Author Marlene J. Bennetts (Te Ati Awa) autobiography begins with a vivid picture of backblocks childhood in 1940s and 50s. Marlene had a semi-nomadic life because her father worked in sawmills. Born in 1938 Marlene attended fifteen different schools. Marlenes account of her adult life is equally entertaining when she and her husband abandoned their plans in 1987 to retire in Auckland and decided, on impulse, to buy an old cottage in Blackball, West Coast South Island, where she began writing full-time. In 2003 Marlene was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to literature.