My influences? Everything in my short intro, and much more! Really, it's impossible to say what single thing in particular has influenced my writing. Born in Africa, one of my very earliest memories is of camping in the bush, and in the middle of the night a leopard snatching a woman from her tent - it was one of the guides' wives, I remember that clearly despite being only two years old. I remember the screams and the chaos, and that the woman died. I have loved and loathed Africa, in myriad ways, ever since.