Helen McIntosh suffered a massive stroke at 43, which ended her career as a Senior Curriculum Officer for Primary Education in Victoria. The slow and painful process of reclaiming her life included keeping a journal for solace and to express anger, loss and grief. With the heightened powers of observation that seemed to come with the stroke, she found a lot to write about. Her notebooks eventually became numerous books, and the process of their creation gave back a life that had been interrupted by the stroke.

Prior to her stroke in 1987, Helen McIntosh authored Your Classroom : A Practical Guide to Organisation and Management (1985).