Under Her Skin: The Life and Work of Professor Fiona Wood Am, National Living Treasure

The remarkable story of Professor Fiona Wood AM, world-leading burns specialist and one of Australia’s most innovative and respected surgeons, whose groundbreaking research and technology development has changed the lives of burns patients.

When three bombs tore out the heart of Bali and destroyed so many Australian lives in 2002, burns surgeon Professor Fiona Wood and her team were there to help. A pioneer in the field of burns and reconstructive surgery, Fiona made world headlines with the use of her groundbreaking invention of ’spray-on skin’ to help minimise her patients’ terrible scarring.

Fiona was later made Australian of the Year, voted Australia’s Most Trusted Person for an unprecedented six years running in the annual Reader’s Digest poll and acclaimed as a ’National Living Treasure’.

This is the story of her extraordinary life. Against all the odds, Fiona, the daughter of a fifth-generation coalminer in the north of England, became one of Australia’s most innovative, respected and dedicated surgeons and researchers. She talks candidly of the moving valour of her burns patients, and the heartbreak, triumph, tears and controversies that have stalked her stellar career.

Remarkably, she has achieved all of this while raising six children.

In Under Her Skin, Sue Williams, a bestselling author and award-winning journalist who has written a number of biographies - most notably about Father Chris Riley, Father Bob Maguire and Dr Catherine Hamlin - presents a searingly honest, no-holds-barred account of all aspects of Fiona Wood’s remarkable life.

Sue Williams is an award-winning journalist, travel writer and best-selling author. She has developed a writing style that tells a story as evocatively as possible, with a keen eye for detail.

She’s now written 26 books, mostly non-fiction.

Sue’s previous biographies include Mean Streets, Kind Heart: The Father Chris Riley Story; Father Bob: The larrikin priest; The Last Showman: Fred Brophy; No Time For Fear: Paul de Gelder; Peter Ryan: The inside story; Death of a Doctor; The Girl Who Climbed Everest, Healing Lives, Daughter of the River Country and a number of books about outback characters.

Other books are about travel, true crime and genetics, while she has also had a children’s book published and an historical novel based on the early colonial days of Australia, Elizabeth & Elizabeth.

Her book Healing Lives, about acclaimed obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Catherine Hamlin and the patient whose life she saved, Mamitu Gashe, who’s now become one of the world’s leading fistula surgeons herself, was shortlisted for the Australian Christian Book of the Year in 2021.