I learned history by reading Rosemary Sutcliffe, Henry Treece and Georgette Heyer. I devoured whatever I could get my hands on - old Enid Blyton and Mary Grant Bruce books, old schoolboys annuals. And I am an expert in being 'the new girl' having been to 6 different schools in 12 years.The last 4 years, however, were in the same high school and I still have my 2 best friends from that time. But in fact we are a family of chalkies (Australian slang for teachers)- and Dad was a school principal during most of my life. Sounds like I was raised by gypsies, doesn't it? I was even almost born in a tent -Mum, Dad and 3 children were camping and one day mum left the tent and went to hospital to have me. I am in the second front row, in the middle, to the right of the girl in the dark tunic. This is me and my classmates in Scotland. We travelled through Europe in a caravan and I'd swum most of the famous rivers in Europe by the time I was eight.

I've lived in Scotland, Malaysia and Greece. We spent a lot of time driving from one part of Australia to another, visiting relatives or friends or simply to see what was there. Travel was also a big part of my childhood.

Luckily our house was always full of them. For most of my childhood we didn't have TV, so books have always been a big part of my life. Once I learned to read, I spent my days outside playing with the animals (I include my brother and 2 sisters here) and when inside I read. Somehow, we were always warm, clean, well fed and happy. I don't know how my mother managed, really, because both she and Dad taught full time, but she came home and cooked on a wood stove and did all the laundry by hand, boiling the clothes and sheets in a big copper kettle. The horse period was a time when my parents entered a 'let's-be-self-sufficient' phase, so we had a horse, but no electricity and all our water came from the rain tank.Īs well as the horse and dogs, we had 2 cows (Buttercup and Daisy and one of them always had a calf), a sheep (Woolly,) goats (Billy and Nanny) dozens of ducks, chooks, and a couple of geese, a pet bluetongue lizard and a huge vegie patch.

In case you imagine we were a filthy rich horse-owning family, let me assure you we weren't. I have to say, dogs and horses are great audiences, apart from their tendency to drool occasionally.

Family legend has it that I used to spend hours playing in the sand pit, with a dog on either side of me and Rocka the horse leaning over me, his head just touching my shoulder, while I told them stories.

The Perfect Stranger by Anne Gracie