I was born, raised, and taught school in Western Australia in the most remote city in the world so perhaps that's why I live life on the edge. Egged on by an adventurous grandmother who gave me six shillings a week from the time I was eight, I sailed off at the age of 21 to see the world, hitchhiking through Africa and Europe then teaching challenged classes in London. But it wasn't till I came to Canada and got engaged on my first date while flying around eagle nests on Vancouver Island "(You're the first girl who didn't get sick in my little float plane. Will you marry me?") that I started to write. My first book and my best known even after 40 years is "There's a Seal in my Sleeping Bag" which I first called "I Married the Ideal Man." It is my love affair with the wilderness, wildlife and outback people of  British Columbia and my adventures sitting in eagle nests for nine hours with two eagles on my lap, hanging precariously over cliffs studying puffins and other seabirds, sleeping with cougars and sealions, playing mother to a menagerie of orphaned wild animals which I took into my classrooms that inspired me and my students  to write.  I write what fascinates me. When my husband asked me to cross the Northwest Passage in a rubber boat, I started a love affair with Canada's North and for 25 years wrote about my adventures while "Winging it in the North" with polar bears, walrus, caribou, Dene and Inuit. I am attracted by what's at the top of the mountain, across the horizon, and with a propensity to take chances and talk to strangers, I have found myself  swimming wild rivers, running from grizzlies, turning up the heat on a seal oil lamp and melting an igloo, draping an iceberg with Christmas lights,  accompanying Two Poles to the North Pole. I am fascinated by chance and coincidence. Raising a gibbon ape in my grade six classroom led to the writing of my latest book "The Ring", the history of Sam and Jane Livingston, buffalo hunters, fur traders, gold prospectors, and the first settlers in Calgary, Alberta. Sam's cousin Hugh was one of the first settlers in Livingston, Wisconsin. Sam and Jane were the great grandparents of Marion and  Elizabeth, children in my class who cared for Gypsy the gibbon. I wrote another book about "Gypsy in the Classroom"  or "An  Ape Came out of my Hatbox" but it was "The Ring" which I wrote with Sam and Jane's family. I like to inspire readers to write their own passions, whatever they are, and many have been stimulated by my own stories. Librarians and booksellers place my books on the fiction shelves but truth is often stranger than fiction and my stories are all true even if they seem incredible. I carry a camera and a journal with me at all times to record what is happening around me. My background in speech and drama, mime and movement, my childhood and teenage years in Sunday School, my memorizing millions of lines of poetry and Bible verses, my teaching and my photography, are all factors in my evolution as a writer. My pictures tell stories and my stories evoke pictures. My books are best being read aloud. English is best when the words sing.

I have written 20 books, countless articles, and taken thousands of photographs.

Academic Education:
Teacher's Diploma in Education, Graylands Teachers' College; Bachelor of Education, Simon Fraser University, Masters' Degree in Communication, Simon Fraser University, Associate Speech and Drama, University of West Australia, Licentiate Speech and Drama, University of West Australia, Licentiate Trinity College London, Licentiate Royal Academy of Music, London.

Awards:
Francis J. Kortright Award for Excellence in Outdoor Writing, American Express Travel Writing Awards (2), Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, and numerous other writing and photography awards.

Most recent: 2009 Outstanding Alumnus of the Year Award from Simon Fraser University for contributions to writing, photography and nature education.