I was born on Thursday 13th July 1972 in Harare, Zimbabwe, to an English father and a South African mother. I was christened Catherine Jane Birch and – from the outset – I’ve been inquisitive about most of life’s elemental questions; its myriad paradoxes and unpredictable anomalies, their sources, solutions and their propensity for unmitigated change. From a very young age I was captured by the enigmatic life process, the challenge of living and what it ‘means’ to be alive.
I spent countless invaluable hours in nature, watching the world at its work. I had a fascination for everything around me, curious about what things were, how and why they worked, what they represented in relation to one another.
I began writing at the age of 5. Journals, stories and poetry, illustrations, have been a constantly evolving source of quiet self-reflection, expansive expression throughout my life.
I’m fortunate to have travelled many miles, to have visited a variety of differing destinations and though I’ve learned a lot about life in the last 50 years, my questions about its complexities are neverending.
I currently live in the south-east of England, having recently returned to the United Kingdom after a particularly harrowing period of 7 allegedly ‘invisible’ or ‘non-existent’ years of hell in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa.
My 13-year-old son lives in Switzerland, where he attends school.
C.J. Birch
C.J. Birch 