Her bank manager's family moved frequently and she attended state schools in Johannesburg.
[1] She came to Australia in 1972, worked as a magazine feature writer, and finished her education at Australian National University in Canberra.
Let the Celebrations Begin (1991) focused on the imminent release of Jewish prisoners from a Nazi concentration camp,[1] while in The Very Best of Friends (1989) the death of a farmer prompts his widowed wife to find the love to care for their respective pets, a cat and dog, equally.
Fox (2000), illustrated by Ron Brooks using the colours of the Australian landscape, is a powerful story about trust and betrayal.
[2] In December 2020 she was nominated as Australia's author candidate for the 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Award.