1929: JAZZ, PARTIES AND AN ENDLESSLY RISING STOCKMARKET. BUT AN INSIGNIFICANT POLITICIAN CALLED ADOLF HITLER PLANS BLACKMAIL - AND EVEN MURDER - TO SNARE MISS LILY, HER ESPIONAGE NETWORK - AND THE BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY. Unimaginable danger creeps ever closer to Miss Lily and her loved ones . . .Amid the decadence and instability of Berlin in the 1920s, a band of women must unite to save all that is precious to them.With her dangerous past behind her, Australian heiress Sophie Higgs lives in quiet comfort as the Countess of Shillings, until Hannelore, Princess of Arneburg, charms the Prince of Wales. He orders Sophie, Nigel - and Miss Lily - to investigate the mysterious politician Hannelore believes is the only man who can save Europe from another devastating war.His name is Adolf Hitler.Long-lost love 'John' has also returned to Sophie's life, as well as a young woman determined to kill the woman she believes...

SOME GIRLS ARE BORN TO BE LOVED,SOME ARE BORN TO BE USEFUL,AND SOME ARE BORN TO BE BAD ... Indulged and wealthy Kat Fitzhubert is 'sold' in an arranged marriage to a colony across the world. Lady Viola Montefiore is the dark-skinned 'changeling' of a ducal family, kept hidden and then shipped away. Titania Boot is as broad as a carthorse, and as useful.On the long sea voyage from their homeland of England these three women are fast bonded in an unlikely friendship. In the turmoil of an Australia in the 1850s that reinvents itself from convict colony to a land of gold rushes and illusive riches, one woman forges a business empire, another brews illegal alcohol with a bushranger as the valleys and indigenous lands around her are destroyed. The third vanishes on her wedding day, in a scandal that will intrigue and mystify Sydney's polite society and beyond.In this...

From Australia's best-loved storyteller comes the final book in the bestselling Matilda Saga This is the story of our nation, told in a single sweeping love story Jed Kelly has finally persuaded her great aunt Nancy to tell the story of her grandparents. The tale that unfolds is one of Australia's greatest romances, that of Clancy of the Overflow, who gave up everything for Rose, the woman he adored, and yet still gained all he'd left and more.But Nancy's story is not the history that Jed expects. More tales lurk behind the folklore that surrounds Clancy - the stories of the women hidden in Australia's long history, who forged a nation and whose voices need to be heard.It is also a story of many kinds of love. Clancy's growing passion for the bush, immortalised in Paterson's poem, which speaks to him in the ripple of the river and the song of the stars, and Nancy's need to pass on her deep understanding of her country. But perhaps...

This is the story of women who fought during WWI, but not as nurses or ambulance drivers. In 1917 sixteen-year-old Jean McLain is working as a post-office assistant in England. But when she wins a national Morse code competition, the British army makes a request Jean cannot refuse – to take a secret position as a signaller in France.If Jean can keep the signals flowing between headquarters and the soldiers at the Front, Britain might possibly win the war.But the British army are determined to hide its desperation – and will go on to burn every document that showed how women and girls were working behind the scenes, in the trenches and even in battles during World War I.Decades later, an old woman tells the story of 'the telegraph girl': the friends she lost, the man who loved her, and the happiness she so surprisingly found again.Based on true events, this story of adventure, courage and unshakable loyalty restores women and...

Possum and Mopoke, with the old Collector Desert Wind as their guide, leave the Valley again to brave the world outside, where it's harsh, dry and so hot you can't go out during the day. This time they're in search of the marshes full of birds. It's only five nights' walk, but across mountains and desert. It's hard and dangerous, and who knows what's out there. Some say there's a city in the sand, like they used to have in the olden days, before the wild years and everything changed...Originally published in 1992, The City of the Sand is the second book in internationally bestselling and much loved author Jackie French's Children of the Valley series, a five-part dystopian series presciently written long before the trend for dystopian children's and young adult fiction emerged – or climate change was a global concern. According to her website, 'Jackie French AM is an Australian author, historian, ecologist and honorary wombat (part time),...

Inspired by a true story, How the Finnegans Saved the Ship tells the story of one Irish family's migration to Australia in 1913. Mrs Finnegan and her seven children have to leave Ireland and join Mr Finnegan in Australia. They board a ship which doesn't look as if it can move from the harbour and the Finnegans are nervous ... it is the year after the Titanic sank, after all.Mrs Finnegan is busy during the journey saving the ship from whales and other possible disasters. But as they sail round the tip of Africa, an iceberg looms out of the ocean. Can the Finnegans save the ship this time?Inspired by a true story, How the Finnegans Saved the Ship tells the story of one Irish family's migration to Australia in 1913.

Drawing on her own family history, this is a story from Jackie French about education in Colonial Australia - and how women once had to fight for their right to it. January 1901Sharks circle a stranded ship as a young girl and her family stagger from the waves ...Rescued by a Pacific Islander boy named Jamie, Hannah's family begin a new life in Port Harris, which at first seems a paradise for the schoolmaster's daughter. But local fortunes are built on slavery and the whip. As the new Federal Parliament passes the law that will force Pacific Islanders from their homes, Hannah and her mother risk everything to run a secret school, while Hannah and Jamie must fight for their rights to education and equality. Can friendship and love win against prejudice and power?Inspired by real events, this powerful new novel brings to life the bravery and battles of the past, and gives us courage for the challenges of...

