Stories of Reinvention, Adventure, and the Lives That Refuse to Follow the Plan
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Explore the Stories
Son of Hydra
He thought a man's worth was measured in ships.
Until he lost everything.
A sweeping historical fiction inspired by the extraordinary true story of Ghikas Voulgaris—
Australia's first Greek convict pioneer, and a pirate.
Silver Medal winner at the Global Book Awards 2025.
Hydra in Winter
Part funny travel memoir, part solo detective story,
pure joy
A travel memoir about a solo trip to the Greek island of Hydra to uncover a family secret: a Greek pirate who became Australia's first Greek convict.
Gold Medal winner at the Global Book Awards 2025
Now Writing
Daughter of Cork
the story of the pirate's wife
After the Sensible Years
a new narrative non-fiction
About the Author
I am fascinated by the moments when a life stops going according to plan—and what happens when it all turns upside down. I write fiction and memoir exploring the imperfect science of beginning again.
After a lifetime raising cattle on Queensland's Granite Belt, my husband and I swapped the bush for the beach at the Sunshine Coast. My all-consuming passion is writing, which doesn't leave enough time for travel or photography!
I'm a member of the ALLWRiTE Club and Writers on the Coast Noosa—both generous communities of writers whose work and thinking continually stretches my own.
ABOUT HYDRA IN WINTER
When the summer crowds leave, the magic begins. I arrive solo on the car-free island of Hydra to hunt down a family secret: the truth about my husband’s ancestor—a Greek pirate who became Australia’s first Greek convict.
Armed with an umbrella, a cashmere scarf, and zero Greek, I settle into a shipowner’s mansion on the harbour. To the clip-clop of donkeys on stone steps, I explore the island, dive into its archives, and let the warmth of Hydra’s locals turn my urgent quest into a slow-travel adventure—and the beginning of my passion to write the pirate’s story.
For readers who enjoy Greek island escapes, humorous travel memoirs, solo adventures, and true stories full of curiosity, serendipity, and joie de vivre.
ABOUT SON OF HYDRA
Sydney, 1829.
Ghikas Voulgaris, proud and reckless son of a powerful Greek shipping family, is certain life will bend to his will. But when he and his friends attack a supply ship during the Greek War of Independence, everything shatters. His punishment is swift and public: transportation to the penal colony of New South Wales as a convicted pirate.
Stripped of his name, influence, and friends, Ghikas becomes nobody. He must bow to men who neither know nor care who he was. And Mary—a fierce Irish orphan who answers to no one—is everything he doesn’t want in a woman.
Ghikas believes he’ll serve his sentence and return to Hydra to reclaim his birthright. But the real battle—discovering who he is, where he belongs, and what makes a man—has only just begun
Click here for more on the research behind the story of Son of Hydra.
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My ultimate mission is the pursuit of the perfect cream bun—but sadly, they're a dying species
