A new chapter for prolific author
Fiona McIntosh is one of Australia’s most successful authors with 46 books published and more on the way, but there is a new main character in the life of this prolific writer who has taken centre stage – her beloved grandson, Henry.
Fiona McIntosh is one of Australia’s best-selling authors, with more than 1.5 million books sold throughout Australia and New Zealand during her remarkable 25-year literary career.
The 65-year-old writer is known for her commercial fiction novels which feature richly researched stories based in lush locations, with her long list of titles including The Pearl Thief, The Lavender Keeper, Fields of Gold, The Fallen Woman and The Spy’s Wife.
“My books over the past quarter century have been sold and translated into many languages and by dozens of publishers so I have no real fix on the total number of books sold,” Fiona says.
All up, the author has published 46 books during her steady rise to literary fame, an astounding body of work, particularly for someone who only came to writing at the age 40.
But it is the latest chapter in the life of this gifted author that has outshone all the book releases and best-selling statistics, and that is the arrival of Fiona’s first grandchild, Henry.
Fiona and her husband Ian have become first-time grandparents to Henry, aged two, who is the son of their son Jack and his wife Casey.
And it’s clear that becoming a grandmother has had a profound effect on Fiona, who is embracing the role as she does all things in life – at full speed.
Since Henry’s arrival in 2023, Fiona has adjusted her schedule so she can spend two days a week with him, making the two-hour drive from her home in Riverton, in the state’s Mid-North, to Adelaide.
“I knew what I wanted was a very strong, close relationship with this boy,” she says. “In those two days I have been totally responsible for him, because it has allowed Casey to keep up her work.
“I look after him, doing everything, the whole thing. And of course, we’ve become the best of friends. He’s my beloved.”
Such is the sweet bond between grandmother and grandson that, not long after Henry was born, Fiona began writing a storybook for him – just something they could read together down the track. Then her publisher, Penguin Random House, heard about the project.
“I was writing it for Henry on butcher’s paper, and I was going to stick it all together, and we were going to open it one day, the two of us with him on my lap,” Fiona explains.
“It was going to be funny with all these things going wrong and the idea was that Henry was the responsible person in the story and Gran was the lunatic, making everything chaotic, and Henry is the one saying, ‘No, we have to weigh this properly, Gran’.
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“So, Penguin heard about this, and they said, ‘Can we read it? And I said, ‘Oh, no, I’m just doing this for Henry, for when he’s old enough to read with me’. Anyway, I let them read it and they wanted to publish it.”
So, Fiona’s debut picture book, Harry and Gran Bake a Cake, with cute illustrations by Sara Acton, was released earlier this year, adding to the six children’s books Fiona has already published.
The author, who has a real-life passion for baking, changed the title from Henry to Harry just to put some distance between her public and private worlds.
When it comes to her own journey to become a mother, Fiona is open about her struggles. She and Ian had their twins, Jack and Will, now 34, through IVF.
“Mother Nature allowing me to slip through the cracks and use science to do it and get the boys through IVF was incredible,” she says.
“Will is the eldest by two minutes and he thinks that’s a vital two minutes.”
It was when she held her grandson in her arms for the first time, just hours after he was born, that Fiona became quietly overwhelmed by the humanity of the moment.
“Everyone said, ‘We thought you were going to bring the hospital down’, but I was just speechless,” she says.
“I didn’t say anything. I didn’t shed a tear; I just stared at him. I just could not believe that this was the son of my son. It was quite weird to see Jack pick up this tiny little thing in his arms and confidently hold him. I thought, ‘Jack, it was just a moment ago you were in my arms’.”
Fiona’s own life story is almost as action-packed as any of those that fall from the pages of her prose.
She grew up by the beach in Brighton in the United Kingdom, and also spent several years in Ghana, West Africa, where her father Fred worked for a mining company. After studying marketing and working in public relations in London, the then-19-year-old made the trek to Australia alone looking for adventure.
She ended up in Alice Springs and at the age of 22, met her husband-to-be, Ian. The duo moved to Adelaide soon afterwards where they eventually ran a successful travel magazine for 15 years, travelling the globe together.
It wasn’t until the age of 39 that Fiona had what she describes as “a typical midlife crisis” and began exploring the idea of becoming a writer.
“I was looking for something more in my life. I was a mother, I was a wife, I was a daughter, I was all these things to people who needed me to help them,” she says.
“I was also a business owner, we were running our business which was a 24-hour thing, it’s always nagging at you.
“At 39, turning 40, I was waking up thinking, ‘There’s got to be more to life than this’, and I had no business thinking like that because I had a great life. But I was beginning to feel, ‘What happened to that girl with all that ambition and drive that, you know, isn’t there more?’.”
Fiona enrolled in a writing course run by author Bryce Courtney, who would go on to become a close friend and mentor.
With a clear gift for storytelling, the aspiring writer created her first manuscript in just five weeks, and Harper Collins Australia/New Zealand signed the unknown author to a three-book deal, virtually unheard of in the publishing world.
That first novel Betrayal was released in 2001, the first in her Trinity series.
