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Bio

MK HumeI was born in 1948 in Ipswich, Queensland. My father served in the Australian Air Force during World War II and he was also a Lay Preacher in the Presbyterian Church. My mother also served as an officer in The Women’s Royal Australian Air Force.

I have two sons, Damien who has an enquiring mind that is useful when I am considering all things military.

My other son, Brendan is an IT specialist in Tasmania. He’s a jack-of-all-trades and, fortunately, he’s a master of many of them. I miss him.

I went to school at Ipswich State High School and, after graduating, became a High School teacher teaching Art, History and English Literature. Once “safely married off”, I followed my husband, a Search and Rescue Search-master, to a number of locations throughout Australia.

During my travels, I studied with the University of Queensland as a remote student. The Arthurian legends have followed me for most of my life. From early childhood, when I was first introduced to the prose stories of Tennyson and later fell in love with his poetic skills, my imagination was “hooked” by the Arthurian personae. To supplement a number of other coincidences, I once lived in a suburb where the streets were named after the knights, whether by accident or happy design, I determined to study the literature of Arthur for my Masters and PhD degrees. Even my husband shares his first name (Arthur) with the Dux Bellorum (War Leader) of Britain, the hero who played such a large part in defending the Celtic tribes for some forty years.

Were these happy accidents – or fate?

For my PhD studies, I undertook a major study on Charles Williams, an English poet and novelist who wrote esoteric Arthurian literature during the period from 1920 to 1944. Although unknown to most of the wider literary establishment, Williams was a genius in his own right who wrote some of the most obscure works produced during the 20th Century. His best-known works were his poetic triumphs, “Taliessin Through Logres “and “The Region of the Summer Stars”. I loved his poetry and his prose, but the more I delved into his psyche, the more he came across as a “very strange” man.

I now live in Brisbane, Queensland, but escape to Europe and Britain for research as well as fun at every possible opportunity. Perhaps I, too, will transplant myself to Tasmania. We live for a long time and who can tell what the future will bring.

My writing is the culmination of my lifelong dream, so it is very satisfying to wander through a book-store and see my own books on the shelves. And it makes one’s head swell to read “favourable” reviews.

Most important of all, I get a big kick out of demonstrating that older people can create and triumph in their chosen field of endeavour, regardless of the obstacles that lie ahead of them.

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