I am a retired teacher, now author, born in Christchurch and raised in Whanganui. My life has been eventful, rather like Snakes and Ladders, taking me to England, the USA, Australia and back to New Zealand, my career often guiding me to work with Indigenous people.

In the mid 70s, I married an African American guitarist from the English funk group, Heatwave, where I experienced life in the fast lane, attending the Grammys alongside stars like Michael Jackson and Barbra Streisand, and where Count Basie actually sang to me. Our daughter was born in LA at Cedars Sinai Hospital with Elizabeth Taylor just upstairs, and it was there that I was first exposed to racism.
My life took a drastic turn in my late forties when, newly divorced and returning to NZ, I met my current husband online, neither ever expecting to actually meet as he was living in the Arctic Circle and I was teaching in Balclutha, South Otago. What then happened has been described in my popular trilogy Walking on Ice, Nesting on the Nushagak and Dancing on the Tundra.