Barbara Randell

Barbara was born in a small Australian town in 1942, then educated for 9 years in a one-roomed school with all grades taught by a single teacher. She left home at 14, to spend 4 years in a girls’ boarding school, followed by 8 years at Universities, where she became an environmental scientist. After marrying and raising 2 daughters, she taught in high schools, universities and adult education for 20 years. She is now widowed and has a teenage grandson.

Barbara has been writing stories ever since childhood, her earliest reading loves were Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, and Ngaio Marsh. She writes stories set in small country towns, or their surroundings. The first published, in 2018, was a sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice; then in 2021, a memoir of her childhood on a farm in the Queensland Bush; later she moved to retellings of other Austen stories, and a cosy mystery-romance novella, all set in Australia. She has also published a book of Short Stories ...cosy mysteries set in scattered sites across Australia, all of which she has visited, and knows well.

Most recently, she has begun writing for children -- specifically for middle-grade readers, aged from about 9 to 12 years. All the books are set in Australia, and introduce readers to aspects of Australia's particular environments, a topic she is passionate about. For example, there are 2 books telling of a dog's adventures in the Outback; and another set in the bushland around Adelaide.