Yes, Felicity is my real name. I write under four pen names. Some mornings I wake up and wonder who I am to be that day: Katie, Amanda, Felicity or Maisie. It certainly makes life interesting and gives me so much scope for research which I love.

Although a seventeenth century farmhouse in the south west of France is now my home, I have lived and worked in seven different countries. My Mazita stories are based on my childhood spent on the island of Mombasa on the Kenyan coast. It was a magical time surrounded as we were by tropical seas and warm, sultry weather. I could tell you so much but this isn’t meant to be an autobiography. Suffice it to say, I have two sons, two Siberian Husky/Border Collies and a spoilt grey Persian cat called Miau Miau (she’s French).

With my two children in tow, I trudged off to university at the age of thirty-two as a very mature student and ended up with an Economics degree. There have been adventures along the way. I’ve sailed all the way around Africa on ocean liners three times.

When my then husband and I left Saudi Arabia, we chose to travel back to France by road through Saudi, Iraq (during the Iran/Iraq war which was a bit dicey), Turkey, Bulgaria, the then Yugoslavia (still under Soviet rule) and Italy. It was the middle of winter. We couldn’t find a spare tyre in wartime Iraq, the roads over the Turkish mountains were chewed up by the tankers and customs officials were suspicious at every border. Now, my adventures take place in my imagination and I pass them on to you. I hope you enjoy reading my stories.