'GRIPPING, EMOTIONAL AND MOVING'— New Idea on Facing the Flame (The Matilda Saga, Book 7) A body has been found in the burned-out wreckage of the church at Gibber's Creek — with older skeletons lying beneath it.The corpse is identified as that of Ignatius Mervyn, the man who attempted to kill Jed Kelly and her unborn child.Newcomer Fish Johnstone is drawn into the murder investigation, convinced that the local police are on the wrong track with their enquiries. But as she digs beneath the warm and welcoming surface of the Gibber's Creek community, more secrets emerge.And Fish must also face her own mystery — the sudden appearance and then disappearance of her father, a Vietnamese refugee she never knew.Set during the Indigenous rights and 'boat people' controversies of the late 1970s, this haunting story shows how love and kindness can create the courage to face the...

The powerful new novel from master storyteller Jackie French The soldiers she saved called her the Angel of Waterloo.The husband she loved and lost called her Hen.The patients she treated in secret called her Auntie Love.She was Henrietta Bartlett, a surgeon's daughter, a survivor of the Napoleonic Wars. But now the battlefield is just a blood-soaked memory, and Hen dreams of peace, a home, and a society that allows women to practise medicine.On the other side of the world, the newly founded colony of New South Wales seems a paradise. But Europe's wars cast long shadows ...From bestselling author Jackie French comes the story of one woman's journey from the hell of Waterloo to colonial Australia, where she can forge her own dreams in a land of many nations.PRAISE FOR JACKIE FRENCH'a master storyteller ... [she] gives women a rich,...

An empowering and exhilarating look at the girls who went before us, and the way they shaped the world. Twelve-year-old Ming Qong is convinced that girls must have changed the world, even if they are rarely mentioned in history books. So when Ming gets the chance to go back in time, she imagines herself changing destinies from a glittering palace or an explorer's ship. Instead, she ends up in Australia in 1898, living a tough life as Flo Watson on a drought-stricken farm. Luckily, Ming is rescued by Flo's Aunt McTavish. Wealthy Aunt McTavish belongs to Louisa Lawson's Suffragist Society, who are desperately and courageously fighting for women's rights. And Ming is determined to get involved, to make a difference. But change is never easy, so how can one girl change the world? From one of Australia's favourite writers comes an inspiring new series for all the young people who will, one day, change the...

'The story is equal parts Downton Abbey and wartime action, with enough romance and intrigue to make it 100% not-put-down-able.' - Australian Women's Weekly on Miss Lily's Lovely Ladies Paris,Christmas 1914 Despite her love for Huw, Elspeth will not give up her espionage work while World War One rages. She will wear his ring around her neck, and marry him when the war is over. But a pregnant unmarried woman cannot, officially, work either. Sent on a secret mission into occupied Belgium, and unable to contact Huw, Elspeth begins to realise she is risking not just herself, but also her unborn baby. As danger escalates, will there ever be a joyous Christmas for Elspeth, Huw and their child? For those who love the Miss Lily series, this is a story about the 'army of women' who played such a major role in World War One, but were left out of official histories. It is also a story of a...

As the King of England wavers between duty and love, Sophie knows that she must choose duty. The year is 1936 and the new King Edward VIII wishes to marry American divorcee, and suspected German agent, Wallis Simpson. Top-secret documents that the king must read and sign are being neglected for weeks, and some are even turning up in Berlin.And as Germany grows its military might with many thousands of new fighter planes every year, Britain and its empire are under increasing threat.Can Miss Lily's most successful protege, Sophie Vaile, the Countess of Shillings, seduce the new king, prevent his marriage to Wallis Simpson, and turn him from fascism?And if a man can sacrifice his life for his country, should a woman hesitate to sacrifice her honour?Based on new correspondence found in German archives, Lilies, Love and Lies is a work of fiction.Or is it?In the fourth title in the Miss Lily series, Jackie French explores one of the...

An empowering and exhilarating look at the girls who went before us, and the way they shaped the world. Ming Qong is convinced that girls have changed the world throughout history. So when Ming is thrust back in time to Belgium during WWI, only to be rescued from a burning cellar by Marie — an experienced spy at only twelve years of age — she finally has her proof. Marie is involved with a female secret resistance group who risk their lives to outwit the German troops. But Ming now faces a tough choice: will she send coded messages and risk her own life in this war on which the future depends? As Ming learns, change is never easy, so how can one girl change the world?From one of Australia's favourite writers comes an inspiring series for all the young people who will, one day, change the world.

Paris, Christmas Eve, 1933For once it was an accident. Violette did not mean to kill St Nicholas. But there he was, with blood on the cobblestones, and a family waiting for the Christmas Eve miracle that would never come. And her own family expecting her to eat Christmas goose tomorrow at Shillings Hall in England.Violette Jones had led a life of melodrama since being born in the middle of a war to an espionage agent. But even she had never had to face a bloodied St Nicholas, and somehow conjure three miracles for Christmas.Another story for the many fans of the Miss Lily series.

Possum, Mopoke and Desert Wind have found a wild boy – one with a pet lion – and brought him back to the Valley. But who is he? How can he have tamed a lion? The only way to find out is to leave the Valley again and brave the world outside, where the climate has made life harsh, hot and dry...First published in 1993, The House of a Hundred Animals is the third book in internationally bestselling and much loved author Jackie French's Children of the Valley series, a dystopian series presciently written long before the trend for dystopian children's and young adult fiction emerged – or climate change was a global concern.According to her website, 'Jackie French AM is an Australian author, historian, ecologist and honorary wombat (part time), 2014–2015 Australian Children's Laureate and 2015 Senior Australian of the Year.' She's written over 200 books, which range from picture books and books for younger readers, to historical fiction...