Archives for March 2019

In 1987 I went to work for my uncle in Ecuador. He couldn’t afford to pay me, but I didn’t care. Getting a job as a female geologist in those days was a pipe dream. I hoped some real experience and fluent Spanish would help me rise above the prevalent sexism of those days. It was an amazing time, responsible for turning me into the adventurer I am now. The more I discovered, the more I wanted to travel and explore. Did your first job inspire or deter you?

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I wrote the first two books in the Sam Harris Adventures using material from my early Ecuador years. Fool’s Gold uses the jungle settings I first worked in. The idea for Hitler’s Finger sprang from a report about Nazis in Ecuador which truly shocked me as I had no idea about Ecuador’s Nazi past. The characters are mostly generated in my imagination but Gloria and Alfredo are based on people I know and love, one of whom is no longer with us.

I have recently been asked to elaborate on my career and talk about how it influences my novels. We are going to take a tour through my career so that you can understand where my novels spring from. Here is a photo of me on my first foreign field trip during my MSc. Note the glamour and my expression of hopelessness. It was in Cyprus that I first realised just how tough the life of an exploration geologist was going to be. It was also the first time I appreciated the breadth of experiences available to me if I was brave enough.

I’d love to see photos of your first jobs. Post on my facebook page or on my twitter feed