Isobel Blackthorn is an award-winning author of immersive and inspiring fiction. She writes gripping mysteries, historical fiction and dark psychological thrillers. Her Canary Islands collection begins with The Drago Tree and includes A Matter of Latitude, Clarissa’s Warning and A Prison in the Sun. Her interest in the occult is explored in The Unlikely Occultist: A biographical novel of Alice A. Bailey and the dark mystery A Perfect Square.
Her dark thriller The Cabin Sessions was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award 2018 and the Ditmar Awards 2018. Isobel’s biographical short story ‘Nothing to Declare’, which forms the first chapter of Emma’s Tapestry, was shortlisted for the Ada Cambridge Prose Prize 2019. A Prison in the Sun was shortlisted in the LGBTQ category of the Readers’ Favorite Book Awards 2020 and the International Book Awards 2021. And The Unlikely Occultist: A biographical novel of Alice A. Bailey received an Honorable Mention in the 2021 Reader’s Favorite Book Awards.
Isobel writes non fiction too. She is the author of the world’s only biography of Theosophist and mother of the New Age movement Alice Bailey – Alice A. Bailey: Life & Legacy. Isobel has a background in Western Esotericism. She holds 1st Class Honours in Social Studies, and a PhD from the University of Western Sydney for her ground-breaking research on the works of Alice A. Bailey. Her doctoral thesis has been downloaded over 10,000 times.
Isobel’s first work, which she wrote in 2008, is Voltaire’s Garden. This memoir is set in the mid 2000s and tells the story of building a sustainable lifestyle B&B in Cobargo on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, which gained international attention when a firestorm razed the idyllic historic village on New Year’s Eve 2019.
Isobel’s writing appears in journals and websites around the world, including Esoteric Quarterly, New Dawn Magazine, Paranoia, Mused Literary Review, Trip Fiction, Backhand Stories, Fictive Dream and On Line Opinion. Isobel was a judge for the Shadow Awards 2020 long fiction category. Her book reviews have appeared in New Dawn Magazine, Esoteric Quarterly, Shiny New Books, Sisters in Crime, Australian Women Writers, Trip Fiction and Newtown Review of Books.
Isobel’s interests are many and varied. She has a long-standing association with the Canary Islands, having lived in Lanzarote in the late 1980s. A humanitarian and campaigner for social justice, in 1999 Isobel founded the internationally acclaimed Ghana Link, uniting two high schools, one a relatively privileged state school located in the heart of England, the other a materially impoverished school in a remote part of the Upper Volta region of Ghana, West Africa. After working as a teacher, market trader and PA to a literary agent, she arrived at writing in her forties, and her stories are as diverse and intriguing as her life has been.
Isobel has performed her literary works at events in a range of settings and given workshops in creative writing.
British by birth, Isobel entered this world in Farnborough, Kent, UK. She has lived in England, Australia, Spain and the Canary Islands. She now lives in Spain.
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Publications:
Fiction
What Happened at the Abbey Next Chapter Publishing 2023
Murder in Myrtle Bay Next Chapter Publishing 2022
Sing Like a Canary Next Chapter Publishing 2021
Emma’s Tapestry Next Chapter Publishing 2021.
The Ghost of Villa Winter (Canary Islands Mysteries Series Book 4), Next Chapter Publishing 2020.
A Prison in the Sun (Canary Islands Mysteries Series Book 3) Next Chapter Publishing 2019. Winner of the Readers’ Favorite Finalist Award LGBTQ category 2020.
‘Nothing to Declare’ in The Adas 2019. Shortlisted for the Ada Cambridge Prose Prize 2019.
‘Lacquer’ in Time for Violence: Stories with an Edge, Close to the Bone, 2019.
The Unlikely Occultist: A biographical novel of Alice A. Bailey, Next Chapter Publishing, December 2018.
Clarissa’s Warning (Canary Islands Mysteries Series Book 2)Next Chapter Publishing, December 2018.
A Matter of Latitude (Canary Islands Mysteries Series Book 1) Next Chapter Publishing, December 2018.
Twerk, HellBound Books, December 2018.
The Legacy of Old Gran Parks, Next Chapter Publishing 2020, and HellBound Books 2018.
‘Ignominy’ in Shopping List II, HellBound Books, December, 2017.
The Cabin Sessions, Next Chapter Publishing 2020 and HellBound Books 2017.
