About the Author

Tina’s storytelling journey began in 2011 in her car, of all places, after Kinder Musiek classes with her then two-year-old daughter, Sienna. With the radio still playing nursery tunes and her brain stuck in rhyme-mode, Tina began making up silly animal adventures to keep Sienna giggling on the drive home. “More, Mommy!” was a common backseat request, usually before Tina had even finished the first tale.

Between wiping peanut butter off tiny fingers, rescuing half-drawn pictures from under the fridge, and occasionally burning supper while rhyming about mischievous meerkats, Tina discovered a rhythm and joy in spinning stories that made both mother and daughter roar with laughter.

One sunny afternoon at the Durban Botanical Gardens gift shop, Sienna pointed excitedly to a picture book covered in wild animals and exclaimed, “Mom’s story!” Tina laughed, but something stirred. Maybe, just maybe, Sienna was onto something.

So she sat down, usually after bedtime with a lukewarm cup of tea, and wrote The Hyenas Laugh in the Land of Kachoo. It was playful, wild, and filled with heart, but her first attempt was kindly rejected by the publisher.

Still, they recognised something special in her voice and encouraged her to write three stories that truly shone. And so she did, juggling story drafts between grocery runs, work emails, and Sienna’s dramatic puppet shows featuring characters like Golden the Rabbit and Fairy Princess.

Tina’s stories are rooted in her deep love for nature and wild African places, inspired by her many safari adventures to game reserves across Africa. From dusty tracks in the Kruger to magical sunsets in the Okavango Delta, these travels shaped the wild and wonderful world of Kachoo.