Susan Duncan spent her childhood in country Victoria where her father was supply officer for the Bonegilla Migrant Camp. When she was nine years old, her family moved to Melton, near Melbourne, to run a country pub where a rousing sing-along around the piano on a Saturday night was a lot of fun. After completing her secondary education at Clyde, Woodend, a girls' boarding school, she took up a cadetship on the Melbourne Sun which led to a 25-year career spanning radio, newspapers and magazines.

Susan quit journalism after her brother and husband died within three days of each other and eventually wrote the best-selling memoir, Salvation Creek, about grief and loss and finding a place to belong. Later branching into fiction, the underlying themes of her writing remained constant - good communities create a sense of belonging and lead to contentment. She now alternates between boats on Pittwater and raising cattle at Wherrol Flat with her second husband, Bob, writing occasionally for The Australian Women's Weekly.