I was born in Northern Rhodesia, a British colony in southern Africa, until Independence was achieved in 1964. My father was a surgeon who worked in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, from 1930 until his retirement in 1960. My paternal Grandfather was the Game Keeper for the Earl of Moray on his Darnaway estate in the highlands of Scotland. My maternal grand-father was a mining engineer born in South Africa who sailed to the Yukon gold rush to seek his fortune. He returned to Africa and became involved in the Matabele Rebellion in Rhodesia and was lucky to survive an assegai thrown at him by a Matabele warrior.
My mother was born in Grahamstown and worked as a nurse in China before being captured by the Japanese. She escaped and returned to Africa where she met my father.
As a child, I spent many happy holidays with my parents camping. I learned to shoot at an early age. I was the best shot in the school.
I was an avid reader of adventure books as a child. I also loved art. I received a degree in English and psychology then went on to become a teacher, teaching English and Art.
During the school holidays I worked as a safari guide in Zambia, in the Luangwa Valley, which had at that moment more than a hundred thousand elephant. I specialised in leading tourists on walking safaris. Walking safaris were a new concept engineered by a retired Game Warden by the name of Norman Carr.
I was Safari Manager at Chibembe Lodge, creating new camps, and making the operation a very special experience. I opened up walking safaris in the North Luangwa National Park but the Park was undeveloped and poaching was a serious problem. I later worked in the Selous Game Park Tanzania, introducing the Zambian system of walking safaris.
I started writing my first novel, Cleopatra’s Journey, when I was living alone in the mountains with my two dogs and a cat. I worked on the novel on an off for three years an sent it to Random House in Cape Town. They handed it to their reader who liked the book and suggested a few improvements. I re-wrote the book and sent It back to them but in the meantime Random House had merged with Penguin and my contact person resigned and the project was shelved.
I wrote my biography, Ulendo. Walking where vultures fly. It contained several chapters about leading walking safaris taken from an earlier book I had written as a safari guide manual, and more than a hundred illustrations and photographs that I had taken when working as a guide, along with my adventures as a guide recorded in my diaries.
I have written three other novels.
