She’s worked as a journalist and magazine feature writer in Sydney, Melbourne and London. But in 2009 Johanna Nicholls published her first historical saga, Ironbark, which she followed up with Ghost Gum Valley in 2012. Now she is about to bring out her third novel, The Lace Balcony. Here she tells us about how she researches and writes historical fiction and about the books that have inspired her.' (12)