Holly Ringland

Holly Ringland is an Australian author and TV presenter. She is best known for her 2018 novel The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, which won the 2019 General Fiction Book of the Year Award at the Australian Book Industry Awards, and was adapted into a television miniseries in 2023.

Early life Ringland was born and raised in South East Queensland, spending most of her childhood in the care of her single mother, Colleen, who worked as a school teacher.

Career

Prior to becoming a writer, Ringland held various jobs in Australia including hospitality, data entry, call centre work and temporary work. Ringland reports leaving the area to escape from a domestic violence relationship. She used her life savings to relocate to the UK in 2009, where she studied a master's degree in creative writing at Manchester University. In 2023, the book was adapted into a seven-part miniseries of the same name starring Sigourney Weaver and Alycia Debnam-Carey.

In December 2019, Ringland and her partner visited Ringland's mother in Australia for Christmas, though were unable to return home due to travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. She subsequently lived with her mother and step-father. During this time she co-hosted the ABC TV show Back to Nature, which focused on exploring Australian nature. She also wrote her second book, The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding, despite being separated from her research materials and being unable to visit the locations in her novel for research. The book, which is a fairy tale quest for a missing sister, was published in 2022 to critical acclaim. The Sydney Morning Herald described it as a "down-to-earth" invitation to people who have wanted to explore their creativity "but for varying reasons don't dare to."