Libby Harkness
I am a biography writer. I also document family, corporate and club histories. My long career in journalism covered many fields including travel, hospitality, pharmaceutical and medical. I have had many of my own non-fiction books published. 

Local Availability: Sydney-based but will travel nationally or internationally by negotiation.

Media Experience
Print, Web

Biographical Note
When I started my journalism career in New Zealand it was as a means to an end - to write books. But it was to be many years before I wrote my first book, a birth guide, published in 1986. By then I had moved to Australia and worked as a journalist and an editor in a variety of fields, everything from travel to medical. My first major work, "Looking for Lisa" (Random House 1992) was individual stories of Australian and New Zealand women who had relinquished babies for adoption during the 1950s, 60s and 70s and their reunion with them more than 20 years later. It had the most profound impact on anyone touched by adoption and I received hundreds of letters from all over the world from people wanting to tell their stories. The book had involved an enormous amount of research, as had my two earlier books on birth, and I decided that this, along with my empathetic interviewing style, was my forte. My next book "Skin Deep, a Consumer's Guide to Cosmetic Surgery in Australia" (Doubleday 1994) also required extensive research and hundreds of interviews. My first biography "My Left Breast" was about a breast cancer survivor. I enjoyed the process of recording, structuring and writing her story so much I gravitated to biography writing. While I seem to attract work that is often medically-related, I can and do write about anything. Most people have a good life story to tell; the trick is to winkle out the really interesting bits and weave them in; not just record a life in chronological order. Some people want to get their history down for family posterity; others want to reach a wider audience. I can take your story from its kernel to wherever you want it to go. 


Published Writings
Birth: Where & How NSW (Horan, Wall & Walker 1986)
Birth: Where & How Victoria (Horan, Wall & Walker 1986)
Birth: Where & How -- second editions (Universal Publications 1988)
Looking for Lisa (Random House 1992, Australia, New Zealand)
Skin Deep - a Consumer's Guide to Cosmetic Surgery (Doubleday 1994)
Everything You Need to Know About Cosmetic Surgery (Key Porter Books 1997, Canada)
My Left Breast (Joss & Co 1999, Australia)
The Australian Guide to Cosmetic Surgery (Coulomb Communications 2004)
Dr Toby Barton -- a life (2006 Australia)
Pure Trust - IVF & Me (2009 Australia)


Contact Details
Sydney, Australia
Phone: +61(0)411477200
Internet: www.writerforhire.com.au

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