I live in London but Africa is where I was born. I especially love visiting Africa’s wilder areas like the Okavango Swamps, the Namibian Desert and the Karoo with its fossils. 

From a brave tortoise, a giraffe that walks to Paris, whales that sing, a baby elephant trying to control its trunk, to a rhinoceros that inspires the artist Dürer in 1515…  my stories are all connected to the natural environment. 

I don’t illustrate but I’ve collaborated with marvellous illustrators and book designers over the years. I started life as an art teacher so the visual is important to me. While a child is browsing a picture book, they are silently laying down the foundation of aesthetics in line, texture and colour.

A perfect picture book is one that seamlessly melds story and illustration and allows the child to fill the spaces between, so they feel connected to where they belong in the universe. I love stories that can be interactively used in the classroom for creative work and story-telling. 

UK AWARDS:

2024 YOUNG QUILLS AWARD (5-7 yrs) by UK Hist Assoc, The Most Famous Rhinoceros illustrated by Simona Mulazzani 

2020 Nominated for Illust. KATE GREENAWAY Tiger Walk illustrated by Jesse Hodgson

2017 Winner of a WHITE RAVEN (awarded by the International Youth Library) for Paris Cat illustrated by Piet Grobler 

2017 Nominated for Illust. KATE GREENAWAY  My Daddy is a Silly Monkey, illustrated by Carol Thompson

2017  OFFIE (Off West-end)  Zeraffa Giraffa, illustrated by Jane Ray, script by Sabrina Mafouz. performed at The Little Angel & Omnibus Theatres. 

2014 Nominated  for Illust. KATE GREENAWAY  The Magic Bojabi Tree, illustrated by Piet Grobler

2013 Chosen by ITAU Bank to distribute in schools in Brazil, The Magic Bojabi Tree, illustrated by Piet Grobler

1996 The ASAHI/IBBY READING PROMOTION  Hic… Hic… Hiccups, illustrated by Joan Rankin

EARLIER BOOK AWARDS (prior to 1996) for novels published in South Africa, include: 

Two IBBY HONOURS BOOKS, the M.E.R. AWARD, the EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT AWARD, the M-NET BOOK AWARD, 2 SANLAM GOLD AWARDS for Y A, and the YOUNG AFRICA AWARD.