andrew Bovell and a television miniseries in 2015.
Her earlier novel The Idea of Perfection won the Orange Prize, now the Women's Prize for Fiction, in 2001.
Grenville's later books include The Lieutenant, Sarah Thornhill and A Room Made of Leaves, which reimagines the life of Elizabeth Macarthur. She also writes about writing and history.
Did You Know?
The Secret River sparked debate among historians about how fiction should portray Australia's colonial past.