Trying to catch up with my six children and seven grown-up grandkids who are scattered over the world, consumes a large proportion of my time, and I wouldn’t have it otherwise. I have enjoyed an eventful life, including fifty-five years in Kenya, followed by twenty years in the UK.
After schooling in Kenya, I matriculated in History at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University, missed Kenya too much, returned after a year, got married and started a family. My husband died, I re-married, and augmented our income by opening a Riding School in Limuru, fifteen miles north of Nairobi.
When the children fled the nest I gained a Business Degree via distance education from the University of Southern Queensland, then taught Computer Studies/IT at Hillcrest Secondary School, Nairobi. I have worked as a freelance business consultant and mentor, both in Kenya and the UK.
My writing career started with a series of “Letters from Oxford” in 1960 for the now defunct Kenya Weekly News, followed by articles and short stories for a variety of newspapers and magazines.
At the turn of the century I travelled the world, keeping a diary and buying a bird book in every country I visited. You can read excerpts from my diaries under the Travel blog category on this website.
My career as an author began when co-ordinating a cookbook in aid of the National Museums of Kenya in 1989. Thanks largely to my publishers, Crooked Cat, I wrote five books in five years from 2013. The publishers have closed, and my books are out of print but you can borrow my two Africa novels from the Melville Library in Perth. My current project is collating and editing family diaries and memoires dating from the 1860’s.
There’s no hurry. I arrived in Perth in the nick of time before Covid19 lock-down in 2020. I feel very blessed as a relaxed retiree playing bridge and geriatric tennis, meeting up with childhood friends and indulging my love of horses by judging dressage.
Jane Bwye 