Ethel Turner is the author of some of Australia's best-selling children's books including Seven Little Australians and The Cub. She was the editor of the Children's Page in the Town and Country Journal for 27 years and then Chief Sunbeamer for the Sunday Sun. In private life she was Mrs H. R. Curlewis.

This intimate collection of Ethel's diary entries from 1889 to 1930 presents an intriguing window into the life of a literary icon: from her entry into the Sydney literary and social scene, a long and turbulent engagement period, her marriage and domesticity, motherhood, an overseas trip, war years and the tragic loss of her beloved daughter Jean in 1930, an event which renders her diary pages blank from that moment on.

Candid and imaginative, The Diaries of Ethel Turner provide an understanding of her unique place in Australia's heritage.