Heather Morris was born in Te Awamutu, New Zealand and in 1971 moved to Melbourne, Australia. She was a social worker there until 2017 but in 1996 she decided to follow her dream and enrolled in a professional scriptwriting course. This was followed by screenwriting courses, seminars and workshops in both Australia and America. In 2003 she was introduced to Lale Sokolov and, in due course, wrote The Tattooist of Auschwitz as a screenplay. At first it was optioned by Instinct Entertainment (Melbourne) but when the option lapsed, Heather entered it into several international screenwriting competitions, winning the International Independent Film Awards competition in 2016 and being highly placed in several others, including the ISA (International Screenwriters’ Association) and Final Draft competitions. Positive comments persuaded her to self-publish it as a novel. This, in turn, interested Bonnier Books in Australia. The sequel, Cilka’s Journey, is published this month.