Beverley Harper was born in Australia. In 1967 she travelled to Africa,intending to spend one year there. She stayed twenty, returning to settle inAustralia in 1988. Her memories of Africa have provided the inspiration forher best-selling novels and she visited that continent for research purposesonce a year.

Beverley Harper died of cancer in 2002. She rests at peace in the Africa sheso loved. Her ashes lay by the Boteti River in Botswana, below a lodgecalled Leroo-la-Tau, which means footprints of lion.

She left a draft of her final novel, FOOTPRINTS OF LION, which was lovinglycompleted by her husband, Robert Harper, and Peter Watt.