Lesley Charlesworth was born in Pt Augusta, South Australia.  She still has a great affinity for the Outback and has a real need to regularly return to this country. She enjoys camping bushwalking and travelling.

Through her career as a teacher and counsellor, she developed an interest in and admiration for the resilience which many people, children especially, possess often in the face of seemingly insurmountable difficulties.

This resilience, together with the idea that people and things are not always as they seem, provide the themes for much of her work.

She is currently completing a Masters Degree in writing through Swinburne University and is using her studies to complete a novel. She also enjoys writing poetry and short stories.

Below is an extract from her work in process, the story of a solitary child who becomes the victim of abuse.

It was time to feed the cat. She squatted next to it and watched intently as it ate the scrap meat, turning its head from side to side as it chewed. As it ate each piece she fed it the next and stroked the greasy feel of the meat from her hands into the cat’s fur. When it had finished, it proceeded to groom itself methodically. She could see the little burrs on its tongue as it proceeded over its body. She placed her finger in its path, receiving perfunctory attention from the rasping tongue. It used its wettened paw to wash around its mouth and ears then climbed into her lap, kneading her legs and purring until it finally curled into a ball and slept. She sat on the bare soil in the sun stroking her soul mate.

This was no ordinary cat. It had magic powers. And these powers were a secret that they shared between them. Only she knew that it had the ability to share her innermost thoughts and feelings. She talked to it through her rough hands as she stroked its fur. These hands relayed her feelings without the complication of translating them into words - for most times she would have struggled to articulate them. But the cat absorbed every emotion into its being and through its purring let her know that it understood. She not only allowed it to read her but believed that it could communicate directly to her. When she stared into its eyes it would unflinchingly return that stare until something passed between them. With this secret knowledge, she could face the world. She needed nobody.