Inspired by landscapes in her own childhood, Iona walked and explored the countryside around her home in a Yorkshire mining village. The natural world has always drawn Iona into its mysteries and fired her imagination. She also love travelling, languages, books, myths, legends, folk tales, music, art, walking labyrinths and facilitating labyrinth walks for others, studying and practicing mindfulness, sacred places, the possibilities offered by doorways and the magical hours of dawn and twilight, those mysterious in between times which are neither day nor night.

During Iona's career in London as a counsellor/ psychotherapist, she was privileged to be a travelling companion for a variety of people from diverse backgrounds and cultures, all on their own quests through the shadow and light of complex inner landscapes. Iona's clients were a mixture of children, young people and adults, all heroes in their own stories, often displaying astonishing courage in challenging personal circumstances.

Much of Iona's creative impulse still flows from that connection to the natural world, which developed during her youth and today, she finds herself powerfully influenced by the countryside in Wales where she now lives. There is a wealth of inspiration in the histories, legends and folk tales of these Celtic landscapes, which are more than likely sensing some kind of resonance with the Irish ancestry on her father's side. Iona enjoys writing for both children and adults, finding doorways, discovering paths and walking new landscapes, both at home and abroad, in whatever direction.