Diane's love of local California history emerged when she emigrated from rural Cheshire England many decades ago. A childhood experience colored by the ancient Roman ruins of nearby Chester, sparked a fascination that transported Diane into an imagined world steeped in history. This fascination is palpable today. Diane writes a popular history feature for the San Diego Union Tribune, The Way We Were, and has to date collected hundreds of personal histories of local San Dieguito residents. She also writes for the Rancho Santa Fe Review and its sister papers and is the official biographer of Paul Ecke III and the Ecke family historian. Diane's latest book, Lilian J. Rice, architect of Rancho Santa Fe, California, will release in spring 2010. Published by Schiffer Books it is the first ever monograph on this little known, but soon to be world acclaimed, female master architect who not only survived but thrived in a male dominated profession in the 1920s and 30s.