In 1962, Gillian was born but expected to be a boy. To all intents and purposes, the Taylor family were typical working class people, living the New Zealand dream of a quarter-acre pavlova paradise near the capital Wellington. Her father was a wool-classer and carpenter and her mother a qualified pastry chef who then rose up the ranks of social work for government institutions. They attended the Salvation Army each Sunday and survived the death of four of their babies due to RH Negative and RH Positive complications. Her Father’s Father was a Freemason and Her Mother’s Father led New Zealand’s National Band in Queen Elizabeth’s coronation parade in 1953.

Gillian’s first real enthusiasm at school was being ejected from Embroidery class and put into a Creative Writing class at age eleven. For the first time, she felt she could think any thought, have any voice, adopt any perspective. She has written advertising, one commercial pilot, a television series, screenplays, poetry, essays and short stories culminating in her gaining a B.A. in English Literature from North London University in 1993.

Some of her writing is included in La Riposte with one aim in mind: follow the passion of life through self education and curiosity and write it out, aim for a distinct voice that is concise and to the point, one voice amongst millions of untold stories. Most of the book is based on fact. It depicts the need she had to write, for sanity, grappling with economic struggle, S & M, and the old adage that most people don't speak what's on their minds, that surviving the technological age is a feat on its own, and that being female is harder than it looks. Even to get this book published was through a series of people assisting her and the unlikely ability to hold onto old notes, diaries and any demonstrable confidence proves that writers are a disparate breed, but are born to write and will uphold their compulsion to keep writing.