She has authored books on animal rights, including In Defence of Living Things (1979), A Voice for the Animals (1981) and Pulling the Wool: A New Look at the Australian Wool Industry (1986), and fiction, from her first book, The Beginning of Everything and the End of Everything Else (1974), to more recent explorations of Indian spirituality such as The Hidden Master (2002) and The Teaching of Vimala Thakar (2010). In 2007 her biography Christine’s Ark, written by journalist John Little was published by Macmillan. Moti, An Indian Elephant was published in India in 2014. Townend holds a Doctorate in poetry from the University of Sydney. Her poetry collection, Walking with Elephants was published by Island Press in July 2015. Her memoir, A Life for Animals, was published by Sydney University Press in 2017, with a foreword by Peter Singer.
