Gloria E. Swan

Gloria E Swan was born and raised on a banana plantation just outside Murwillumbah, the hub the beautiful Tweed Valley in northern NSW Australia. She was one of 6 children born to an ex World War Two serviceman and his wife. She attended Condong Primary School,

a small 3 teacher school in the heart of sugar country. After rounding off her education at Murwillumbah High School she was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to attend Newcastle University to study accountancy. A woman ahead of her times she attended classes as the only female among hundreds of males. She worked there as a Chartered Accountant for another 7 years during which time she married another Tweed Valley expat and gave birth to two daughters. The polluted air of the industrial city played havoc with her husband’s health so they made the decision to return to their beloved valley and spent 30 years helping to run a family transport business, as well as building up a small accountancy business. Another 2 daughters and many years of community service later she and her husband finally retired to the seaside village of Pottsville at the southern end of the Tweed Valley. Unfortunately their well earned retirement was not to be for her husband of 40 years, who passed away at the age of 61.

A love of the written word was instilled in her a very early age by her parents, who were determined to see their children gain the education they were denied by years of austerity followed by war.

Her first book, Henry’s Battle, was inspired by war-time letters her father wrote to her mother while stationed overseas during World War Two.