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Burma, Sudan, Siam, Malaysia. An Australian Merino Stud, an English farm. Joan Keen led a colourful pioneering life.

Many people can only dream of the variety that is the spice of life. Joan Keen, however, turned her dream into reality. Born in Malaysia and reared on an Australian merino stud, she met and married the love of her life in Africa and later enjoyed an idyllic family existence on a picturesque farm in southern England before settling on an island in Pittwater, just north of Sydney.

Joan’s story travels from a peaceful childhood on beautiful, tropical Penang Island to the wide open spaces of the New South Wales sheep property on which she lived until her dreams of travel came true with her departure from Australia for Africa. Wry humour is never far from the surface and adaptability is clearly a factor as she describes her exciting and exotic life in the Sudan and her ensuing comfortable and cultured lifestyle in England. There were times that were not easy, particularly the long separations from family. However she always approached life and its difficulties with a positive attitude – a trait she shared with her husband Freddie.

From the sunburnt country of Australia to which she has now returned, Joan’s book paints a colourful picture of her experiences in the four continents on which she has lived, each of which has had its own special impact on her.