Venetia Somerset

Venetia Somerset is a retired book editor who lives in a country town in Gippsland, Australia. She has two sons and two daughters, and enjoys discussing all kinds of significant things with them. Born in England in 1939 and moving to Australia at age ten, she has had a partly academic career, gaining a PhD in Middle English from Sydney University in 1976. For nearly forty years she worked as an editor of academic books, mainly for university presses. In 1993 she moved to the Gippsland countryside, after her divorce changing her surname to Somerset, her birthplace. With her twin sister she developed a 40-acre property on which they built a house, planted trees and bred alpacas. After her twin died in 2011 she moved into the nearby town, Warragul, and began writing about her life. She has some of the minor ailments of old age but her mind is quite clear; she concerns herself with the Meaning to be found in life and the intense joy this brings. She has a love for the natural world and for what she can learn about astronomy and the cosmos. She sees herself as a spiritual being rather than an adherent of a religion.