Rebecca Clarke

I was born in country Australia in 1972 and grew up in and around Melbourne. I completed secondary school teacher training at the University of Melbourne and taught in Melbourne schools before marrying and starting a family. My husband’s job has led to many opportunities for travel, as a couple and then as a family, and we have had three secondments to London as well as spending time in York, Madrid and Brussels. Since 2013 we have lived in West London where I have home educated our kids, written a book and volunteered with the National Trust as well as helping to run choirs and being a trustee for a youth music education service. My teacher training was centred around the subjects of English, Music and Drama but I have always had an interest in history and in family history. My primary inspiration for writing has been the archival material and life stories of my husband’s great aunts. Edith, Winifred and Anne Clarke were intelligent, focused, determined women who also kept everything! Fortunately for me, their hoarding has meant that there is family archival material going back almost two hundred years. There are deeds and diaries, books and cards, letters and newspaper cuttings, photos, drawings, furniture, clothing and all of it means that there are so many stories to discover and so many stories to be told. It is wonderful raw material and it will keep me busy for many, many years to come.