The Drago Tree (Spanish edition) Odyssey Books, September 2017.
‘Sorting Things Out‘, in Fictive Dream, May 2017.
A Perfect Square, Next Chapter Publishing 2020, Odyssey Books, Sept 2016.
‘Margo’s Slippers‘, in Fictive Dream, August 2016.
Twerk’ a work of flash fiction, published by Backhand Stories, July 2016.
All Because of You: Fifteen tales of sacrifice and hope, released by Next Chapter 2020, Odyssey Books 2016, and Ginninderra Press 2012.
Nine Months of Summer Next Chapter Publishing 2020 (formerly published as Asylum by Odyssey Books 2015.)
The Drago Tree Next Chapter Publishing 2020 and Odyssey Books 2015.
‘The Refuge’, in Mused Literary Review 21/12/2014.
Non fiction books
Experiencing the Texts of Alice A. Bailey, Yarra Gate, 2022
Voltaire’s Garden: A memoir of Cobargo Next Chapter Publishing 2020.
Alice A. Bailey: Life & Legacy Next Chapter Publishing 2020
Non fiction – articles
The Hieroeidetic Power of Esoteric Teachings: Alice A. Bailey and Global Consciousness in Esoteric Quarterly Summer 2020 https://www.esotericquarterly.com/issues/EQ15/EQ1504/EQ150420-Blackthorn.pdf#page=1
‘Approaching 2025: The Destruction of Humanity or the Appearance of the Maitreya’ in New Dawn Magazine, Issue 180 May/June 2020, pp 45-47.
‘Talking Location: The State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia’ in Trip Fiction
‘Alice A. Bailey: Mother of the New Age or the New World Order?’ in New Dawn Magazine April 2019
‘Alice Bailey’ in Live Encounters Magazine March 2019
Midnight Echo Issue 13, December 2018 (co-editor)
The Stella Prize in Shiny New Books, July 2017
Talking Fiction – Trip Fiction, 2017
‘Your Inner Editor is Waiting in the Wings,’ Authors Talk About It, 15 November 2017.
Going with the Flow: Western Esotericism and Visionary Fiction in Visionary Fiction Alliance 12 Sept 2016
Mastering the Art of Occultism in Paranoia Magazine, August 2016
What’s Driving the Merciless Asylum Seeker Policies in Australia? by Catherine Wilson
‘Silencing the lambs: Asylum seekers are a metaphor for our times.’ On Line Opinion, 24/06/2015
‘Welcome to Australia’ in On Line Opinion 20/02/2015
‘The moral descent of Australia’s policy on asylum seekers‘ in On Line Opinion 27/11/2014
I Should Have Done Something Sooner in ABC Open, 2014
Building Bridges: asylum seekers in rural Australia in On Line Opinion 20/10/2014
Leaving a Link, in UKWOLA One World Linking magazine, Spring 2014.
A Philosophical Community of Inquiry at Bega High School, NSW in Critical and Creative Thinking: The Australasian Journal of Philosophy in Education, 2007 Vol 15, No. 2, pp. 61-76.
Alice A. Bailey’s Door of Perception in Consequentiality Vol II: Mythology, Theology, Ontology, EHC, Talahassee, 2006, pp. 19-38.
Introduction: Consciousness and Interconnectedness (with Dena Hurst) in Consequentiality Vol II: Mythology, Theology, Ontology, EHC, Talahassee, 2006, pp. 1-18.
The Texts of Alice A Bailey: An Inquiry into the role of Esotericism in Transforming Consciousness, PhD Thesis, University of Western Sydney, 2006.
Isobel Blackthorn 
Hi, Isobel. This is Rod from Facebook. I’ve read the two pieces you tagged (thank you), and have various thoughts, but Facebook is not really the place to express them. I’m sorry you live so far away – I’m based in Melbourne – because it would be nice to have a good yak about the various issues over a bottle or two! Failing that, however, we could try email. I hope your writing is progressing well.
Greetings! I just want to say a hearty ‘Thank You!!’ for my Dark Retribution, Volume I: Smitty’s Calling Card book tour. The response was outstanding! The book averaged a 4 out of 5 rating from the majority of the reviewers. Several even said the story itself was almost ‘poetic’ in nature. For someone to call a dark noir novel ‘poetic’ is, for a writer like me, an outstanding accomplishment. It was wondering participating in the tour. And I certainly plan to do it again . . . and soon!
