Micki Pistorius was born on 19 March 1961 in Pretoria to her parents Carl Wilhelm Irene Pistorius and Iolanthe Tancred. Both her parents cultivated an interest in history and encouraged their children to read. As a child Micki always wanted to be a writer. Her childhood was nomadic and she attended several primary schools and matriculated at Hoërskool Menlo Park in Pretoria, with Afrikaans, English, Maths, History, Bible Studies and German as selected subjects.
She enrolled for a BA at the University of Pretoria and studied Afrikaans and English literature, French, Criminology and Psychology. As a reward for obtaining her degree, her mother afforded her a tour to Europe. Micki’s adventurous spirit was awakened and Paris became the first of many cities she fell in love with.
Upon returning from Europe, she embarked upon a career as journalist and wrote for a local newspaper “Die Transvaler” and the SA Broadcasting Corporation radio and television news, where she met and married a fellow journalist. They moved to Cape Town where she worked for the women’s magazine, “SARIE” and the World Wide Fund for Nature’s quarterly newspaper “Our Living World”. The couple relocated back to Pretoria and Micki’s love of nature secured her an appointment as a publications officer at the National Zoological Gardens in Pretoria.
Her journalistic career spanned a decade, when she heeded the calling to become a psychologist. Immediately upon qualifying as a psychologist in 1994 she joined the SA Police Service as profiler, but this demanding position consumed her time and energy and she soon divorced. Micki hunted criminals as a profiler for another decade. She obtained her Doctorate’s degree and achieved international acclaim in this field and travelled to Britain, Scotland, USA, France and Hungary, but the trauma took its toll and she took time off to recover.
Writing always being her most rewarding catharsis, she diverted her energy into producing five real crime books. Then she finally penned a delightful fictional historical novel and knew she had recovered. She joined Zyron, the television production company of friend and SA actress Sandra Prinsloo to produce documentaries on crime. Being actively creative had a healing effect on her.
By 2005 she opened her private therapeutic practice and consulting service. This has been operative for another decade. Her career changes direction every ten years.
She often returns to Paris to explore the history of the French royalty and to practice her French and she favours Athens and Istanbul.
In 2010 her quest for knowledge and yearning to explore the world got the upper hand and she completed an Honors degree in Biblical Archaeology. Micki developed an affinity for the Bronze Age, especially the legend of the Trojan War. Odysseus has become a personal hero. She taught herself a few words of basic Greek, studies Greek mythology and makes regular visits to the temples of the Greeks gods. She finds Sunio, the temple of Poseidon to have a seductive mystical effect and can lose herself in the labyrinth of Knossos in Crete. She followed the journey of Agamemnon from Mycenae on mainland Greece to the shores of Troy / Illium in Turkey. She explored several ancient sites in Turkey and even followed the footsteps of Alexander the Great to Taxila in Pakistan. She traced her Tancred crusader ancestral blood to Hauteville in France and wishes to extend this journey one day to their strongholds on Rhodes, Jerusalem and hopefully Antioch.
Micki regards her friendships as the true wealth of her life. She adores all animals, especially cat species and abhors trophy hunting. She leads a healthy lifestyle and enjoys a quiet private life, often in solitary pursuit of buried archaeological sites or she relaxes in the company of selected friends.
Micki is energized by the ocean and often retreats to the islands of Greece or Zanzibar to recharge. She has semi-retired on a tropical island where she spends most of her time writing, if she is not travelling.
