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In 1838, Dr Alexander Skinner leaves Scotland for Australia to make his fortune. He had met Scots whose families owned sugar plantations in the West Indies and been told that Australia's climate might be equally suitable for growing sugar. Dr Skinner is intrigued by the prospect of sugar production and the potential growth of a global industry. A restless, tenacious, often relentless character, Dr Skinner pushes himself and his family towards his single-minded goal of success in an untamed country.
Lois Shepheard was born in New South Wales to a father from Scotland and a mother descended from Scots. Lois Shepheard is an Australian of Scottish parentage. Lois studied in Australia. Lois was sent to learn the violin to play reels and hornpipes, and became a professional musician. Her lifetime in music included study at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music and the Talent Education School of Music, Japan. She has played in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra with Dr Shinichi Suzuki and was a lecturer at the University of Melbourne and the State College of Victoria Institute of Early Childhood Development. Lois has taught at various schools and tertiary institutions in NSW and Victoria. For a time, she was Professor of Viola and Director of the Suzuki Program at Western Illinois University in the US. Recent exploration into her family's Scottish history led her to research Dr Alexander Skinner, the subject of this book. In recent years, Lois was introduced to the fascination of family history. As she looked into the lives of her ancestors, she realised that each was a tale waiting to be written. Lois's first book on things Scottish won the 2011 IP Picks competition for creative non-fiction. This great, great, great granddaughter of Black McIntosh from Scotland's Black Isle, has a son and two grandsons in Melbourne and a daughter in Cologne, Germany. Lois's first book on things Scottish, The Rag Boiler's Daughter, won the 2011 IP Picks Award for Creative Non-fiction. Other books by Lois Shepheard published by IP: Memories of Dr Shinichi Suzuki – Son of His Environment and Black McIntosh to Gold.
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