Barbara Ker Wilson was born on 24 September 1929 in Sunderland, in the north of England. In 1964 she immigrated to Australia, living first in Adelaide, then Melbourne, then Sydney. I now live in Leura, in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.
As a child she used to accompany my father to a large publishing office in London, to deliver corrected proofs of his latest engineering textbook, and she knew then that she wanted to work in the world of writing and publishing.
Her first 'successful' work, written when she was eight, was a play based on the coronation of King George VI; it was performed at her primary school in England.
The Second World War influenced her greatly, particularly the experience of living through air raids in London. With the end of the war came her first experience of travelling abroad; ever since, she has travelled extensively in Europe and Asia.
