Read Wild Lavender Online

Authors: Belinda Alexandra

Wild Lavender (62 page)

BOOK: Wild Lavender
13.73Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

I am also grateful to the people who generously helped with research in the area of their expertise: Gary Skerritt and Adam Workman for information on vintage cars; Fiona Workman for medical questions; Christine Denniston and Sophia and Pedro Alvarez for their information on tango dancing in Paris in the 1920s; Jeff Haddleton and Fiona Watson for
information on ballroom dances; Barry Tate, aviation historian, whose excellent information on aircraft I didn’t get to use in this novel but am saving for a future one; Steven Richards of Hewlett Packard for saving me from computer purgatory; Andrea Lammel for checking my German phrases; Dr Larissa Korolev for proofing my Russian phrases; Damian Seltzer for his irate Argentine tango dancer’s curses, Alvaro Covarrubias for putting me in touch with Damian, and Rosalind Bassett for putting me in touch with Alvaro; and of course, thank you to my dashing dance partner, Mauro Crosilla, for taking up the challenge of learning the tango with me so I could experience the dance for myself.

Special thanks should also go to the staff at the State Library Information Service and Ku-ring-gai Library for always going the extra mile in finding information for me.

I would like to express my gratitude to my wonderful agent, Selwa Anthony, for all her enthusiastic support and for being a source of inspiration and balance for me during the writing and editing process. I am also grateful to her right-hand man, Brian Dennis, for giving wise advice on the practical matters of being a writer.

The journey of writing
Wild Lavender
was made all the more enjoyable by my ‘pit crew’ at HarperCollins
Publishers
who so skilfully changed my tyres, adjusted my suspension, checked my brakes and refuelled my engine before sending me off for another round of editing. In particular I would like to thank Linda Funnell, Shona Martyn, Catherine Day, Karen-Maree Griffiths and Kylie Mason. I would also like to say that getting to work again with my editors, Julia Stiles and Nicola O’Shea, on this book was one of the things that made it worthwhile writing a novel almost as big as
War and Peace
– the pleasure lasted longer that way! Their inspired insight was very much appreciated.

Finally, I would like to thank my family and my friends for being the constant support that they are during the writing process. Life would not be the same without them.

Thank you, all!

About the Author

Belinda Alexandra has been published to wide acclaim in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Holland, Poland, Norway and Russia. She is the daughter of a Russian mother and an Australian father and has been an intrepid traveller since her youth. Her love of other cultures is matched by her passion for her home country, Australia, where she is a volunteer rescuer and carer for the NSW Wildlife Information and Rescue and Education Service (WIRES).

Discover the world with Belinda
Alexandra …

White Gardenia

From the glamorous nightclubs of 1930s Shanghai to the bitter days of Cold
War Russia, Anya must roam the four corners of the globe to search for what she values most.
Buy it now
.

Silver Wattle

The dazzling story of Adéla and Klára, two exceptional sisters
searching for success, love and salvation in the Australian film world of the 1920s.
Buy it now
.

Tuscan Rose

As Mussolini’s grip tightens around beautiful Italy in the 1930s, the
young orphan Rosa must discover exactly what she is willing to sacrifice for survival.
Buy it now
.

Golden Earrings

When talented ballerina Paloma delves into her family’s history she
unravels the secrets of the past and discovers a shocking story of passion, betrayal and flamenco in
the Spanish Civil War.
Buy it
now
.

Sapphire Skies

What really happened to Soviet fighter pilot Natalya when her plane went
down in WWII? Secrets and lies, enduring love and terrible sacrifice all combine in this story of a
love to defy the decades.
Buy it
now
.

Preview
White Gardenia
BELINDA ALEXANDRA

In a district of the city of Harbin, a haven for White Russian families since Russia’s Communist revolution, Alina Kozlova must make a heartbreaking decision if her only child, Anya, is to survive the final days of World War II.

White Gardenia
sweeps across cultures and continents, from the glamorous nightclubs of Shanghai to the harshness of Cold War Soviet Russia in the 1960s, from a desolate island in the Pacific Ocean to a new life in post-war Australia. Both mother and daughter must make sacrifices, but is the price too high? Most importantly of all, will they ever find each other again?

Rich in incident and historical detail, this is a compelling and beautifully written tale about yearning and forgiveness.
White Gardenia
announces the arrival of a powerful new talent.


impossible to put down
’ NW

Silver Wattle
BELINDA ALEXANDRA

Belinda Alexandra returns with a dazzling novel about two exceptional sisters, set in the Australian film world of the 1920s.

In fear for their lives after the sudden death of their mother, Adéla and Klára must flee Prague to find refuge with their uncle in Australia. There, Adéla becomes a film director at a time when the local industry is starting to feel the competition from Hollywood.

But while success is imminent, the issues of family and an impossible love are never far away. And ultimately dreams of the silver screen must compete with the bonds of a lifetime…

Silver Wattle
confirms Belinda Alexandra as one of our foremost storytellers. Weaving fact into inspiring fiction with great flair and imagination, this is a novel as full of hope, glamour and heartbreak as the film industry itself.

Copyright

HarperCollins
Publishers

First published in Australia in 2004

This edition published in 2014

by HarperCollins
Publishers
Australia Pty Limited

ABN 36 009 913 517

www.harpercollins.com.au

Copyright © Belinda Alexandra 2004

The right of Belinda Alexandra to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the
Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000
.

This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the
Copyright Act 1968
, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

HarperCollins
Publishers

Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia

Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive, Albany, Auckland 0632, New Zealand

A 53, Sector 57, Noida, UP, India

77–85 Fulham Palace Road, London, W6 8JB, United Kingdom

2 Bloor Street East, 20th floor, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8, Canada

10 East 53rd Street, New York NY 10022, USA

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Alexandra, Belinda.

Wild lavender.

ISBN 978 0 7322 7628 7 (pbk).

ISBN 978 0 7304 4385 8 (ePub)

1. Entertainers – Fiction. 2. World War, 1939–1945 –

Fiction. I. Title.

A823.4

BOOK: Wild Lavender
13.73Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Midnight Outbreak by Jeffus Corona, Brandy
BoldLust by Sky Robinson
Behind Closed Doors by Terry Towers
ZYGRADON by Michelle L. Levigne
Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
The Whirlpool by Jane Urquhart
Thief of Light by Rossetti, Denise