When my father died in 2003 I decided to write a biography for our family, but I became more and more involved in researching the Voyager tragedy in 1964 because my father was the Parliamentarian who pushed for the second royal commission into the disaster in 1967. After I finished this book I wrote the filmscript on the Voyager disaster and then decided to write Abide With Me with aims to do two things, change history and absolve both crews from blame.

Elizabeth McCarthy (nee Jess) was born in Melbourne in 1960. She studied visual art at Prahran College, Melbourne, graduating with a Diploma, in 1981. She did further studies at the National Gallery School, Melbourne, graduating in 1983 with a postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art and awarded the National Gallery Acquisitive Prize. In 1985 she travelled to study art galleries overseas, in particular the work of Vincent Van Gogh. From 1988 she lived in far west NSW teaching art at TAFE colleges and outreach centres in Aboriginal communities. She has been selected in three national acquisitive awards for drawing. She was the inaugural winner of the Far West Award for Excellence in Visual Arts in 2003. She continued her studies at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW, graduating as Master of Arts in 2003. She lives in Geelong, Victoria, with her husband and family.