Born in Cape Town in 1962, Finuala was the seventh of eight children of radio broadcasters Eve van der Byl and Paddy Dowling. She studied at UCT and then, after obtaining her MA in English, moved to Pretoria, where she spent eight years teaching English at Unisa. She gave birth to a daughter, Beatrice, in 1993, and while on sabbatical in the village of Riebeek-Kasteel, completed a doctorate (...