Betty Nickerson was born during a Kansas tornado in 1922. She earned her BA in sociology and agriculture and did postgraduate work in Interdisciplinary Communications at McGill University. She raised three children, and spent seven years writing, producing and hosting youth TV shows in Winnipeg. She has been awarded a British Council Fellowship, an India Arts Council Fellowship and the Queen's Jubilee Medal. She is the author of three other books and co-author of a fourth. She is founder of the Amazing Greys, a gathering of older women. Nickerson makes her home on Vancouver Island.