Author Profile

I was born in Geelong, Victoria, in 1948. In the early 1950s, Geelong's primary schools were crowded and there wasn't a place for me till I was six years old. I was so bored at home that my mother taught me to read. I learnt very young to occupy and entertain myself with books, and I think this has a lot to do with my love of reading and writing.

Dorothy Johnston

It took me a long time to get around to setting a novel in Geelong. Not until my fourth novel, One For The Master did I try to recreate some of the feelings and atmosphere of growing up in industrial West Geelong, close to the Barwon River. One For The Master was short-listed for the 1998 Miles Franklin Award and has been on the Victorian VCE English syllabus.

After studying and working in Melbourne for some years, I moved to Canberra in 1979. By then I'd published poetry and short stories, written a 'practice' novel, and the draft of what was to appear in 1984 as Tunnel Vision. The '80s were a good decade for me. My son and daughter were born, and I published three novels back to back. After Tunnel Vision came Ruth and Maralinga My Love.

All this time, Canberra, Australia's most unpopular city, was seeping into my bones, and I was trying out different ways of writing about it.

My crime series is a culmination of those years of pondering. My latest literary novel, The House at Number 10, was published in 2005. But writing crime gives me so much pleasure that I can't imagine ever giving it up.