Joanne van Os (born 1955) is an Australian author of memoir, children's, and adult fiction.

Personal life

Van Os, born in 1955, grew up in Melbourne and moved to Darwin at age 20. At age 22, she met her future husband Rod Ansell, widely regarded as the inspiration for the character

Crocodile Dundee ''Crocodile Dundee'' is a 1986 action comedy film set in the Australian Outback and in New York City. It stars Paul Hogan as the weathered Mick Dundee and American actress Linda Kozlowski as reporter Sue Charlton. Inspired by the true-life ex ...

, with whom she had two sons and subsequently divorced. Van Os later remarried and had a daughter. She is currently based in Darwin. Her daughter died in a boating accident in 2009 aged 16, and her parents decided to donate her organs. After this, van Os became an advocate for organ donation and increasing the amount of accessible information available to families regarding the donation process. Through her sister Leonie, van Os is aunt to actors

Luke Luke may refer to: People and fictional characters * Luke (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Luke (surname), including a list of people with the name * Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luk ...

Chris Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian, Christina, and Christine. Chris is also used as a name in its own right, however it is not as common. People with the given name * Chris Abani (born 1966), Nigerian autho ...

, and

Liam Hemsworth Liam Hemsworth (born 13 January 1990) is an Australian actor. He played the roles of Josh Taylor (Neighbours), Josh Taylor in the soap opera ''Neighbours'' and Marcus in the children's television series ''The Elephant Princess''. In American fi ...

Career

Van Os worked as a lab researcher, a radio operator, a teacher and an electorate officer. In 2005, she published a memoir about her time with Ansell titled ''Outback Heart.'' She has subsequently published three novels for children and a historical fiction novel for adults.

Bibliography

Memoir

*''Outback Heart'' (2005,

Bantam Books Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin Jr., Sidney B. K ...

)

Children’s books

*''Brumby Plains'' (2006,

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House Limited is a British-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was or ...

) *''Castaway'' (2007, Penguin Random House) *''The Secret of the Lonely Isles'' (2011, Penguin Random House)

Fiction

*''Ronan’s Echo'' (2014,

Pan Macmillan Pan Books is a British publishing imprint that first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the British-based Macmillan Publishers, owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group of Germany. History Pan Books began as an indepe ...

)

References

External links

* Living people Australian children's writers Australian people of Dutch descent Australian people of Irish descent Australian women memoirists Australian women children's writers Australian women novelists 21st-century Australian novelists 21st-century Australian women writers 21st-century Australian memoirists 1955 births {{Australia-writer-stub