While researching my ancestry I was intrigued to discover that an ancestor had been widowed twice and married three times with three children before the age of 26.

William was born in Somerset in 1828, one of generations going back to 1722 and beyond skilled with woodcarving and model making. He was a great inventor, engineer and designer, and adventurous, too. He migrated to New Zealand in 1858, and then to Melbourne in 1885, his family then 10 strong. This is a fictionalised account of his life.

To this day, William's genes are evidenced in the youngest generation of his line. This book is a tribute to past and future members in our family who carry William's genes.

Meg Lawrence was born in Richmond, Victoria, Australia, in 1930, a second generation Australian. She inherited her father and grandfather's love of the ocean, and crewed on many ocean races. Her day job was in advertising, producing commercials and documentaries for radio and television.

Meg was the first Australian woman to report on life in Japan after the war. She also worked in Mexico, Fiji, and many Australian locations. In 2008 she produced a film explaining the biosphere which was presented to UNESCO in Paris in 2010.

She has lived in Noosa Heads, Queensland, since 1977. Between 1989 and 2019 she was the first and last chairman of the Noosa Federation of the Arts, for which she received a Member of the Order of Australia.

Suffering from macular degeneration, which makes reading difficult, prompted Meg to publish in audio.