Kayte Nunn Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Kayte Nunn is a historical and general fiction author that has lived in the United States and England and then spent more than two decades in Sydney Australia. During this time, she worked as the editor of the Gourmet Traveller WINE magazine since she had more than twenty years of experience in publishing. Since she was a child, she had been known for writing angst ridden diaries, short stories and terrible poetry. She also had an enduring love for stories and books and a hunger for reading. She would usually find cereal packets while taking breakfast and sometimes raid her parents bookshelves looking to find something to read. When she went to boarding school, she managed to read everything in the junior library and had to get special permission to be allowed to proceed to the senior library. She thus graduated from pony books to the likes of John Wiyndham and Solzhenitsyn. Kayte said that finding Jilly Cooper remains one of the happiest moments of her teenage years. As an adult, she often tried to find jobs that had more writing until she gathered enough courage to start penning fiction novels.

It is not surprising that Kayte Nunn would become an author since writing had always been something she did. She had written bad poetry and gushing diaries as a teenager and worked as an editor and features writer for a magazine even though she always harbored dreams of becoming an author. When she had a few weeks off from her job and was fortunate enough to be able to drop her daughter off at daycare, she started thinking of writing. She had previously penned some short stories that made the shortlist at various local competitions but a full length novel was something she had never tried. At the time, she was training for a marathon and found the tactics she used in running came in handy with her writing too. Consistency to the task and only looking forward to the next leg made the quest look less daunting. Once she was done, she sent part of the manuscript to several agents and not long after replies asking for the full manuscript. Just like many other authors, rejection was something she had to deal with until she was accepted by Margaret Connoly. The pointers she got from the agent allowed her to significantly improve her draft until it was ready for publishing in 2016.

Kayte Nunn’s debut novel “Rose’s Vintage” is a contemporary romance novel set in Shingle Valley, an imaginary small town set in the lush vineyards of a wide valley. Kayte has also written historical fiction with her most popular work being “The Botanist’s Daughter” that she published in 2018. She has said that she believes if you are receptive enough, you can get all manner of stories from the ether that will whisper into your ear or tap you on the shoulder asking to be told. Her job then is to spin the ideas she gets into stories that her readers have loved over the years. Kayte Nunn’s novels have been called deliciously immersive, atmospheric and heartbreaking, compelling and sensitive by several publications such as “Who Weekly,” “Australian Women’s Weekly” and “The Daily Telegraph.” When she is not writing her novels, she can be found enjoying a cup of tea with some cake or on a comfortable chair enjoying a good read.
“The Botanist’s Daughter” by Kayte Nunn is a beautiful story of two botanist women who are on the quest to find a powerful flower. While they are on the quest for the same thing, they are separated in time. Elizabeth is a trailblazer who lives in Victorian England where she has been searching for a precious healing plant for years. The quest had been left to her by her deceased father who had also been on the search for years before she was even born. It is a dangerous quest as they have to travel from England to Chile. Elizabeth is determined to fulfill the legacy that her father left to her no matter how dangerous it is. On the other hand is Anna, a pioneering botanist living in twenty-first century Sydney. When her grandmother passed on, she found a bizarre metal box with a mysterious cache of items inside it. Among these are a bag of seeds, a photograph, and a book of watercolor sketches. This sets her on a path of discovery that is tied to happenings going back as far as a hundred years.

Kayte Nunn’s “The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant” is a story set in 1951. The lead is a young mother whose husband had her committed to a mental asylum administered by an innovative psychiatrist. The asylum at first seems like her prison but she soon comes to see it as a refuge. Fast forward to 2018 and we find Rachel Parker, a free spirited woman who lives in the Isles of Scilly where she has been posted to do some research. She is forced to shelter on a remote island during a violent storm and it is here that she stumbles upon a cache of hidden love letters. She is fascinated by the tenderness and passion of the letters and wants to find the recipient and hand them over to him. What she does not know is that her actions may have far reaching consequences. In the meantime, Eve who is in London is helping her grandma, one of the best mountaineers in the country, compile her memoirs. When Rachel contacts her a set of events are triggered that threaten to expose dark secrets that had been hidden for more than half a century.

“The Silk House” by Kayte Nunn is the story of Thea Rust, an Australian teacher of history who has found a job at an elite boarding school in Britain. She soon discovers that she has been assigned to the first batch of girls ever to be allowed into the school in its one and a half century history. She has to live alongside the girls in a building known for its troubled and long past known as Silk House. At the mysterious house, the shadows hold more intrigue and secrets than she could ever have imagined. Meanwhile, Rowan Caswell who is living in the 18th century has been forced to leave home to go find work with an English silk merchant. She finds herself in the dangerous and new world where her talent for healing and herbs attract unwanted attention. In the meantime, Mary Louise Stephenson the Londoner dreams of becoming a designer in silk even as she makes a living amid the clatter of the weaving trade. Most of the people she competes with are men. But when she presents a fabric with deadly plant patterns, it is clear that she is sending a warning to the residents of Silk House.