About the author

Lucie Davison

<em><strong>Lucie Davison</strong></em><br>Lucie was born in the 1950s in Far North Queensland. She and her brothers all agree that they were the luckiest of children to live there, growing up without shoes, electricity, indoor toilets or mains water, but with a freedom that could hardly be conceived of for children now. She also had the benefit of a well-rounded Queensland public education that left her with a love of history and the English language.<br>She went to New Zealand when she was 16 years old, leaving her heart in Taranaki when she returned to Australia to train as a nurse at Royal Canberra Hospital. &nbsp;She worked as a nurse and, once she had children, a public servant, ending that career as a ministerial writer and Hansard editor. &nbsp;Lucie studied English literature and creative writing at the University of New England.<br>Lucie was forced to retire in 2016 when she was diagnosed with Myalgic Encephalomyletis (ME), formerly known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Despite this extreme limitation on her life, she still manages to research and edit Only Slightly Foxed’s books, as well as creating and exhibiting fine art collages.<br><em><strong>Rob Gray</strong></em><br>Born in 1955, Rob joined the Royal Australian Navy as an artificer apprentice in January 1971. Trained in weapons electronics, he subsequently served in HMA Ships Perth, Hobart and Brisbane, as well as in a number of shore establishments. In 1990 he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (Military Division) in the Honours List for the Queen’s birthday, which also happened to be his birthday. He left the Navy as a warrant officer in 1991, having served 7,305 days—not that he was counting!&nbsp;<br>Rob subsequently worked full-time as a technical writer, mostly in support of defence projects, before embarking on a dismally unsuccessful career as a visual artist. He then found work as a theatre mechanist, sound engineer, lighting designer and general theatre dogsbody before starting his own theatre company with a friend.<br>He returned to part-time work to fund his real interests: the arts, history, archaeology and rebuilding his poorly-designed house in Canberra to become a carbon-positive dwelling, just to see if it could be done. It can.<br>Over the years he has travelled fairly extensively and spent some time in Palestine as a peace activist.<br>Rob continues to practice as a visual artist as well as researching and writing about the lives of some of the forgotten actors in the great events of history. He shares his home by the sea in South Australia with Lucie, Pookie the old cat, and Major the even older cat, and couldn’t be happier.