Water Is Life ― The Story of Water and the Australian Invention Changing the Way the World Boils Water

Several years before she died, Colleen McCullough wrote this unusual and stimulating work of nonfiction exploring a subject close to her heart – the role of water in human history, and how best to harness its power to ensure Australia’s future. McCullough offers timely reminders for Australia’s business and political communities to focus attention on our water resources – before it is too late. But this is only one of the compelling stories that Water is Life has to tell: the other is the biography of Michael Crouch, the visionary businessman who transformed the hot water systems of Zip Industries into an international success story, exporting innovative, Australian-made products to more than 70 countries. In weaving these two strands together, McCullough demonstrates her unparalleled gift for storytelling, impressing upon readers the central significance of water to our world, and the potential for today’s leaders to fundamentally change the way we use it.

Colleen McCullough AO (1937–2015) was one of Australia’s best loved and most successful novelists. After a career in medical and scientific research in the 1960s and 1970s, McCullough published her first novel, Tim, in 1974. She went on to publish 20 novels and in 2010 wrote the libretto for a musical adaptation of her novel Morgan’s Run. She completed Water is Life in 2011 as a gift to her friend Michael Crouch.