Hugh Watson

Hugh Watson is the Australian author of 'Home Grown', a political-terrorism thriller published in 2015. Described by Philip Williams, Chief Foreign Correspondent for the ABC, as:

‘Fast paced, strong characters, action-packed sequences and good humour throughout. In the uncertain times in which we live, the events in the story are frighteningly possible. Highly recommended.’

His second novel, 'The Silo', a a story of murder, politics and corruption in rural Australia, will be published in 2019.

Hugh is a former Private Secretary to a Cabinet Minister and Partner-in-Charge of Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) in Canberra. He was also for two and a half years Group General Manager with the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games in Sydney. He is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Australian National University and a director of his own consulting company. He has worked and made friends with many senior public servants, military officers, journalists and politicians in Canberra over the past 25 years.

Reviews of Home Grown

Pulling you in from page one, this Australian political thriller goes to the heart of the Australian psyche and poses some difficult questions. Fast paced, strong characters, action-packed sequences and good humour throughout. In the uncertain times in which we live, the events in the story are frighteningly possible. Highly recommended. (Philip Williams, Chief Foreign Correspondent for the ABC)

Fast pace, believable characters and a timing that is not without irony - as the world goes to hell in a hand basket, Watson's excellent debut novel gives us all pause for thought. (Adrian d'Hagé, AO, MC Author)

Hard to put down and racy. (Admiral Chris Barrie rtd., AC Former Chief of the Defence Force)

This second novel, The Silo, set in a country town, also draws upon that political knowledge but also his own childhood in a country town.

Hugh is also a musician and with his band Willie and the Correspondents (previously called West Texas Crude) he has written and released two albums, Writing on the Wall (2010) and Take Your Chances (2012) including the song 'Sons of the Somme' which was added to the National Collection of the Australian War Memorial in 2013.

He lives in the rural village of Hall on the outskirts of Canberra with his wife and they have three adult children.