Louise Wilson
Melbourne-based author Louise Wilson has 'evolved' through life experience and inclination into her current role as a researcher and writer of non-fiction books about aspects of Australian history. Her books feature careful research, lots of thinking and a focus on telling an interesting story.
Writing always attracted her. During her career with senior roles in the finance sector she was the author of several textbook chapters on international finance, and wrote occasional articles and book reviews for Current Affairs Bulletin, Business Review Weekly, and Overseas Trading.
For many years she maintained a side interest, mostly voluntary, in community education. For example, she was once a high school mathematics teacher at South Dubbo and Barrenjoey High Schools; as a volunteer she worked on the National Trust Landscape Conservation Committee in Sydney, helped to establish the Cameragal Montessori School at North Sydney and ran the Scecgs Redlands Adult Education Centre at Cremorne; she was a long term volunteer with the Australian Institute of Export and then Executive Director of the College of International Business in Melbourne. In the mid 1990s she worked as a consultant to the Chancellor of Swinburne University of Technology and was a member of Swinburne's Board of TAFE. This community education focus resulted in several publications, including a story on Ockham's Razor (ABC) in 1991 and the book 'Brainboxes' in 1994.
The skills she gained as a non-fiction writer explaining complicated international finance topics to the general reader have been brought to the task of writing about aspects of history. Nine books have been published since 2007, with more biographical works in preparation. She hopes her books and articles make for easy and interesting reading. They reflect her continuing interest in various aspects of community education.
Perhaps Louise could be described as a workaholic. But there has been time to 'get a life' as well. When she first married at the age of twenty, she expected to have one husband and three children. Instead it turned out to be the other way around. Her daughter has two sets of twins, at present aged nineteen and eighteen, involving her in plenty of Gran duty, so life has been busy and fascinating.
More details of Louise Wilson's activities can be found on her author's Blog and on her Facebook and Instagram pages.
And don't forget to check out her Louisa Valentine page.
Author Talks
In recent years, she has given formal talks on the following range of topics:
- Story Telling - Disinterring Our Early Convict Settlers
- Arthur Phillip, the Spirit of Australia Day
- Family History - a Journey. 'Oh, the places you'll go!'
- Life of Margaret Flockton, Botanical Artist
- Aspects of Structuring a Family History
- Writing Family History Stories
- The Power of Education - a Cornish Tale of How the Wheel Turned Full Circle
- Flockton & Boulton - the War that Changed Them
- Creating a Sense of Tension and Integrating Conflict or Struggle in a Family Story
- Turning Family History Research into a Truth-Telling Exercise
- Aspects of Leadership - Governor Arthur Phillip
- FORTHCOMING, Hawkesbury Family History Group, Windsor Library, Wed 8 April 2026, 10am, 'Richard Ridge - Opening a Surprise Package'
- FORTHCOMING, Hawkesbury Historical Society, St Andrew's Uniting Church Hall, Richmond, Sat 27 Jun 2026, 2 pm, 'Richard Ridge'.
Louisa Valentine
More recently. she has extended her writing to publish fiction.
While learning some of the novelist's craft, she belonged to Romance Writers of Australia and the Melbourne Romance Writers Guild, both excellent training grounds for writers and fun learning places.
Read about her alter ego as Louisa Valentine here.
