Ethel Turner, who was born in England in 1870, travelled to Australia when she was ten years old along with her mother and sisters. While at school, she demonstrated a strong interest in literature, and in her late teens, she and her sister Lilian Turner founded a literary and social magazine in Sydney. For an astounding 62 years, Ethel chronicled her full and exciting life in journals. She wrote in her diary in January 1893, "Night started a new story that I shall call Seven Little Australians." She completed the book later that year, packaged it, and submitted it to a Melbourne publisher. Throughout her life, Ethel Turner authored more than 40 volumes, many of which were collections of poems, short stories, and children's stories that were published in the Sun Herald and Town and Country magazines. Children all throughout the world have read and adored Seven Little Australians, and the book has been in continuous publication for more than a century.