Colleen McCullough, Author of ‘The Thorn Birds,’ Dies at 77

The New York Times ^ | January 29, 2015 | Margalit Fox

[EveningStar]

Colleen McCullough, a former neurophysiological researcher at Yale who, deciding to write novels in her spare time, produced “The Thorn Birds,” a multigenerational Australian romance that became an international best seller and inspired a hugely popular television mini-series, died on Thursday on Norfolk Island in the South Pacific, where she had made her home for more than 30 years. She was 77.

[Ax]

I was a co-panelist at a chili cook-off with Richard Chamberlain at the Marine House at the Embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1985. He was a real nice guy, didn’t hit on any Marines. Sharon Stone was there as well. They were there filming “King Solomon’s Mine’s.”

[fieldmarshaldj]

Chamberlain seemed to strike me as someone who has kept his personal business to himself. I don’t think we’d have half the problems we do with gays today if they stopped flaunting it perpetually and demanding applause for their lifestyle.

[Ax]

Concur.