I am a New Zealander by birth, now enjoying the lovely east coast of Australia with my small family. When I was first learning to read, an aunt gave me a book of heroines that inspired me with dreams of the pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonny. I began writing fiction when still at university. After a year as a researcher, I felt the need for adventure, and spent four years working my way around the world. I spent the last year aboard an old wooden ketch, the Nordvag, learning navigation by dead reckoning, and making my way slowly back home. In the Caribbean I re-discovered the story of the Englis...