Welcome! My name is Sarah Luke, and I am a writer and historian who lives in Sydney, Australia.

I write both non-fiction histories for adults and historical fiction for children.

In 2020 Arcadia published my history of the Nautical School Ships Vernon and Sobraon, Like a Wicked Noah’s Ark. My first children’s book, Marion and the Forty Thieves, (National Library of Australia Publishing, July 2024) is set on the Nautical School Ship Sobraon in the 1890s. It has just been longlisted for the 2025 Book Links Award for Children’s Historical Fiction! For a full teaching program and classroom resources click here. I also have a chapter (‘The Problem with Ghostly Girls’) in Paul Ashton’s anthology, If It’s Not True It Should Be (Halstead Press, 2024) which explores the process of writing Marion and the Forty Thieves.

My most popular book is a history of the old Callan Park lunatic asylum in Lilyfield, Callan Park, Hospital for the Insane, which was published by Australian Scholarly Publishing (ASP) in July 2018 and shortlisted for the 2019 Premier’s History Awards.  If you are interested in finding out more about the history of Callan Park and mental health in New South Wales, you might like to attend a tour of the site with the Friends of Callan Park.