Colleen McCullough, author of Antony and Cleopatra, the last volume in her Masters of Rome series, is interviewed for "The West Australian" newspaper.
Her mother's legacy to Colleen was haemorrhagic macular degeneration, a condition which affects the retinas and which has left her with no central vision in her left eye and only about five-eighths in her right, making reading difficult. The nerves in her spine are also crushed, making it difficult to walk. She can still manage it but says it causes her great discomfort. "I find myself more and more inclined to use a wheelchair because I get so terribly tired," she says. But unlike her mother, McCullough's brain keeps fizzing. "My body is ratshit but at least what's inside my head, knock on wood, isn't," she says.
