About Sabine Nielsen
Sabine Nielsen was born in 1952 into a merchant family in Wyk auf Föhr, an island in the North Sea. She left High School in Year 11 to start an apprenticeship in her parents‘ shop. On her first self-funded holiday she met a young Australian and decided to follow him to Australia. In Melbourne she was quickly swallowed up by her husband‘s large family, who wanted to shape her into an ‘Australian’.
After she had tried out several jobs, she decided to sit for her matriculation and she studied English and Sociology at Monash University, Melbourne. When a son was born, she added a Diploma of Education.
'You are German, you can teach German’, she was told at her first school. Twenty-five years after she had arrived in Australia the long-suppressed wish to write resurfaced. The breakdown of the marriage opened new possibilities. From the beginning, Nielsen knew that both of her homelands, Germany and Australia, had to feature in her writing. She embarked on a four-part series in German, which follows the fate of a family on the island of Föhr where the author was born. Interwoven is her own experience of living as a migrant. Nielsen researches each of her books thoroughly, this led to her contacting several Germans, who had migrated to Australia but who had experienced WWII in Germany – the same as her two detecting protagonists, who solve ‘cold cases’ on the island of Föhr and, with the help of their nieces, in Australia. ‘It was always important to me to allow the reader an insight into the experience of migration.’
The lengthy conversations with Germans, some of whom had lived in Australia for over fifty years, convinced Nielsen: These stories have to be written down in their own right. They are witness to a time that must not be forgotten. Ein bisschen Heimat im Gepäck (In my Luggage Memories) evolved.
Ebbe, Flut und Tod (2007); Die Frau des Marschbauern (2008); Die Stimmen der Villa Blanke Hans (2009) and Am Galliberg (2011) were published by Schardt Verlag Oldenburg. Charlotte Frohmacher entdeckt das Weihnachtsgeheimnis (audio book, 2011) is a children’s story, which the author co-produced with Adrian Plitzco (SBS Radio) and with the assistance of the German Lutheran Holy Trinity Church and the German School Melbourne. Several children’s books as well as a new novel set on the island of Föhr are planned. The author contributed three chapters to a book about Australia, 'Australien – Wie wir es sehen' (Australia - As we see it), published by Drachenmond Verlag, 2012.
In November 2014 she posted her first ebook: Lovelorn is a romance-cum-who-dunnit, published by Random House Australia. In March 2015, another children’s book is published in Germany: Ole Hannsen steuert zur Insel Föhr (author: Sabine Nielsen, illustrator Judith Sodemann, publisher: ihleo Verlag Husum).
Sabine regularly contributes articles to the German national weekly Die Woche and the Inselmagazin, a publication of the sh:z media group.
Sabine is also the coordinator of the exhibition “Memories in my Luggage” that compliments the book with portraits, texts, pertinent quotes, informative posters and memorabilia.
To view Sabine's other publication go to www.sabinenielsen.net
After she had tried out several jobs, she decided to sit for her matriculation and she studied English and Sociology at Monash University, Melbourne. When a son was born, she added a Diploma of Education.
'You are German, you can teach German’, she was told at her first school. Twenty-five years after she had arrived in Australia the long-suppressed wish to write resurfaced. The breakdown of the marriage opened new possibilities. From the beginning, Nielsen knew that both of her homelands, Germany and Australia, had to feature in her writing. She embarked on a four-part series in German, which follows the fate of a family on the island of Föhr where the author was born. Interwoven is her own experience of living as a migrant. Nielsen researches each of her books thoroughly, this led to her contacting several Germans, who had migrated to Australia but who had experienced WWII in Germany – the same as her two detecting protagonists, who solve ‘cold cases’ on the island of Föhr and, with the help of their nieces, in Australia. ‘It was always important to me to allow the reader an insight into the experience of migration.’
The lengthy conversations with Germans, some of whom had lived in Australia for over fifty years, convinced Nielsen: These stories have to be written down in their own right. They are witness to a time that must not be forgotten. Ein bisschen Heimat im Gepäck (In my Luggage Memories) evolved.
Ebbe, Flut und Tod (2007); Die Frau des Marschbauern (2008); Die Stimmen der Villa Blanke Hans (2009) and Am Galliberg (2011) were published by Schardt Verlag Oldenburg. Charlotte Frohmacher entdeckt das Weihnachtsgeheimnis (audio book, 2011) is a children’s story, which the author co-produced with Adrian Plitzco (SBS Radio) and with the assistance of the German Lutheran Holy Trinity Church and the German School Melbourne. Several children’s books as well as a new novel set on the island of Föhr are planned. The author contributed three chapters to a book about Australia, 'Australien – Wie wir es sehen' (Australia - As we see it), published by Drachenmond Verlag, 2012.
In November 2014 she posted her first ebook: Lovelorn is a romance-cum-who-dunnit, published by Random House Australia. In March 2015, another children’s book is published in Germany: Ole Hannsen steuert zur Insel Föhr (author: Sabine Nielsen, illustrator Judith Sodemann, publisher: ihleo Verlag Husum).
Sabine regularly contributes articles to the German national weekly Die Woche and the Inselmagazin, a publication of the sh:z media group.
Sabine is also the coordinator of the exhibition “Memories in my Luggage” that compliments the book with portraits, texts, pertinent quotes, informative posters and memorabilia.
To view Sabine's other publication go to www.sabinenielsen.net
