Terence Golding’s first degree is in Science and after a short career as a physical oceanographer (during which time chronic sea-sickness got the better of him), he studied Law and spent the following 30 plus years as a criminal trial lawyer in Australia. Following his recent retirement, he renewed his interest in North Africa with some French studies and its Francophone literature, particularly from Morocco. After some close reading of ben Jelloun, Chraïbi and Abdellatif Laâbi, in French and English, he was struck that Jocelyne Laâbi’s evocative and moving memoir “La Liqueur d’Aloès” was only available in French. He has remedied that with this, his first translation into English.