Paula Marais was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and started writing from the moment she could pick up a pen. Always passionate about words, Paula consumes books like food and gets equally hungry if not fed one regularly. Her early influences were Roald Dahl and Wilbur Smith, but beyond her teens, her focus was more on literary fiction: Margaret Atwood, Irving Stone, Douglas Kennedy, Anita Shreve and most particularly Pat Conroy. His books, The Great Santini and The Lords of Discipline have remained for her the pinnacles of characterisation.

Paula is one of four children, and studied languages at the University of Cape Town. There, she majored in French, Italian and English, graduating as the top student in her year. She later studied journalism in London, and read her Honours in Publishing at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, where she graduated cum laude.

Paula has lived briefly in France, but for longer periods in Cape Town, Johannesburg and London. Her earlier career in event management based in London, allowed her to travel frequently, and this has always been one of her strongest interests. She has travelled to well over 60 countries, and plans to wrap up a few more in the years to come.

First publishing her poetry at about the age of eight, Paula has always liked to share her writing. At the age of seventeen, she was a finalist in the South African English National Olympiad. She is an accomplished journalist, with pieces in magazines ranging from Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan to Runner’s World and Farmer’s Weekly. She also does corporate writing, SEO, ghost writing, speech writing and publicity work. With cookery being another of Paula’s hobbies, she has edited several of celebrity chef Sharon Glass’s cookbooks, and a curry-themed book from Yudhika Sujanani. Her novel A Perfect Holiday Romance has been published by Nollybooks. Paula has also published a non-fiction book on South African culture called Rainbow Nation Navigation, which she wrote with other co-authors. Macmillan published her book The Art and Science of Education in 2009.

Paula is married to a talented photographer David van Wijk, responsible for most of the photos on this site. She has a little son whose vocabulary continually amazes her, and has recently added a new baby to the family. Paula is currently working on her next book, a mystery novel set in Charleston, called After the Tsunami and has completed her manuscript for a romance set in Franschhoek, called Love and Wine.