[1] She was hired in 1974 by the Sydney-based anti-war campaign organization AICD (the Association for International Cooperation & Disarmament, now known as the People for Nuclear Disarmament NSW[3]) to direct its Latin America section,[4] lobbying Australian Senators and Members of Parliament to enable resettlement of political asylum seekers fleeing repression from military regimes in South American countries, particularly Chile.

She also served as Treasurer and Events Coordinator of the Chile Solidarity Committee in Sydney from 1974 to 1977 and on behalf of AICD organized visits to Australia by peace delegations from Latin America and Asia.

In the immediate aftermath of the September 1985 Mexico City earthquake, she was named as Mexico-based correspondent for Ireland's leading newspaper, The Irish Times.

[2] Hooks covered breaking news and wrote feature articles for the paper from 1985 to 1991,[10] filing stories from Mexico and Central America, with a focus on the region's armed conflicts and counterinsurgency campaigns and their impact on civilian populations, particularly in Guatemala.

After a break from journalism to focus on book-writing, in 1996 Hooks became Mexico Correspondent for New York-based ARTnews and on relocating to Miami, Florida, in 1998 she was named a Contributing Editor of the magazine.

[30] Surreal Eden: Edward James and Las Pozas[31] was published in 2007by Princeton Architectural Press, and tells the story of Edward James,[32] the "wealthy British surrealist-art benefactor turned rural Mexican architect, demi-god and dreamer",[33] patron of Surrealists Salvador Dalí and Rene Magritte and friend of the artist Leonora Carrington, who over a period of 40 years built a surrealist sculpture garden at Las Pozas, high in the Sierra Huasteca mountains of Mexico.

The book also published in Spanish by Turner Mexico that same year, under the title Edward James y Las Pozas: Un sueño surrealista en la selva mexicana.

The book chronicles the relationships between Ernst and Leonora Carrington, Peggy Guggenheim, Dorothea Tanning, Luise Straus, Marie-Berthe Aurenche, Leonor Fini, Meret Oppenheim and Gala Dalí.