About Julia Gregson

I have always wanted to be a writer, but left school very young (16) after a fairly hit and miss education, longing to travel and have adventures. I worked as a jillaroo in the Australian outback, a girl groom, a shearer’s cook, a hospital assistant, a waitress, and later, back in England, as a house model for Hardy Amies in London.

In the seventies, back in Australia again, love of horses led to riding out with Mick Jagger on the set of Ned Kelly and my first published article in The Sydney Morning Herald. Gave up paid employment, poverty and panic followed, but eventually got more work as a journalist. Secretly wrote short stories that were never published.  I eventually started to write regularly for Australian magazines. In the seventies, I was sent to Vietnam and India to write stories, and later to New York as a foreign correspondent for a group of Australian magazines (Sungravure) where I also worked for Rolling Stone Magazine.

During this time, spent four days with Muhammad Ali in a boxer’s training camp in Pennsylvania, interviewed Buzz Aldrin in Houston; Ronnie Biggs in a Brazilian jail at midnight; president’s wives, film stars in Hollywood and several notorious criminals. All good grist to my story-writing mill.

I enjoy writing short stories and have had many published in places like The Literary Review, The Times, Good Housekeeping, and read on the B.B.C.

Orion published my first novel, THE WATER HORSE, in 2005. I rode a horse across Wales to do the research- a wonderful experience- and then went to Istanbul and Scutari where the rest of the novel is set.

Writing EAST OF THE SUN and MONSOON SUMMER  involved three research trips to India, A great highlight.

I’m married, have one daughter and four stepchildren and live in Monmouthshire with two chickens, two rescue ponies, and a collie called Jellybean

Awards:

2017 'Monsoon summer' WHSmith/Telegraph book of the week (August)
2013 'Jasmine Nights'  Richard and Judy bookclub choice
2010 Winner of The Prince Maurice prize for Literary Love Stories
2009 Romantic novelist of the Year.
2008 'East of the Sun' Richard and Judy Summer Read.

Winner Ryman’s Literary Review Award for first published short story. “Apple Blossom Time”.
Finalist. 2005 Waverton Book Award for first book- The Water Horse, published by Orion.
Fellow of the Welsh Acadami.