ABOUT LYNN
Storyteller. Painter. Farmer's wife.
Meet Lynn Taylor
I’m a writer, painter and farmer’s wife. I live in Tanzania on a farm with my husband, 3 dogs, 300 cattle and 12,000 chickens, give or take a few.
I started the first upmarket travel magazine in Tanzania, African Footsteps, (best job ever!) and I have written a number of screenplays that, thus far, Hollywood has overlooked.
I’ve written all my life – ten-page essays when the teacher just wanted a hundred words on What I did during the school holidays; love songs for various boyfriends who remained mostly bewildered and bemused (you think the tiny red hearts used to dot all the i’s was a bit OTT?); and stories, always stories.
The Kate Kershaw mystery series has been a couple of years in the writing and I think it’s finally ready to come blinking into the spotlight.
I’m also working on The Pause & Bloom Club, a romantic comedy series about women navigating menopause, friendship, love and the occasional spectacular meltdown. That hot mess will be coming out soon!
Join me in Lynn’s Journal where I’ll share occasional stories from the farm, my writing adventures, and whatever else life sends my way.
A Life with Stories to Tell
A Golden Childhood
I was born in Zimbabwe, and despite the political climate of the time, which included a bush war and my parents’ divorce (possibly connected), I remember vividly a golden childhood.
Days of sunshine and friends; riding horses along dusty farm tracks; countless hours of changing my Barbie doll’s clothes and playing with my doll’s house; and a brother who was equally my best friend, my partner in childish crime, and my fiercest competition at just about anything.
He could throw a cricket ball faster and harder than me (and often at me), but I was far more accurate. I climbed trees like a monkey, but he often had to help me get down. We made complex roadways in the sandy driveway that our father had to navigate his car around, while we pushed our Dinky cars on endless journeys through safari parks, towns and cross-country highways.
Our imaginations were free to soar, and they did.
Adventures in Africa
Years later, that childhood love of imaginary journeys became a very real passion for adventure, and I have been lucky enough to travel the world.
I started the African Footsteps travel magazine and almost weekly I travelled to different parts of East Africa and experienced some absolutely amazing sights.
I held my breath during a cheetah kill in the Maasai Mara (start to finish), marvelled at the Great Migration in the Serengeti (thrice!), explored the ancient ruins of Kilwa and encountered the extraordinary dancing of the Makonde people. There were destination weddings in Zanzibar and on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater, and the mating rituals of the chimpanzees in Gombe and Mahale.
In our own safari camps I’ve hidden my one year old son under my bed while a herd of buffalo was chased through our tented camp by lions and I’ve shot a crocodile who was eyeing me up in the bush kitchen whilst I made chocolate souffles.
Wherever I’ve been, I’ve discovered that the world is full of fascinating wildlife, extraordinary people and awe-inspiring places just waiting to be discovered.
A Little Kitchen Magic
My husband and I opened our first safari lodge, Elephant Sands in the Hwange National Park, when we were barely in our mid-twenties.
At the time, I couldn’t make beans on toast, even when armed with a tin opener and a toaster. But necessity is a wonderful teacher, and I learned to cook pretty quickly. Somewhere along the way, cooking became a passion, and I became a chef.
Making bread is pure alchemy – flour and water become a delectable treat; cheesemaking is nothing short of magical – liquid milk becomes a gel and then ripens into something delicious that you can slice and grate and melt. Salt, fat, acid, heat. Get the balance right and something extraordinary happens.
Even now, living on the farm and no longer in the safari business, I get an enormous kick out of producing great food from a few simple ingredients.
Watercolours, Words and Happy Accidents
I’ve always dabbled in art — sketching, oils, batiks, torn paper and anything else that caught my imagination. A couple of years ago, I decided it was time to concentrate on one discipline, and I chose watercolours.
And I love them.
There’s that magical thing again. You can have the clearest idea of what you want to paint, but the water has opinions of its own. It flows where it pleases, carries the pigment along with it and produces surprises you could never have planned.
Those happy accidents are often the best part.
I suspect writing isn’t so very different. You begin with an idea, a handful of characters and a vague notion of where they’re going. Then one of your imaginary friends does something unexpected and somebody else takes over. Before you know it, the story takes on a life of its own.
Perhaps I’m still that little girl in the sandy driveway, inventing people and places and just waiting to see where the journey leads.
Lynn’s paintings capture another side of her storytelling — places, people, colour and moments that stay with her long after they have passed.
Through African Footsteps, Lynn brought together stories, places and experiences from Africa in print — long before Kate Kershaw arrived on the scene.
Ready for a little mystery?
Meet Kate Kershaw and discover how a case of missing school funds becomes something far more dangerous.