How an author and 2 knights make a SafeKnight

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From the archives

I wrote this blog in 2014, soon after I met retired UK Detective Inspector Chris Gould, who was instrumental in helping me put together fresh evidence for my cousin Ursula Barwick’s case and take it to NSW Police, resulting in new Kings Cross detectives being assigned, helping us solve the 30 year mystery of Ursula’s disappearance. Chris also endorsed my debut crime fiction bestseller Write About Me, describing it as ‘enthralling, emotionally and psychologically accurate’ (read full review below).

My reasons for digging this story out of the archives is having listened to two podcast series. I highly recommend them and have included links for you to download!

Posted on January 31, 2014 

Recently I met two knights. Their names are Chris Gould and Chris Hawthorn.

Knight 1 is Chris Gould, chairman and founder of Child-Safe International. Knight 2 is Chris Hawthorn, who founded The SafeKnight Foundation and poured his life savings into developing the SafeKnight mobile phone app. This free app is BBC Click’s Best App of 2012 and was a top five finalist in a World Youth & Student Travel Conference competition in Sydney last September.

I have decided to refer to them as Knight 1 and 2 instead of Chris 1 and 2 because what they are doing all over the world for young people can truly be likened to ‘knights in shining armour’.

Knight 1 Chris Gould contacted me  after reading ‘Write About Me’, my debut crime fiction bestseller about a missing Australian teenager called Annabelle Brown which is inspired by my cousin Ursula Barwick, missing for more than 26 years.

I have met Knight 1 in person and Knight 2 Chris Hawthorn via the virtual world.

It is an honour and a privilege to be collaborating with them  to help prevent young people from going missing and to find missing people via this amazing technology.

Write About Me Review

By Chris Gould

As an ex-professional who has worked on numerous cases of missing people, I found the story enthralling, emotionally and psychologically accurate with a wide range of implicit messages and support for those families and friends who have ever found themselves in such an awful position.

Advances in the development of social media; support in Australia with the introduction of the AFP National Missing Persons Co-ordination Centre, Crimestoppers, Missing Persons Advocacy Network (MPAN), Australian Missing Persons Register and other such organisations, campaigns and technology – there is today, much more help available than in the 1980s.

Child-Safe International and the SafeKnight Foundation are now collaborating with author Melissa Pouliot to endorse her book ‘Write About Me’ and to promote a new FREE mobile download safety app called SafeKnight. A tool not available for those like Ursula Barwick (a case on which “Write About Me’ is based, in the 1980s).

‘Write About Me‘ is an excellent read and I would like to personally give it my endorsement and support. Once started, I couldn’t put the book down. A tribute to the author.

Kind words for Write About Me & Found

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books Write About Me Found

What I love most about being an author is getting feedback from my readers on my two crime fiction series – the Missing Annabelle Brown Series and the Rhiannon Series. It’s not all positive and it does require developing a thick skin, but the kind words far outweigh those that are not so kind! When I’m doubting my ability as a writer or suffering from writer’s block and feel stuck on my work in progress, I go to my reviews to remind me – this is why I write!!

Here is one book review from Write About Me which is book 1 in the Annabelle Brown Missing Series that has absolutely made my day.

I am amazed at how deftly Melissa Pouliot wove her stories around what could (and no doubt does) happen when someone goes missing. Centering around the intricate webs of daily life, a simple decision like whether to turn left or to turn right, a decision any one of us could make on any given day, makes all the difference in someone’s survival.

I am also grateful that this story has opened my eyes to the plight of Missing Persons and that if I ever notice something ‘not quite right’ I know to reach out to a person and/or turn to the various resources in our community without hesitation. My heart goes out to all family and friends of Missing Persons ~ may your loved ones be found!

And another book review for the sequel, Found.

Page turning, gripping and beautifully written. Heartbreaking and heartwarming. FOUND highlights an issue that affects so many, missing, and gives you a very personal insight into what it’s like for those who are left behind. Bring tissues.

ABC Radio book review: Write About Me

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Write About Me, book review, Melissa Pouliot, ABC

The kindness and generosity of total strangers is something to be celebrated and shared. Two women from Toowoomba dedicated over 11 minutes of airtime on ABC Southern Queensland to me and my debut crime novel Write About Me.

They were having a conversation about the Unleash the Beast event on Wednesday 10th October 2018  that I’m part of for World Mental Health Day.

I feel so blessed – thankyou Emma Mactaggart and Belinda Sanders!

Have a listen – Emma loved Write About Me and says so many lovely things which is a huge boost for me to keep writing!!

Write About Me

The year is 1988 and 16-year old Annabelle Brown from northern Queensland runs away from her family and friends for the bright lights of somewhere new. She ends up in Kings Cross in Sydney where her life takes some dark twists and turns. Endorsed by the Australian Federal Police, Write About Me is real and raw and will break your heart into a million pieces. Inspired by the author’s true family cold case mystery, ‘Write About Me’ is a heart-wrenching story about a teenage runaway who doesn’t come home. Not crime, not fiction, but that dangerous place in between.

Order online:

Book review: Found by Melissa Pouliot

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books Write About Me Found

By Lyndal Reading, The Weekly Times, Country Living, October 25, 2017

FROM seedy Kings Cross of the 1980s to the beaches of Anglesea, the disappearance of Annabelle Brown is felt through the decades in this work of fiction by Merimbula-based author Melissa Pouliot.

Protagonist Christine, a former prostitute but now successful jewellery designer, can’t escape the memories of her past when a former love re-enters her life.

The sudden appearance of her former drug dealer and boyfriend, Ant, sends her into a tailspin. She gets in touch with her former boss, Bessie, then returns to “the Cross” and to drug taking as she tries to dig up information about her missing friend, Annabelle.

Annabelle, 19, vanished during a party in the Blue Mountains. No trace of her was found and any witnesses remained tight-lipped.

A keen detective, Louise Whadary, takes up the cold case and her life soon intersects with Christine’s.

Whadary brings fresh eyes to the case in her search for clues, although the case, frustratingly, has very few.

Pouliot easily switches between the past and present without losing the thread of the story and an unexpected twist at the end ties up a few loose ends and explains why the case took so long to crack.

The author draws on her personal experience as the relative of a missing person, as she has done with previous books.

Pouliot’s books often finish with a cliffhanger. Found reaches a conclusion that mirrors her personal experience.

Pouliot’s cousin, Ursula, 17, had been missing since 1987 before it was discovered she had died in a car accident near Tarcutta on the Hume Highway earlier this year.

Ursula had been living under a new name, and was quietly buried in Emu Plains cemetery when police couldn’t track down her family.