When The Thorn Birds was published in 1977, I was studying literature at Sydney University and reading Patrick White and Christina Stead, along with D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. But a year later I made my first trip to Europe and in Paris a friend lent me a copy of Colleen McCullough's pacy, racy family saga. I gulped it down in two days, transported from my hotel room in St Germain to an outback sheep station and the forbidden arms of a handsome priest, filled with sentimental love for my country. No wonder the novel sold 30 million copies and became Australia's all-time bestseller. But for McCullough, who died last week aged 77, The Thorn Birds' popularity was an albatross because publishers wanted more of the same. Instead, she wrote seven novels set in the Roman republic and in 2004 I dined with her and her fan Bob Carr in his office as NSW Premier while they discussed their shared fascination with ancient Rome and her meticulous research. Carr enlisted another fan, US politician Newt Gingrich, to persuade McCullough to write about the late Roman Empire. She didn't, of course, but moved on to writing 1960s US whodunits and Bittersweet, her final novel, which was as close as she got to another Thorn Birds.

A FACE LIKE A CAN-OPENER

In that conversation with Carr, the plain-spoken McCullough mentioned her research on Antony and Cleopatra for the planned seventh Roman novel. "Cleopatra didn't look a bit like flipping Liz Taylor," she said. "Her face could have doubled for a wall can-opener: she had a huge, beaky nose that almost met her chin." By comparison The Australian's obituary of McCullough looks pallid, though its second sentence caused international outrage and Twitter imitations last week: "Plain of feature and certainly overweight, she was, nevertheless, a woman of wit and warmth." It was an insult to an acclaimed author and neuroscientist. However, literary agent Selwa Anthony, McCullough's close friend for 40 years, says the angst is excessive. "I can hear Colleen's big laugh at this whole situation and I can honestly say she would be very uncomfortable with the reaction, especially a petition. She was a 'big' lady, and she was 'plain', as she acknowledged many times. To her, none of what was written would have been offensive. Let her RIP and be remembered for the amazing stories she left behind."

SPECTRUM NOW FESTIVAL

Writers feature among the artists at the first Spectrum Now festival, March 11-29 (see the program at spectrumnow.com.au). Richard Glover and Debra Oswald, Andrew Upton and Cate Blanchett, Wesley Enoch and David McAllister, Richard Roxburgh and Silvia Colloca discuss their creative partnerships in Pillow Talk. Kate McClymont, Peter FitzSimons, Amanda Hooton and Joel Meares talk to their dream subjects in Cultural Crushes. I join John McDonald, Ruth Ritchie, Bernard Zuel, Terry Durack and Natalie Bochenski for Everyone's a Critic. Book now!