[1][2] She graduated with a BA(Hons) in economics, history and politics at Keele University in England, having spent a year on an exchange scholarship at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, and subsequently gained a master's degree in librarianship from Simmons College, Massachusetts and a PhD in history for her thesis titled 'King Campbell: The public career of the Marquess of Argyll (1607?-1661)' from the Australian National University.
She is editor of the Melbourne issues of the Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal.
Bitter Herbs and Honey gives a nostalgic look at Jewish settlement in the inner Melbourne suburb of Carlton.
From 2007 - 2010 she served on the Council of the Navy Records Society,[7] for which she more recently edited the papers of Admiral Sir Philip Durham.
Her latest book, a study of the sinking of HMS Royal George in 1782, has been described as "surely the definitive account of the sinking of the Royal George" and when researching it she made the original discovery that Admirals Kempenfelt and Rodney were cousins.