JM Field grew up on waterfall country, in a small town along the Great Dividing Range on Dharug land. He is, however, a Gamilaraay Guwaymadhaan mari from Moree way, where the red sand meets the black soil. He did his undergraduate studies at the University of Sydney in mathematics and French literature, followed by a doctorate in Mathematical Biology at Balliol College at the University of Oxford. He is still a research mathematician, but fills his spare time writing.