A Way to Go

Nothing could have prepared the sensitive, English, private-school girl for her new life in Australia.

Culturally dumped in the deep end, she struggles valiantly to survive - first, the turbulent trials of high school, then the somewhat bizarre challenges of living away from home in order to qualify for her rightful place at university. Following a life-threatening accident, her struggles continue as she takes on her new role as single parent on a mission to show her daughter the world.

From ridiculous road trips to roughing it in the Australian bush, DIY house-building, flash floods, ferocious fires, running away from the USA, and elastic band-snapping budget trips around the world, A Way to Go is a heartwarming account of the powerful relationship between a mother and daughter and their adventures together.

Rhea Wells' pioneering approach to teaching, in a variety of educational settings, led to her being asked by colleagues to 'write it all down and tell us how you do it'. So she did, producing articles for Class Room Magazine, Ashton Scholastic, and the New South Wales Educational Department in Australia. A 'scribbler' since childhood, Rhea succumbed, once again, to the mounting pressure to 'write it all down', this time from her family and friends. 'A Way to Go' is effectively her memoir and is the result of this continued authorial encouragement. Rhea has created and publically performed several narrative poems about the vagaries of human behaviour, touching upon long-distance air-travel with an aged parent and birthday tributes. She has co-produced three whimsical, illustrated, Pam Ayre-esque poetry booklets based on the whacky lives of her three pets; a runaway goose, a misplaced whippet and a hand-me-on dachshund. These poems have been well received at public readings in Australia and over-seas. Other achievements include a BA Honours Degree, a Graduate Diploma in Education, a Graduate Diploma in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, counselling qualifications and more recently a Diploma in Pet Portraiture from London Art College. Rhea currently resides in South Australia but has a wee bedsit, in the Scottish Borders, to which she escapes when she can, to think, write, create and have fun. A second work, 'For the Love of Dog' now awaits her attention.