Veena Schlegel was born and brought up in South Africa but left at the age of twenty-one, never to return. She has travelled extensively throughout the world, spending more than half of her adult life in eastern countries: India, Japan and China. Her books reflect her travels — both outer and inner.

She has self-published five books: A Vanished Road — about her journey overland to India in the early seventies; Glimpses of my Master – about spending twenty years as a disciple of the eastern mystic, Osho; A Mountain in China – about her life in a small village in China and her personal Zen quest; Farewell to Song Mountain – a sequel to A Mountain in China with more adventures on the mountain and also further afield;  Gulun Kungfu – about a little-known, traditional style of kungfu, practised only in the Song Mountain area.