About Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies

Founder, Share your life story

Founder and Host, Biographers in Conversation

The smoke was settling from the new millennium fireworks on 1 January 2000, and I was dreaming about my ideal future.

From a young age, I’d devoured memoirs and biographies, and the local library couldn’t keep up with my requests for new books.

Then it dawned on me. Maybe I should write memoirs, life stories and biographies as well as read them? It was like a light bulb exploded in my head. My spine tingled, and the hairs on the back of my neck bristled with excitement.

So that’s what I did. I started off by studying life writing at The University of Sydney and crafting memoirs for people in my life who inspired me. I even approached people I barely knew who were doing amazing things and asked them if I could write their memoir on a pro bono basis.

In 2018, I launched my life writing business, Share your life story, and since then have crafted over 60 memoirs and life stories for my clients. All my Google reviews are 5 star.

I have a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from The University of Sydney and have studied biography writing at Oxford University and the Australian National University. My writing has received several prestigious awards.

The creative component of my PhD is Breaking Through the Pain Barrier. The Extraordinary Life of Dr Michael J. Cousins, the first biography of Australia’s foremost pain medicine pioneer. This deeply researched biography took six years to complete and was published in 2021.

My doctoral dissertation, ‘Choices, Choices, Choices: One Biographer’s Experience’, explores the choices I made while writing Breaking Through the Pain Barrier and what scholars and biographers say about similar choices.

In their reports, the PhD examiners remarked that my doctoral thesis was ‘exemplary’ and a ‘model for other biographers’.

While completing my PhD, I spent the Trinity term at Oxford University’s Centre for Life Writing as a visiting doctoral student. Every conversation, tutorial, writing workshop and meeting with scholars across biography, life writing and English Literature sparked ideas that resulted in breakthroughs in my writing.

After returning from Oxford, I launched Biographers in Conversation, a weekly podcast of interviews with biographers from around the world about the choices they made while researching, writing and publishing their books.