Acclaimed author Dr Dell Brand started writing books, “by accident”. The former high school PE teacher was looking for a new challenge when her husband John found an advertisement for a freelance journalism course. Dell signed up, and before even finishing the course, landed her first freelance job; a travel piece in the Illawarra Mercury in 1999.

“It gave me a new passion,” says Dell, an avid adventurer who wrote about her biking, camping and caravanning holidays (including snow and cave camping) across Australia, Europe and the United States with her husband John.

On one of these adventures, Dell and John stumbled across a potter in Pilliga, a town west of Narrabri. Dell wrote a travel piece that changed the course of her career. 

The steepest learning curve

“I said to John, ‘Who am I going to send this story to? So, we scanned the magazine racks in the local Pilliga newsagent and found the Australian Ceramics and Pottery magazine. They published it and wanted more stories.”

Over the next five years, Dell, who has three university degrees in education, including a PhD based on a longitudinal study into the impact of outdoor education on learning outcomes, wrote hundreds of pieces about pottery. To say, she stepped outside of her comfort zone is an understatement.

“It was a topic I knew nothing about,” she says. “It was the steepest learning curve, but what I was writing wasn’t technical, it was human interest.”

Curiosity and an interest in people, along with a love of reading and writing, led Dell on her next big adventure; an author of historical fiction. She was still teaching at Warilla High School but began future planning for her retirement in 2003.

Why not write a book?

“I realised pretty quickly that this new job as a freelance writer wasn't going to be a money maker,” laughs Dell. “But it was something I was passionate about and I wanted to pursue it. One day my daughter said to me ‘you’re always complaining about kids coming into Year 7 and not wanting to read books, why don’t you write one. So I did.”

Her first novel, a children's book called History’s a Mystery, published in 2002. The book was an “amazing success,” and won praise from the Children’s Book Council of Australia.  

Dell began visiting schools and talking to students about the book and “found out very quickly that kids like a series.” 

“There was never going to be a next one,” laughs Dell. “I had used up all my good ideas in this first one. So I started asking the kids what they wanted and they came up with the most amazing ideas for the next three books.”

Call for illustrations  

From chapters on topics as wide-ranging as Simpson’s Donkey to Jesus, Dell’s books covered all aspects of history, and her loyal readers loved it. The author even put the call out to students to submit illustrations, which are featured in her books.

“The number one mistake I made with the first book was not including pictures,” she says. “I wrote the book for reluctant readers, and what does a reluctant reader like? Illustrations.” 

Dell reached out to her number one fans while doing speaking engagements at schools and asked them to send in their drawings for the next books in the series. 

“I said to them ‘you’re not going to get paid, but if you want to get your name in print send me your illustrations.’ The kids really loved being a part of the process and all four books in the History is a Mystery series feature their work.”

Fast forward a few decades and the former Kiama resident (she now lives on a property in Calderwood) has 13 books under her belt, and is in the midst of writing number 14. Her most recent published work, Wylde Oates, won the General Fiction prize at the London Book Fair. 

Wylde Oates

It is also the pick of the month for the book club she runs in Kiama. The book begins in Lanark Mill, a cotton factory in Scotland, and follows the journey of a young man who is sentenced to prison in NSW.

“John and I visited the mill when we were in Scotland, and I like to write about places I’ve been to,” explains Dell. “That’s why I’m finding this new book difficult to write. I need to get over there.”

The “over there” Dell is referring to is Western Australia, specifically the south-western town of Busselton, where her new novel is set.

Dell and John were forced to put their travel on hold when John was diagnosed with a brain tumour, just about a year ago. His decline was fast, less than 10 months, and Dell was by his side every painful step of the way.

“Everything ground to a halt, first with COVID and then with John’s illness,” explains Dell.

“I’m just getting back on the horse.”

Write, explore and connect

The horse she is referring to is travel, a life-long passion she and John shared. Now she is adjusting to doing it without her soulmate. Dell has bought herself a new car and small caravan, and along with her best mate, her dog Max, she will get back to writing, exploring and creating connections.

“I’m hoping to get on with life on my own, and to travel just like John and I did,” she says, blinking back tears. “Max will be my companion on the road. It’s lonely without John, but I’m very fortunate to have family nearby.” She points out the window of her Calderwood property to her daughter’s house on the hill.

Dell is also looking forward to reconnecting with her caravanning family, travellers from around Australia and the world who have been her biggest supporters.

“People come up with the most amazing stories, based on things they have experienced or people they know and when I’m travelling and going around to caravan parks there’s always someone happy to have a chat,” she says. 

Her caravanning family

Fellow caravanners are also Dell’s biggest fans, and during her decades on the road she has sold hundreds of her books to other travellers. Despite her success as an author, almost all her novels have won or been shortlisted for prestigious national and international awards, Dell has been unable to find a mainstream publisher in Australia willing to market and sell her books. 

“It’s really frustrating,” she says. “There are only a few publishing houses in Australia that will even consider historical novels.” 

Dell will continue to self-promote and sell her books when she hits the road again later this year to research her upcoming novel. When asked to choose her favourite book, Dell says that would be akin to choosing a favourite grandchild (she has five).

“John’s favourite was The Weif, set in Tasmania and South Australia,” says Dell. “Botany Boys is loosely based on John’s great Uncle, the first soldier from Botany to die in WWI. He loved that one too.”

When pressed to pick, Dell settles on Darwin, a book which has a special place in her heart. 

“Before I lost John, we would travel to Darwin every year and stay up there for four months,” she says. “I would write and John would fish. I think this is a fantastic book, set between WWI and Cyclone Tracy, and the impact of those years on the people of the Top End.”

The hardest book to write

The hardest book she has ever written is Stina, based on the life of her great-grandmother Christina. Dell spent years painstakingly poring over newspapers and diary entries to piece together Christina’s journey from Sweden to Australia when she was 14 and her family’s subsequent story.

“She had the most horrendous life,” says Dell. “She married at 16, had four children by 21. Then her husband died and she had no income, no support and four babies. It was a very hard book to write, I knew a lot about her but I had to fill in the gaps with best guesses.” 

Key to good research

Dell credits her time as a volunteer at the Kiama Family History Centre for more than 20 years (she and John lived near Jones Beach for three decades after they were married) for her impeccable research skills and her love of history. She began volunteering there while researching her own family’s background. 

“When I'm doing my research, I always try to find original sources,” says Dell. “When I was writing about the gold rush in Cry to the Wind, I used diaries, newspaper clippings and journals written at the time. First-hand information is the key to good research and accurate writing of history.”

As is a lived experience, and Dell is itching to get back on the road. She knows it will be bittersweet without her beloved husband by her side. She also knows John would want her to get back to doing the thing they loved best, adventuring.

For more information, or to purchase Dell’s books visit: www.authordellbrand.com.au