Wild Lavender (62 page)

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!

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).

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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.
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‘
impossible to put down
’ NW

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…

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