About me

Annie loves strong coffee with frothed milk, she loves the scent of the native bush that surrounds her home in the hills in South Canterbury/New Zealand, and anything Italian, especially the food and the language.

Not surprisingly Tom, the male protagonist in her book "Teaching Tori", happens to be a great cook of Italian dishes and can correctly identify and pronounce nine different types of pasta. (How many can you list?)

Being an eternal romantic, Annie loves writing the type of novels that she loves reading – love stories that make you laugh and cry, love stories that make you pine for and cheer alongside your main characters as they negotiate their way through the ups and downs of new, old and second-chance love. Her favourite characters are ones that are strong and independent, but when their flaws and vulnerabilities are exposed, they have to suffer more than others.

Annie shares her home with her not-so-romantic husband Ralph (she doesn’t hold that against him any longer) and their daughter as well as a bunch of pets: two dogs, two cats, one noisy African Grey parrot and a couple of donkeys.

During the day, Annie is lucky to be teaching a class of seven to nine year olds the joys of reading and writing as well as all the other exciting subjects in primary school. Depending on the time of day, you might see her wearing an apron while cutting up fruit for the children, an art shirt while having a go at printmaking (one of the many benefits of being a teacher – you get to do all the fun stuff you used to do when you were at school) or some weird book character costume during a special book week.

If you want to find out more about Annie’s books or want to compare your pasta list with Tom’s, please get in touch.  She’d love to hear from you.