I grew up in Lusaka and have spent much of my life in sub-Saharan Africa (Zambia, Kenya and Zimbabwe). After years as a frustrated secretary and failed attempt to be an earth mother, I started university when the youngest of my four children started school. Somehow, I went from being a rather conservative Presbyterian typist with very little education to being feminist Professor of Catholic Studies at the University of Roehampton, which is too long a story to tell here. Along the way I've published a few books and journal articles, most of which have more footnotes than pages. I've now left my academic post and am focusing on my first and lifelong passion—to write fiction. I have set up a publishing imprint—Christabel Press—where you can read more about my published and forthcoming novels.

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My Roehampton website has the official version of this potted biography.

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To read more, you might like to visit my Substack site. I am slowly transferring my blogs to Substack, but most of them can still be found on this Wix site or, for older posts, on my Google blog site.