War Flower

Mary-Anne O'Connor debuted at #3 on the Australian fiction bestseller lists in 2015 with her breakout novel Gallipoli Street. Since then, she has gone on to produce continuous bestsellers, from her historical fiction novels surrounding Australia's explosive cultural upheaval during the 19th and 20th centuries, to her escapist English Christmas romance novels. Her novels include Gallipoli Street, Worth Fighting For, War Flower, In A Great Southern Land, Where Fortune Lies, Sisters of Freedom, Dressed By Iris, Never to Surrender and The Stowaway. She has also co-written two non-fiction books about art, A Brush with Light and Secrets of the Brush, with her father, well-known Australian traditional artist Kevin Best. O'Connor lives in a house overlooking her beloved bushland in northern Sydney with her husband Anthony and their two sons Jimmy and Jack. Her latest novel, Christmas Joy, came out in 2025.

Miranda Nation is an award-winning screenwriter and director as well as an actor and voice-over artist. Beginning her multifaceted career as an actor, Nation trained at Jacques Lecoq in Paris (2003–05), before shifting her focus to writing and directing, completing a Graduate Diploma in Directing at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (2010). Her critically acclaimed debut feature as writer/director, Undertow, premiered at Melbourne International Film Festival and was released in cinemas in early 2020. Her short film Perception won the Dendy Award for Best Short Film at the 2014 Sydney Film Festival. Nation's original six-part series as creator/writer/EP, Playing Gracie Darling, will premiere on Paramount+ in 2025. Her debut novel, New Skin, is to be published in 2025.