I was born in the Kalahari desert and my family lived so remotely that I learnt to fly before I could ride a bicycle.

Happily, my life has continued along peculiar and extraordinary tracks.

I started an award winning sign writing business in my teens and financed my university studies before managing a luxury camp in the middle of the Okavango Delta. Leaving Africa to travel around the world I found myself employed to write guides to Australasia and Africa... and never stopped writing.

At the end of my twenties I ran away with a Nuclear Weapons Engineer (because that is what hippies do) and had three children in two years, 10 months and three weeks—not that I was counting. Those babies, born in the wilds of Zambia, transitioned seamlessly to school in England and will be fit for human consumption any minute. They frown upon the fact that their interfering parents followed them around the world instead of acting like sensible adults and packed them off to boarding school. They frequently desert us to fly back to the dark continent by themselves.

For the last 15 years I have been chronically ill. Ironically it has made me a more productive worker as I hardly ever leave my office!

My husband is retired and everyone prefers his cooking to mine, allowing me to travel independently and work on any project that truly interests me.