Ruth Carson, born in England before the Second World War, emigrated to Australia in 1982 via Scotland and Canada. She completed her education at the University of London with a degree in sociology and later, with social work qualifications from the London School of Economics.
This background to a large extent shaped her career in Australia where she has worked in human services and senior management, concentrating specifically in the last fifteen years on mental health, at both state and federal level.
This involvement intruded upon her personal activities — in music, theatre, poetry and literature — which have now in retirement been revived with renewed energy and interest.
Ruth and her whole family — Kit, her husband, son Chris (dec) and daughter Siobhan — have been involved with the Country Fire Authority in various capacities and this knowledge has informed aspects of this novel. Her daughter withdrew from medical school in her fourth year with a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
It was Ruth’s intention to bring together this range of experiences in the hope that what evolves is a sense that recovery is possible both in nature and in people and that strengths can be rediscovered and deployed.
Ruth and her husband live in South Gippsland, Victoria, where their home looks out over the sea to the iconic quietude of Wilson’s Promontory National Park.
