Children Tim and Ruth are on a picnic in the Park with their parents. When Ruth impatiently leads them on a short-cut out of a dark tunnel, they come out 100 years into the past. With a new friend, they explore the Park as it was then. Can he help them find their way back home? Will he travel with them?

Barbara was born in a small Australian town in 1942, educated for 9 years in a one-roomed school with all grades taught by a single teacher. She then left home at 14, to spend 4 years in a girls' boarding school, followed by 8 years at Universities. After marrying and raising 2 daughters, she taught in high schools, universities and adult education for 20 years. She is now widowed and has a teenage grandson.

She has been writing stories ever since childhood, her chief influences are Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, and Ngaio Marsh. Her adult stories are mostly gentle romances. She also writes specifically about Australia: a memoir of growing up on a farm in the 1950s, and cosy mysteries set in scattered sites across Australia, all of which she has visited and knows well.