Alexandra Fuller — English Author born on December 30, 1969,

Alexandra Fuller is an author who currently lives in the U.S. state of Wyoming... (wikipedia)

Until I read Anne Frank's diary, I had found books a literal escape from what could be the harsh reality around me. After I read the diary, I had a fresh way of viewing the both literature and the world. From then on, I found I was impatient with books that were not honest or that were trivial and frivolous.
I always knew mum loved me - tough, look-after-yourself love, as if she knew she wouldn't always be there.
The memoirs that have come out of Africa are sometimes startlingly beautiful, often urgent, and essentially life-affirming, but they are all performances of courage and honesty.
One of the things about being raised British in Africa is that you get this double whammy of toughness. The continent in place itself made you quite tough. And then you've got this British mother whose entire being rejects 'coddling' in case it makes you too soft. So there's absolutely nothing standing between you and a fairly rough experience.
I listen mostly to classical music.