Janet Keegans

Janet Keegans (neé Slack) - and previously Jan Greaves: I was born a Brit but raised in Africa - first Uganda, then Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. My childhood playground was on a hilltop overlooking the Zambezi river at Kariba, where the jungle began literally at the bottom of the garden. I've never been de-tribalised: Africa is still home.

At Kariba Junior School I won my first (and only) literary prize - a box of chocolates - for a story about a monkey that escaped a zoo in the USA and, via a series of fortunate events, made it all the way back to Africa.

My first book was also about a monkey: 'Kubuka and The Magic Calabash'. This started as a short story for a magazine but morphed into a full-length adventure. It was published by Struik/Random House in Cape Town in 2004. Now out of print... but available as an e-book thanks to The Internet.

My 'real' career has been in advertising and copywriting and I now live in lovely Cape Town, South Africa. As a true Sagittarian I travel whenever possible. I am endlessly inspired by Africa's beauty, breathtaking landscapes and astounding, precious, irreplaceable wildlife. So now, enough monkeys. Time for other animals!