![]() ![]() The book was the basis of a 10-hour television production starring Richard Chamberlain as Father Ralph and Rachel Ward as Meggie. In hardcover, it spent more than a year on the New York Times best-seller list the paperback rights were sold at auction for $1.9 million, a record at the time. “The Thorn Birds,” which has never been out of print, has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and been translated into more than 20 languages. Published in 1977 by Harper & Row, “The Thorn Birds” is set against the sweeping panorama of the author’s native land and was described often in the American news media as an Australian “Gone With the Wind.” Spanning much of the 20th century, it centers on Meggie, the beautiful wife of a loutish rancher, and her illicit affair with Father Ralph, a handsome Roman Catholic priest. McCullough had been in declining health with a variety of ailments in recent years. ![]() The cause was believed to have been kidney failure, her agent, Michael V. ![]() ![]() 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. ![]()
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