About
Above: First day of school on Tanera Mhor...the internet didn't exist so my picture was pasted in a paper album, rather than online!
Below: The daily commute to school by boat, from the island to the mainland.
Hi, I’m Lara…teacher, avid reader, and author of books for children and young adults. My stories have an adventurous element, and I’m a huge romantic so you’ll find plenty of this in my YA work.
I’m from the island of Guernsey, Channel Islands, but also spent my childhood on the tiny Scottish island of Tanera Mhor (no roads or shops, and we had to go to school by boat), and later in the Scottish Highlands of Glencoe (where they filmed Harry Potter…and Braveheart, Rob Roy, The Highlander, and The Loch series, to name a few!).
It was an adventurous upbringing with lots of freedom spent at the beach, on boats, and in the forests and mountains (with my dog, Heidi). My love of outdoor swimming and skiing were developed from an early age; I learned to swim in a rockpool, and to ski on the rugged slopes of White Corries, Glencoe. I confess, though, that having lived in a Swiss ski resort for twenty years, I’m a bit spoilt now for long, wide pristine slopes and lots of cafes!
I've taught primary/elementary school in Aviemore, Scotland; Prague, Czech Republic; and have been settled, as a teacher, in Switzerland for twenty years.
Fun fact: My home base for twenty-five years was Glencoe and I now live in the Swiss canton of Vaud. The father of Ian Fleming’s character, James Bond, was from Glencoe, and Bond’s mother was from the Swiss Canton of Vaud!
I've always told stories in my head. When I was young, I enacted the stories with my Cindy dolls, making my own props, furniture and clothes. It's only in the last ten years that it occurred to me I could actually write my stories down...let alone work up the courage to go public. I hope you enjoy the end results!