We are so pleased to hear this!
Hello Isobel,
I’ve been intensely following Alice Bailey since the 1960s. (Also, Ken Wilber, Jaime Wheal and a number of other spiritual thinkers you would recognize. Today, I’m delighted to have discovered your PhD thesis and am planning to read it cover to cover. Actually, I already started in with Chapter 5 because I was intrigued to learn about Amelia Hewman. I’ve enclosed contact info so that we can keep in touch.
I’m delighted to meet you. Ah, yes, Amelia Hewman! That feels like so long ago now. Do keep in touch. I run an Alice Bailey Life and Legacy group on Facebook, and I have written her biography, which will be published in May. LLP
Ms. Blackthorn,
My name is Matt Cordaro and I am a very avid reader of Metaphysical publications as well as a practitioner of meditation and other spiritual routines. The reason I am writing here is to let you know that over my 35 years of interest in anything metaphysical, I’ve come across many interesting items including something you may have a personal interest in. I am in possession of several complete and original writings and notes by Alice Bailey…these are not published documents, but original typewritten manuscripts. I came into possession of these documents while moving a friend out of her home 30 years ago…these documents were in one of her closets in a box that she said was left there by another tenant. She said I could have the box. I am almost 100% sure that these are genuine, original documents written by Alice Bailey. I wrote to the Lucis foundation 8 years ago to a Sarah McKechnie (Chairperson) but she basically told me that these documents belong to them and that I should turn them over to them. After speaking with an attorney, I decided to hold on to the manuscripts on his advice…..I thought you would at least be interested in learning more about these manuscripts….If you are interested, please email me at cashflow52@aol.com (sorry about the spammy email name, I’ve had it since AOL started LOL !)….Thank You, looking forward to hearing from you.
Hi Matt, I sent you an email the other week. Not sure you received it. 🙂
Hello Isobel. I have just finished reading a good portion of your new book Alice Bailey: Life and Legacy. To let you know I have some information that may be useful to you as I was there during the early days of the formation of the University of the Seven Rays and also involved in Nature of the Soul in the 1980’s and beyond. Do you have an Email where I could share some additional factual information with you? I wish to correspond in private. Or email me at wisdomsynthesis@gmail.com. Thank you. Lisa Love
Hi Isobel, I live in the UK. Could you let me know how it is possible to get hold of a copy of the Alice A Bailey book: Life & Legacy? Many thanks, Janet
Hi Janet, Good to hear from you. The official release of the new edition is 2nd September. To keep up to date, please join my Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/394500304830614
If you would like an author signed copy visit my publisher’s website. All prices are in Australian dollars and international shipping is capped. https://www.shootingstar.pub/product/alice-a-bailey-life-and-legacy-pre-order/
Best wishes, Isobel
Hello Isobel, Do you teach the mystical knowledge in any format ? Thank you, Michele, serious Kaballah student. Michelekangisser@hotmail.com
Sydney AU
Hi Michele, No I don’t, and I am not sure I will step into that role. Do join my mailing list if you want to keep in touch. I have some interesting future works in the pipeline. I also run a Facebook group which you are welcome to join – https://www.facebook.com/groups/394500304830614 What aspects of the DK teachings interest you? At present, I am deeply immersed in esoteric astrology. Blessings, Isobel
Hello Isobel,
I have tried very hard to garner interest in my sprawling esoteric novel (it takes place on the island of Tenerife). My editor has described my work as ‘philosophical fiction’ and yet I believe it defies easy categorization. Anyway, that’s my current plight. Do you have any advise for a writer struggling to be heard! Should I forgo traditional publishers and self publish? You’re insight and feedback would be most welcomed. Thank you and best wishes.
Love and Peace,
Carlos Romero
Hi Isobel,
I just requested to join your Facebook group and purchased two copies of your latest book on A.A.B. In my request to join your FB group I told you about a document I received from Jon Winter, a personal secretary to Alice. I would like to connect with you to send you a copy. You can see the text of it here http://istandandwait.novaquest.org/. FYI – my wife (Pati) and I have A.A.B./D.K. students since 1973 having been introduced to them at the Krotona Institute in Ojai. How is a story you will find interesting. BTW – Pati is a full time esoteric astrologer. If you are interested, I would love to have a Zoom chat with you. I look forward to connecting. Thanks and warmest regards, Michael
Many thanks for your lovely message. We can connect on Facebook!