I was born when my father was District Commissioner in Mokhotlong, Lesotho. As he was in the midst of organising the country’s first democratic elections my mother had to leave the mountainous kingdom, landlocked by South Africa, alone, to give birth. My name in the local language, Sesotho, was Madikgeto: Mother of Elections.

When my sister was born 18 months later, Dad was director of the country’s Independence celebrations and again unable to be present. My sister was known as Mabuipuis: Mother of Independence.

Left: The Sani Pass : the treacherous, winding road that led from Lesotho to South Africa.   Right:  Dad in front of our Mokhotlong house

After four years in the new Lesotho, Dad resigned from his position as Private Secretary to Prime Minister Chief Leabua Jonathon. Although we had relatives in South Africa, the country’s Apartheid regime made emigrating there untenable, so we boarded the ocean liner The Himalaya for a new land: Australia.

Adelaide, South Australia, was my home for many years. The pictures below are the houses in which I grew up in Linden Park, Adelaide, and  the Clare Valley. Bronte Manor (bottom pic) is a grand, rustic mudbrick house my parents and two younger sisters and I built  using mudbricks we’d made and stockpiled over three years.

Dad now runs Wuthering Heights and its three cottages - Bronte Manor, Cathy’s Cottage and Glen Morris - as a Bed & Breakfast. Its beautiful 80 acres of rolling hills and thousands of trees make it a popular getaway for couples or families holidaying with dogs.

I’d studied history and English literature at uni, and continued to research the English social and political background of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. From the age of twelve I read Dickens, the Brontes, Elizabeth Gaskell, Henry James, Edith Wharton and, of course, Georgette Heyer. At 22 I wrote my first book set in England in the nineteenth century.

But my life was about to take an unexpected turn. I discovered the diaries of my grandfather, Gerald Nettelton and decided to discover for myself the northern Okavango he depicted so evocatively.

It was while working at Okavango Wilderness Safaris’s Mombo camp, a 16-bed luxury safari lodge on the tip of Chief’s Island, that I met my husband, a Norwegian bush pilot. So began my 15-year career as a trailing spouse.

After we left the Okavango we lived for ten months in Norway with Eivind’s endlessly patient parents waiting for a promised survey job in Namibia.

Our year living in Windhoek and Swakopmund was a delight. Especially after I was trained as a technician and airborne survey operator working the computer equipment in the back of low-flying aircraft.

For four years I worked on contracts of between three months and one year, flying 200 ft above ground level in the back of Cessna 404s and CASA 212s as we contoured the terrain in Namibia, Greenland, French Guyana and Sweden.

My biggest promotion and salary increase came as a result of my weighing 100lb less than the other operators. This weight advantage meant more fuel could be uploaded so represented a very real and substantial saving for the company. I transferred from the 404 to the CASA 212 and my pay went up 25% overnight!

In between jobs in Canada, Japan and Solomon Islands I was a journalist and editor on newspapers and magazines in Adelaide, Sydney and Perth, including Australian Country Craft & Decorating and WA Homes & Living magazine.

Writing had started as a childhood passion. Now it was a recreational necessity to amuse me when Eivind and I worked on different contracts.

We moved to the Solomon Islands in 2003 and I became involved in Honiara’s small, vibrant expat community. Our mothers’ group included women from at least eight different countries. As a volunteer for the Honiara Beautification Committee I helped with projects to beautify the then battle-scarred capital city to encourage tourism and business to the country.

When our tenure in this fabulous place came to an abrupt end we returned to Wuthering Heights. A new daughter and a year in Japan followed.

And the writing?

Throughout all this I completed two contemporary category novels and seven historical  novels.

As the rejections grew nicer, my confidence grew. I’d joined Romance Writers of Australia and Romance Writers of New Zealand and now I had competitions to enter, with useful feedback.

Competitions are a great way to thicken one’s skin. From a ranking of second from bottom in my first contest, I reworked the entry which won the Single (Title) & Loving It! competition the following year and a full manuscript request from Avon. My next three entries won single title competitions in Australia and New Zealand, each time with a request for a full from Avon or Berkley.

Writing is solitary therefore writing friends who understand the paradoxes of the writing life are critical. Without my three wonderfully creative “Ozcritters” - my supportive, talented, creative and, when necessary, brutally honest online critique group - I would not have my first contract under my belt.

Happily, my second book LADY FARQUHAR’S BUTTERFLY has just been accepted and I’m awaiting a release date.

Stay tuned!