Mary-Rose MacColl est une écrivaine australienne dont les œuvres explorent souvent des histoires inconnues ou négligées avec un sens aigu du détail et une profondeur psychologique. Sa prose excelle à entraîner les lecteurs au cœur d'événements historiques, révélant l'humanité dans des circonstances extrêmes. MacColl se concentre sur des personnages féminins forts et leur résilience face à l'adversité. Son écriture est célébrée pour son authenticité et sa capacité à éclairer des chapitres d'histoire moins connus.
Fifteen-year-old Catherine Quick longs to swim in the warm waters of her Australian home as she's always done. Her aunt Louisa wants her to pursue an education instead. A chance encounter leads both women to New York where Catherine can prove her worth and Louisa can come to an understanding with her niece and herself.
Iris is getting old and leads a small sort of life. But one day Iris receives something unexpected in the post - an invitation to a WWI reunion in France. Determined to go, Iris is overcome by memories of the past and of her journey to France in 1914, where she followed her young brother Tom, intending to bring him home to safety.
A young woman's coming-of-age in 1920, the royal tour of Edward, Prince of Wales, and the secrets that surface more than seventy years later. "A perfectly heartbreaking tale of royalty, lies, and friendship."--Kristin Harmel, author of The Room on Rue Amélie Australia, 1920. Seventeen-year-old Maddie Bright embarks on the voyage of a lifetime when she's chosen to serve on the cross-continent tour of His Royal Highness, the dashing Edward, Prince of Wales. Life on the royal train is luxurious beyond her dreams, and the glamorous, good-hearted friends she makes--with their romantic histories and rivalries--crack open her world. But glamour often hides all manner of sins. Decades later, Maddie lives in a ramshackle house in Brisbane, whiling away the days with television news and her devoted, if drunken, next-door neighbor. When a London journalist struggling with her own romantic entanglements begins asking Maddie questions about her relationship to the famous and reclusive author M. A. Bright, she's taken back to the glamorous days of the royal tour--and to the secrets she has kept for all these years.
Memories and secrets buried for over twenty years surfaced after Mary-Rose MacColl gave birth to a much longed-for baby.