World - famous writer and national treasure Colleen McCullough has always resisted the idea of writing an autobiography - books on the subject of the self tend to be ''stuffed to pussy's bow with boring bits''. But her mind has a life of its own. Here, finally, is its portrait. Among the personal reminiscences and thought - provoking musings in Life Without the Boring Bits lie clues as to the shaping of this extraordinary mind: the confused, impulsive, thoughtlessly cruel mother; the miserly absentee father; the far - reaching effects bureaucrats can have on the lives of strangers; the riddle of Time ... Colleen's mind laughs at life. It cries at life. Its memory is phenomenal, its appetite for new knowledge insatiable. And though it holds the secrets to how the books were written, this is a mind that can tell stories against itself and see things that were never there. If Colleen McCullough has any lesson to teach in Life Without the Boring Bits, it is that nothing above, below, or on the surface of the Earth can keep a good mind down, let alone break it.