Susan Hillyard, née Watt, was born in the United Kingdom in 1926. She read History at Oxford and a few years after graduating met her husband Temple (Tim) Hillyard. Shortly thereafter they left for Iraq, where he was working for what was to become BP, and she taught English and History at Queen Alia College, Baghdad University. In 1953 Tim was posted to Abu Dhabi; she and their infant daughter Deborah joined him in 1954. They left Abu Dhabi just after the discovery of oil in 1958, moving elsewhere in the world; Canada, Alaska, Libya, Australia, Indonesia and Malta as his work demanded. After Tim’s death Sue returned to live in their house in Derbyshire and to the teaching she enjoyed. She died in February 2014.

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She is a posthumous recipient of the 2015 Abu Dhabi Award for this book.

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