“The very important component that I have often overlooked but only now perhaps accept and realise, is the truth of it. I’ve always been a storyteller,” Fiona says.
“When I realised I wanted to write, it just unlocked this storyteller in me. Even as a kid I could turn an everyday event, like tripping over, into a monstrous tale of woe. I think I’m a born storyteller which is just a lovely, sparkly thing to own if you want to write stories.”
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Being a good storyteller is one thing, but Fiona is also organised, disciplined and no-nonsense when it comes to her writing career, an approach that has seen her create a publishing bonanza.
She works at a furious pace and is constantly juggling three books at any one time – one being researched, one being written, and another being edited and launched.
As well as her commercial fiction books, the prolific writer has also released a series of fantasy novels, as well as fictional crime books featuring the popular Detective Jack Hawksworth. Several of Fiona’s works have also been optioned for the screen and are currently in the slow-moving cogs of the film world.
Most recently, Fiona has been on the publicity trail for her latest release, The Soldier’s Daughter, the sequel to her 2021 novel The Champagne War, and at each public appearance, legions of fans line up to have their books signed and photographs taken with the affable and friendly author.
Her schedule includes literary lunches in Sydney, a writers’ festival in Brisbane and other publicity appearances around the country.
“I always find touring the exhausting bit of what I do but it is very necessary,” Fiona says. “You get to meet the lovely people who are so involved in your stories and your characters, and you realise you’re sitting in that room quietly two years previous, writing this story from your imagination, but it’s touching the hearts of people who are here now holding your hand or wanting to have a photograph with you.
“It’s quite an emotional connection, and it’s only then that you realise the power of what you do, I suppose.
“I’m entertaining them, that is my job. They’ve spent $25 on the book, and they’ve got great value, because they’ve been totally entertained for the time they have spent with it.
“I always see myself as an entertainer. I’m not there with an agenda. I’m not there with a message. I’m not there to win awards or pin medals on myself or anything. I am there simply to entertain a big audience for the time they give to my story.”
Fiona spends two years meticulously researching each novel, travelling the globe and immersing herself into the historical era of each story, from post-World War ll Paris (The Pearl Thief) to Sydney in the roaring ’20s (The Sugar Palace), to 1930s Calcutta (The Tea Gardens).
“Each part of this process has its joy, but the best bit for me is the research, because you feel richly educated about each subject,” Fiona says. “It’s a time of absolute exploration, you know you’ve got this book waving to you from the horizon. You know it’s coming, you’re researching for it, you’re gathering up and arming yourself ready to write it. Once you’re in it, and you’re writing, that’s a whole new feeling.”
As well as writing and researching, Fiona also runs annual masterclasses, aimed at guiding today’s aspiring writers to get their manuscripts into the hands of publishers.
The signature five-day masterclass and the three-day mini masterclass are booked out months in advance, and each participant is held to account to leave the course with a solid path to their publishing dreams.
“It motivates them,” Fiona says. “They can’t say, ‘Oh, I just haven’t been feeling it’. No such thing, not in my class anyway, you don’t get to say those things. Don’t give me your excuses, because the people who make excuses are the people who’ve got all those unfinished manuscripts.
“Insecurity is put aside, and I can say to them with my hand on my heart, you are ready to go once they’ve completed the course.”
Fiona herself remains motivated and driven to keep creating, writing every day in her slightly chaotic office which overlooks the Riverton property.
“My desk is a mess, and the dogs are always around me, and my office through winter doubles as the TV room, because the fire is on all day long for me, so Ian and I both end up in here,” she says.
The couple had always wanted to live in the country and once they were empty nesters, they considered various options before ending up at Riverton.
Both Jack and Will lived interstate for a time in their 20s but Fiona made them promise to return home by the time they turned 30.
“Jack went to Sydney and Will went to Perth and I said to them, ‘We’re going to make a pact. By the time you’re 30, you have to be making tracks back to South Australia,” she says. “And they stuck to it.”
Fiona says they are a tight-knit clan and there are regular family gatherings at the farm with Jack, Casey and little Henry, and Will and his partner Dylan. Fiona’s mother Monnica, 97, also lives close by but sadly her father Fred passed away in 2019, aged 93.
Fiona, Ian and their sons also create time for a family getaway each year with just the four of them.
“I don’t know how we do this. Casey signs off on it, and Dylan signs off on it and the four of us go off together on a road trip,” Fiona says. “The roles are reversed, and the boys are now in charge, and we’re like the children.
“We just got back from a Tassie road trip and then I had to dash to Sydney for the Sydney History Unbound Festival and then I had 24 hours back home to see Mum, see Henry, kiss the boys goodbye, pack and leave for Europe for nearly a month of work, researching books and meetings with an agent and two publishers.”
It is a fast-paced life but one that Fiona embraces, despite the many demands and the time away from her adored Henry.
“I’m at that age where I want to spend a lot of time with my family, spend a lot of time with Henry, because he’s now coming to this fun age,” she says. “He is just this bundle of personality that is talking and curious and just funny. He just makes me laugh every minute that I’m with him. It’s a joy that I am making the most of every day.”
This article first appeared in the December 2025 issue of SALIFE magazine.
