Pat Lowe was born in England. At the age of eleven she went to boarding school, where she suffered from chilblains and dreamed of migrating to Australia. After working as a postwoman and then spending three years as a secondary school teacher in East Africa, Pat studied psychology. In 1972 she sailed into Fremantle on a Russian ship, and became an Australian citizen as soon as she was eligible. Pat worked as a psychologist in a children's home and later in Western Australian prisons.Pat was transferred to Broome, where she met Aboriginal artist Jimmy Pike, who had grown up in the Great Sandy Desert. In 1986 Pat and Jimmy went to live in the desert for three years. When they were not exploring or hunting, Jimmy continued painting and Pat started to write.Desert Dog won the 1998 Western Australian Premier's Children's Book Award and was a Children's Book Council of Australia Notable Book. Many of the characters in Feeling the Heat first appeared as younger characters in The Girl With No Name, published by Penguin in 1994. The Girl With No Name was shortlisted for the Multicultural Children's Literature Award and has been published in Italian.
