Pat McDermott was born in 1953 and raised in bushland surrounding the Georges River in Sydney. One of four children, she enrolled in the University of New South Wales after school to study science. A varied career soon followed, first as a medical microbiologist, then as a schoolteacher and finally as a senior policy officer working for the Federal Government on national school education issues. It was while working in Canberra that Pat discovered the power of the written word. Medically retired in 2002, she returned to Sydney to live with her mother. It was after her mother’s death in 2010 that Pat decided to research and write her first book, Resurrection, which tells the tragic true story of the death of her younger brother. Pat still lives in her native Sydney and spends her time playing bridge each week and keeping in touch with family.