Judy Huston

Judy Huston - Profile

I live in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, about 160 kilometres (100 miles) north west of Sydney. For more years than I’m prepared to say, I worked as a journalist in the print media and have also been a part-time teacher of English and Communications in the adult education area. Somewhere along the way I gained a Bachelor of Arts degree, with a strong emphasis on English Literature, followed by a Graduate Diploma in Education.

A perennial writer, I have had a series of children’s stories published for a remedial reading program, and have also had children’s stories published on an educational website. After leaving full-time journalism I began ghost-writing biographies for people who want to have their life stories published privately, and have completed about 12 of these.

I love stories and have always been quite entranced by various types of literature, including stories of the European settlement of Australia. Supposedly a “true blue Aussie” I am well aware that this ancient and enigmatic land in which I was lucky enough to be born has its own history extending far back beyond the arrival of Europeans, and its own people whose relationship to the land is something I can only contemplate and admire rather wistfully from afar. As far as Australia is concerned, European settlement is only the tip of the iceberg, but there is no denying that it is a very interesting tip.

Perhaps it is because my main heritage is British that I also love British literature, especially writings from the 19th century onwards. This merges, most satisfactorily for me, into the early history and literature of Australia since the arrival of the First Fleet. If there is a dichotomy somewhere in there, it is one I am very comfortable with.