Caroline macdonald author biography

Writing primarily for a readership of older children and young adults, Caroline Macdonald created stories that frequently featured 'young people' who were 'lonely and physically or emotionally isolated from others'.

Caroline macdonald author biography

The author spent her formative years in New Zealand, growing up as the youngest (by eleven years) of four siblings and this childhood experience had a lasting resonance for Macdonald whose writing reflected a 'particular interest in isolated characters'.

The daughter of an electrical engineer and a librarian, Macdonald attended Stratford primary and technical high schools.

Weekends and summer holidays were spent at Oakura, where the family had a beach house; this location became the setting for her first published work, the young adult novella, Elephant Rock (1983). Macdonald studied in Wellington and became an accountant, and although she held various jobs her main vocational experience was in the book trade.

While still in New Zealand she worked as an edito