Joan Druett
Joan Druett is a New Zealand historian and novelist, specialising in maritime history. She was born in Nelson, and raised in Palmerston North, moving to New Zealand's capital city, Wellington, when she was 16. She gained her Bachelor of Arts in English literature from the Victoria University of Wellington, and then worked as a teacher of biology and English literature for many years before publishing her first full-length book when she was 40. She travelled extensively in her 20s - including to Canada, where she lived for a while, Britain and the Middle East.
She went to America as a Fulbright Scholar in 1986, and returned there in 1992 as historian/writer for a museum exhibit, "The Sailing Circle: Seafaring Women of New York," living in Orient, Long Island, where she and her husband, Ron, a maritime artist, were artists in residence at the William Steeple Davis Trust house and studio. While Ron painted and exhibited at galleries such as Mystic Seaport Gallery, she researched and wrote historical novels and books on maritime history. Late 1996 she and Ron returned to New Zealand, and set up house in Wellington in 1997. In 2001 she was the John David Stout Fellow at the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies, Victoria University, and is still an associate.
She is married to Ron Druett and has two sons. Ron is a well-regarded maritime artist and has illustrated many of her histories..
|
Series: The Wiki Coffin Mysteries |
||
|
Year |
Book | Comment |
| 1838 | A Watery Grave |
Ship's linguist Wiki Coffin is arrested for a vicious murder he didn't commit. |
| Shark Island | Wiki must investigate the murder of a ship's captain | |
| Run Afoul | Wiki's father is on trial for murder, and he must unmask the real killers before the Expedition sails. | |
| Deadly Shoals | Wiki must risk both life and reputation in pursuit of a vicious and determined killer who has set his sights on another target: the U.S. Exploring Expedition itself. | |
AOS Naval Non Fiction
|
Series: n/a |
||
|
Year |
Book | Comment |
| Tupaia | Captain Cook's Polynesian Navigator | |
AOS Other Non Fiction
|
Series: n/a |
||
|
Year |
Book | Comment |
| Rough Medicine | Surgeons at Sea in the Age of Sail | |
| Petticoat Whalers | Whaling Wives at Sea, 1820-1920 | |
| Island of the Lost | Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World | |
| Hen Frigates | Passion and Peril, Nineteenth-Century Women at Sea | |
| In the Wake of Madness | The Murderous Voyage of the Whaleship Sharon | |
AOS Other Nautical Fiction
|
Series: n/a |
||
|
Year |
Book | Comment |
| Abigail | Abigail Sherman, seeks love, adventure, and treasure around the world after she inherits her father's whaling ship | |
| 1848 | A Promise of Gold | English actress Harriet Gray faces claim jumpers, pirates, and thieves in a glorious quest for gold and love |
The author’s official web site is www.joan.druett.gen.nz