Ethel Turner – The Spirit Behind Seven Little Australians

Tonight’s Bedtime Story steps into the life of Ethel Turner, the young woman who penned Seven Little Australians, a book that has never stopped breathing in Australian hearts. Ethel was a storyteller long before the world recognised her as one. With a fierce imagination and a steady determination, she wrote with honesty about childhood, family, rebellion and love at a time when literature rarely dared to show children as they truly were.

In this episode, we follow Ethel from her early days in England to her new beginning in Sydney, where hardship, loss and upheaval shaped both her life and her voice. We explore the craft, courage and quiet daring that allowed her to write stories that still feel alive more than a century later. This is Ethel Turner as a dreamer, a disruptor and a woman who gave Australia a literary classic that refuses to fade.

Hear the Nightline Bedtime Story live at 11.30pm AEDT, during The Nightline, broadcasting 8pm till midnight Monday to Friday, right across the 2SM Super Radio Network with Cheralyn Darcey.