Compelling narratives, vivid landscapes and intricate research are the hallmarks of Nicole Alexander’s bestselling historical novels. Published internationally, she is a past judge of the ARA Historical Novel Prize Australasia and the Historical Novel Society Colleen McCullough Residency. 

Her debut novel The Bark Cutters was shortlisted for an Australian Book Industry Award and she has a Master of Letters in Creative Writing. Nicole lives in northwest NSW. 

Her most recent release is The Limestone Road which is book club pick for History Unbound. 

Nicole Alexander and Kate Forsyth will both be available to answer your questions about their writing process, inspiration, research methods, and novels: The Limestone Road and Psykhe on Sunday 2 November at our Book Club.

Learn more about The Limestone Road below. 

If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would it be and why?

Alexandre Dumas. In 1893 my great-grandfather and his two brothers selected our property in northwest NSW. That same year my great grandfather ordered a copy of the Count of Monte Christo. It was delivered by the postal rider and arrived at their simple one room hut  wrapped in twine on the back of pack horse. I imagine my great-grandfather and his brothers reading aloud from the novel. Perhaps sitting by a camp fire beneath a fat lazy moon with the bush stretching out in engulfing silence. That work of literature would have broken the isolation and monotony of the camp and given the men great joy and comfort. No doubt they discussed the plot as the story unfolded as they tended sheep or cut timber for fences. I'd love to tell Alexandre this story. For this extraordinary author to know that in a small corner of Australia, nearly fifty years after the novels publication a small group of men were given respite from their daily toils and left enthralled by his words.

From the deserts of Egypt to the rolling hills of South Australia, The Limestone Road is a captivating novel about one soldier's courageous journey 'home'.

In the summer of 1944 returning soldiers Canning Christie and his father Michael arrive in South Australia from the desert sands of North Africa. Canning carries the trauma of war and a fractured memory of a terrible event, while charismatic Michael resumes his womanising ways, intent on concealing his own secret wound.

Inexplicably drawn to a vineyard on their land, Canning dreams of producing his own wine. And a chance meeting with Grace Huntley, daughter of the local landowner, offers him hope for that future. But dormant memories keep rising up: his childhood with his mother, the years traversing the interior with his father and his time at the front.

Soon, viniculture becomes an obsession - one he suspects lies in a hazy recollection of a night in battle. To move forward Canning must reconcile the past, even if that means working with Italian POWs and accepting help from an immigrant German . . .And ultimately taking a stand against his own father, whose increasingly reckless behaviour is threatening to destroy their new life.