Joanne van Os was born in 1955, and grew up in Melbourne. Her first book, OUTBACK HEART, is a best-selling memoir about life with her first husband, the 'Real Crocodile Dundee' Rod Ansell, mustering wild cattle and buffalo and living a 19th century lifestyle in remote parts of the Northern Territory, and his tragic end in 1999. She followed this book with three children's novels, all set in the far north of Australia and written for the 10 - 14 age group. She lives with her husband Lex Silvester on a yacht in Darwin, NT, and continues to write. Her most recent novel, THE SECRET OF THE LONELY ISLES, was published in February 2011.
