Born in the UK in 1956, I have called South Africa home for more than half a century, these last years in Cape Town, where I hike, fence, and set down verse. My debut novel, The Lay of the Vixens: A Song of Ancient Amazons, has now found its way into the world.
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I was born in the United Kingdom in 1956, but have lived for more than 50 years in South Africa, a country I have come of love. Most of that time I resided in the lovely city of Pretoria, the “Jacaranda City”, but in early 2022 I moved to the even more lovely city of Cape Town. History was one of my majors at university. I never lost my love of history, especially ancient history, including ancient warfare (upon which I once lectured students). However, I have spent the greater part of my working life as a science and technology journalist, covering especially (but far from exclusively) aerospace.
One of the reasons I moved to Cape Town was to be close to both mountains and the sea. Since arriving here, I have become an enthusiastic hiker, and fulfilled a lifelong dream of taking up fencing, which I love! (Fencing must be the only sport were losing is almost as much fun as winning.)
After decades of writing factual stories, a few years ago I started writing short poems in free verse (a few are published on this website). The verse novel Lay of the Vixens, which took me some years to write (with some big breaks in the process) and which went through five drafts, is my first book. I am in the early stages of a science fiction project.
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A Song of Ancient Amazons
Legends of the Amazons are millennia old. But archaeological discoveries over the past few decades have established that these legends were firmly rooted in reality. In the semi-nomadic Scythian and related horse-centred cultures of the Eurasian steppes, women really did bear arms, fight, and hunt, as equals to men.
It is these discoveries that inspired me. These facts mixed with the ancient legends, resulted in The Lay of the Vixens, my simple song that mixes reality and fantasy, to imagine a gynarchic place and time. From peace to war and back again, joy and sorrow, triumph and tragedy, this is the story of soldiers in the field and priestesses in the temples.
Where to BuyShort verses gathered from the African Bush and further afield: on weather, on season, on undertaking, and on those held dearest.
Read the poems →A second book takes shape in the quiet hours: a departure into science fiction, and a few unhurried thoughts on what may follow.
See what's next →For readers, publishers, and fellow travellers alike: a standing invitation to correspond.
Contact Rebecca →