Winner of the ORANGE AWARD FOR NEW WRITERS 2010

I was born some fifty years ago in Hwange, a coal mining town in west Zimbabwe. I grew up in Bulawayo, the second largest city in Zimbabwe.

Bulawayo is known for its rather sleepy, laid back nature and its graceful colonial era architecture, examples of which can be found on my website

www.irenesabatini.com.

I spent many hours in the fabulous Public Library, down in the basement of the children's section devouring everything from Enid Blyton to Shane by Jack Schaefer, one of my favourite books.

I left quiet Bulawayo for,'The Sunshine City', Harare, to attend university. Harare is all hustle and bustle, with some fantastic futuristic buildings.

After university I went to Colombia where I stayed for four years working as teacher and studying for my masters. One of my biggest thrills in Colombia was catching sight of the legendary Gabriel Garcia Marquez in Cartegena. "Here, in front of me, is a real, living writer," I remember thinking. "They exist!"

Soon after that, I started writing in a red notebook in this former monastery outside Bogota. The writing seemed to just spiral out of me and if I had to pick a time when I really started this journey it would be that wonderful quiet morning on a verandah so many years ago in the Colombian countryside.