Book excerpt: Leonie Ryder holds Doctorates in Aviation Psychology and in Food History and is an experienced artist. After many years working with the Royal Australian Air Force, she pursued her long-term interest in gastronomy and wrote Ginger in Australian Food and Medicine before turning to the history of her family and writing My Name Should Be Melano: The Story of My Parish, Burge, Rider and Melano Ancestors. Now she tells her own story.