About the author
Dori Scott Archer was born in Kingston Upon Hull, Yorkshire in 1921, left school at 13 and went to work in the Reckitts factory. In 1942 during the intense Luftwaffe attacks on Hull, she married Scottish airman Duncan Scott, and when Duncan went to serve in North Africa and Italy, Dori went to Edinburgh where she served in the Fire Service. During the 1950's, back in Hull and bringing up three children, she completed her secondary school education by correspondence and taught drama at local youth clubs, putting on many productions. A story she wrote for a Scottish newspaper attracted the attention of a woman in New Zealand and led to her family emigrating there in 1961. Dori and Duncan settled in Hawkes Bay, where Dori entered a teacher training course and became a primary school teacher in Havelock North, where she also taught speech and continued her activities in drama. Dori taught in various schools around New Zealand, set up a children’s theatre in Auckland and ultimately became the principal of a rural primary school. After Duncan's death and her remarriage to Alan Archer, Dori retired to help Alan reforest 150 acres of then-derelict land near Mangonui in Northland, which is now flourishing woodland. She also began writing articles about local characters for The Northland Age, edited a monthly magazine for Age Concern, wrote a history of Mangonui's St Andrew's Church and published a book of poems, "Transient Thoughts". She began to write her Heta Tahu stories when laid low by a broken hip, from which she has now recovered.