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Morning News

Novelist Colleen McCullough Discusses 'Morgan's Run'

Aired September 14, 2000 - 11:53 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANDRIA HALL, CNN ANCHOR: Novelist Colleen Mccullough is out with a new book. "Morgan's Run" takes place in her native Australia. It's about the birth of Australia in the 1700s. The story is packed with history and drama, love and hatred.

And for more now about her new book, we are joined by author Colleen McCullough in New York.

Good morning, or afternoon, I am not sure which it is at this point point. I've been up for a while.

COLLEEN MCCULLOUGH, "MORGAN'S RUN": Good morning will do.

HALL: Good morning.

Now, this story, "Morgan's Run" centers around what some say is one of the most significant voyages in history, Britain's need to rid itself of its population or a surplus of prisoners. But it's also a personal story for you, isn't it? Explain to us.

MCCULLOUGH: Yes, because it's the story of a convict on that first fleet to Botany Bay, which later, of course, Australia. He was my husband's four-times great grandfather.

HALL: And you had this story idea swirling in your head for just a short time, nearly a decade.

MCCULLOUGH: That is right.

HALL: How is it that you continue to give life to an for yourself, where it is materialized here, but it's not on paper?

MCCULLOUGH: I think I just turn it over and over in my head. More thinking about what kind of people they had to be, knowing the facts and trying to find the absolutely right personality for each of the characters, particularly for Richard Morgan, because he carries the story.

HALL: You did an awful lot of research for this.

MCCULLOUGH: Yes.

HALL: I know that you commissioned your daughter, Melissa, to basically research not only the family history, but 18th century history.

MCCULLOUGH: Yes.

HALL: And so the authenticity that is now represented in these pages is one where you said that you had to digest for yourself. You had to ingest it and then spit it out on the typewriter?

MCCULLOUGH: That is correct. Yes, she went and gathered the facts, and then I had to do all of the thinking about the facts, the reading and whatever.

HALL: Ma'am, let's talk about your mega success, "The Thornbirds."

MCCULLOUGH: Yes.

HALL: After producing a work like that, which of course ended up in a mini-series that I know I have seen personally and cried about over and over and over again, how is it that you satisfy your readers' insatiable appetite for that kind of drama, and have you done that successfully, do you believe, in "Morgan's Run"?

MCCULLOUGH: I don't know. "Morgan's Run" is a very appealing book and it is a great read. It's different than "Thornbirds." I never tried to right "Son of Thornbirds" or "Road to Thornbirds" or "Return to Thornbirds" simply because I don't believe that you can repeat a great act.

I don't quite know why "Thornbirds" appealed to so many people. It just did. And so I then wrote a lot of other books that had nothing to do with Australia.

In returning to Australia, I have chosen a very different kind of subject, but one that apparently people like just as much.

HALL: I know one of the things that appealed to me was Richard Chamberlain in the miniseries. Works form me.

Colleen McCollough, the book is "Morgan's Run," and we thank you very much for joining us. Much success for you.

MCCULLOUGH: My pleasure. Thank you.

HALL: OK, you are welcome.

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