Born in Sydney, Australia in 1952, I had a happy childhood and eventually went to Sydney University, where I began my career as a Zoologist. I then went to Canada to do my PhD in Animal Behaviour, but after everything that could possibly go wrong with it did so, I rather sadly gave it up. At this point I found I had somehow become a computer person, and have since earned my living as a consultant and C programmer (Unix, Web Design, Windows).

Since 1990 I have become increasingly interested in the arts and European medieval history. I particularly like medieval calligraphy and illumination, and to my surprise have become very good at it. You can see some of my work by following the Gallery link. (By the way, I am for hire as an artist.) I wrote poetry as a teenager (who doesn't?), and started writing again thirteen years ago, finding my mature work had settled into the style of Elizabethan love poetry, simliar to that of John Donne. You can read some of my poetry here. Again to my complete surprise, I started writing songs, both medieval in style and modern folksongs. You can see the words and hear the tunes to these here.

This is a link to information about my main hobby, the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism), a Medieval-ambience social and educational group where I am known as Mistress Yseult de Lacy (Calligraphy & Illumination, Pavilions, Poetry).

My other hobbies include folk singing, keeping pets (two dogs, four cats, four zebra finches, lots of goldfish, some frogs, and an unknown number of tadpoles), gardening, reading (mostly F&SF), building things, and cooking. In the past I have travelled around assorted bits of North and South America and New Zealand, but these days I am settled in the Blue Mountains, about 100k (60 miles) from Sydney, Australia, with my husband Stephen; we were married in May 2001. It is beautiful here, calm and peaceful with clean air, native bush, birds, and animals, warm to hot in summer and cool to cold in winter, with an occasional snowfall. Not Paradise, but close enough to it. :-) I have spent a lot of time working on our garden, which has cascading ponds and waterfalls, and lots of beautiful plants. I'm very proud of it. There's a link to recent pictures of it below.