Originally from Western Australia, M L Stedman has for many years lived in London, where she worked as a lawyer. She first decided to try creative writing in 1997, and set about finding a writing tutor. In the years that followed she did a few writing courses, and some of her short stories were published in anthologies.
Her debut novel, The Light Between Oceans, draws inspiration from the landscape of her native Western Australia, though she wrote and researched much of it, at the British Library. Her UK publisher saw off bids from nine other companies in the run up to the book world's biggest trade event, the Frankfurt Book Fair, to secure Commonwealth publication rights. In 2016, the book was made into a film starring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander.
On the shelves