Award-winning Australian history author

Louise Wilson brings overlooked people from Australia’s colonial and family history to life through meticulous research and compelling storytelling.

Winner of four major family-history writing awards, including the 2025 Don Grant Award.

Intrigued by her own connection to the First Fleet through her forebear Robert Forrester, and always a keen puzzle-solver, Louise loves the challenge of solving the mystery of 'who was this person?'

The research and thinking process can take years, up to fifteen years as with her latest non-fiction book, the biography 'Richard Ridge: Convict, Trader and Bailiff in Early Colonial NSW'. On 31 May 2026 it won the Don Grant Award 2025, the judges describing it as 'the model of how a biography of an ancestor should be written’. A paperback, it can be ordered here.

Every family history is built on the relationships between couples - hopefully these are love stories.

So it's a natural extension for Louise to venture beyond the constraints of a non-fiction writer and delve into romantic fiction, writing as Louisa Valentine. Louisa's 'slow burn' romance stories often feature complex relationships and issues, the kind of book she likes to read herself. 'Women's fiction', if you like.

Her most recent novel 'Still Waters Run Deep' can be ordered here. (Available as paperback or ebook.)

Read her latest blog post here.