Lauren Liebenberg was born in Zimbabwe, where she spent most of her childhood pedal-by bog-rolling the neighbours, playing ding-dong-ditch and dreaming of someday becoming the lead singer of Boney-M. She was sent to Brescia House, in Johannesburg, for high school, where she was awarded full colours for deportment in Standard 9 (although she says that had she known that no-one would ever care about that particular achievement in her entire career, she might have slouched a bit more).
When her boho back-packing phase ended in squalor, she completed an MBA at Witwatersrand University’s Business School, and became a writer after an aborted career in investment banking – which is a fantastic job for anyone with a rabid ego, a weakness for over-sharing and a penchant for living a secret double life full of high-octane drama, she says.
She resides in the suburban outback of Johannesburg, in the shadow of the sewerage pipe that spans the e-Coli infested Jukskei River, and shares her home with a pack of three dogs, two cats, (who are sworn enemies), a husband and two boys – in whom the feral instinct runs strong.
Lauren brands herself a lipstick feminist – it’s jalapeño hot, she says, like champagne and Mardi Gras.