I was born on a tiny island in the heart of Nantes in Brittany, France.

My father has green fingers and I grew up surrounded by flowers, trees and birds. He taught me to love the environment and this influenced the rest of my life until 30 years later I found myself living in the humid tropics and realized that my child love of nature was there for ever.

Together with my husband, I raised my four children in France, Indonesia and Kenya. I am now living in Pretoria, South Africa.

I taught French as a foreign language and I worked as a primary school teacher for many years. While teaching, I placed great importance on having the children write fiction and non fiction. Later in life, writing came naturally to me. I started off with zebras, orang-utans, trees and environmental issues,  introducing my feelings and ideas in order to develop a story.

My first book, written in French, Le Tableau magique de Tanzanie (The magic painting of Tanzania) was published in May 2008 by L’Harmattan, Paris, France: a novel for young readers that takes place in the savannah. I intend to have it published in English and Swahili, as the story takes place in Tanzania. It is the incredible and moving story of a little zebra who magically springs to life from a painting!

My second story has been completed. Matamata, written in French and translated into English, is ready to be published in both languages. The setting of this picture book is the tropical rainforest. The heroine is a little orang-utan whose name ‘Matamata’ is derived from the Indonesian word for eyes and refers to the typical feature of baby orang-utans: their huge, wide open eyes.

The little gold Fork and If only I were a Weaver!, two picture books in Engl;ish, will soon be published by Masterskill in South Africa (www.masterskill.co.za).

I’m presently working on a new story in French while brooding over several other ideas.

Rozenn Torquebiau 2008