About me and my journey

The first path I travelled down was on the other side of the world.
Born in England six years after WW2. My father had fought for freedom and survived many close shaves with death.
He wrote about these in his memoir “Sixty Bonus Years”.

Whenever I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would reply, “A teacher.”
Our family emigrated to New Zealand to begin a new life.
I was seven years old and I went to school and Teachers College in Palmerston North.

Becoming a teacher at eighteen years old led me to the country school of Norsewood, where I taught for three years and then headed off on my O.E. where the journey took me to Italy and a chapter in my life which led to the connections which have resulted in my two memoirs.

The connection with this place and people began in WW2 when an Italian family sheltered my father and our memoirs tell the incredible true stories of love, loss, connections and unbreakable bonds. Readers often say our story would make a great movie.

After settling in rural Manawatu and having a family I wanted to live a natural way of life and fell in love with herbs and what their magic could do. I decided to study herbs and developed a passion for what they could do.

On completing my diploma in 1990 and having developed some incredible, effective herbal products which people wanted to buy, I had a vision for a business through which I could share my passion for these plants called herbs.
And so the idea of The Herb Farm was formed.

The Herb Farm opened its doors in 1993 and I did it all on my own until it grew quickly and I needed people to help me and now thirty years later it has a team of thirty spreading the word about these incredible plants.
The Herb Farm is now owned by the next generation, my daughter Sarah.

Now there is a new generation and I wanted to share my love of herbs with them and other children and so I created a world called Herb World and started writing children’s herb books which are fun and connect children to nature.
My son Craig Kirkland is the talented illustrator for our books.

Meet some of the characters from Herb World who love connecting with children.
These characters are based on herbs which are easy to grow and will form a first aid kit out in the garden.