Colleen McCullough, Australian author of The Thorn Birds, dies

A picture dated 17 October 2005 shows Australian author Colleen McCullough posing for photographs in Sydney, Australia. - EPA

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian author Colleen McCullough, whose 1977 best-selling novel The Thorn Birds became a smash hit television miniseries, has died at the age of 77.

McCullough turned to writing after working for more than a decade as a neuroscientist in Australia, Britain and the United States and scored almost immediate success with The Thorn Birds, a family drama set on a sheep station in the Australian outback.