Tonia Cope Bowley
A South African farm girl, Tonia gained a B.Sc. degree at Natal University and a Teaching Diploma at Cape Town (UCT). For the next six years she taught senior school mathematics in South Africa before spending a year on a working holiday in the Arctic Circle, Norway.
From 1973–2001 Tonia was on the staff at Oxford University where she was involved in various research and teaching projects, all with a strong IT element. Her book on BASIC, published in 1981, was a best seller. For several years she developed and ran an Image Processing Centre. At that time she carried out research on the usefulness of Satellite Remote Sensing for Third World Urban planning with Durban as the case study.
In 2001 Tonia, happy in her work, reluctantly accepted the University’s offer of medical retirement due to prolonged chronic repetitive strain injury. However this has proved liberating and led not only to her virtual recovery from RSI but has given her more valued time with her family, space to develop her creative skills as a writer (this book being an example), and gardener, and her work in the charity sector.
Last but not least, in 1988, Tonia and her husband Stephen launched The Thembisa Trust, a registered charity supporting disadvantaged people at the grassroots in ‘The Beloved Country’ – South Africa.
Thembisatrust