Author

Jake de Vries

Jake de Vries was a talented architect who helped shape the city’s built environment through his designs and vision for a modern Brisbane. As city architect, Jake was responsible for projects including the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, a retirement village and libraries. Jake met London-born Susanna Evans at an event at the Queensland Art Gallery in 1984. They discovered they both had been on television on the same day when Jake had been supervising repairs to the top of Brisbane’s convict-driven windmill and Susanna was launching her book Historic Brisbane and that they shared many interests. Jake and Susanna spent a wonderful summer in a Greek village to gain material for Blue Ribbons Bitter Bread, a book which, when published, went global with its emotive story of Joice Loch, who was born in Ingham in North Queensland and became Australia’s most decorated woman. The couple also wrote a sequel, To Hell and Back: The Banned Story of Gallipoli.