Bryce Courtenay was one of the most successful writers Australia has ever known, a high-profile ad executive who turned to fiction late and became synonymous with the term best-seller in this country.

But how did a man who grew up struggling and once said, in a letter to his mother, that "Writing to me means mostly slow drudgery and hard work", become a force of fiction?

His wife Christine Courtney is telling his story in a new biography, Bryce Courtenay: Storyteller.