Lynley Dear
New Release . . .
A Stitch in Time
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The year is 1930 and a failed dressmaker, a 'man about town', two 'Stars of Stage and Screen' and a jilted fiancée have washed up on the shores of Sydney Harbour. These five people, who have experienced the glamour of movie making and fashion in the era of Art Deco, are down on their luck and now seeking to find their fortunes in Sydney.
It is said that timing is everything and their timing could not be worse.
New South Wales in in the depths of the Depression and the final stages of the construction of the Harbour Bridge will cast a long shadow over the unfolding events that threaten to engulf them.
But Fate smiles - and occasionally grimaces - on each of the five and in the meantime they lead us into the world of Deco fashion and shopping, pioneering movie making and even, precariously, onto the top arch of the unfinished Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Then, defying time and place, a surprise awaits.
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The Hollywood School of Dressmaking
When the camera rolls who can tell what is a movie script and what is real life? It is 1929 and few people are who they say they are when Hollywood on Tour comes to town to make a movie with a scattering of Stars plus throngs of star-struck locals.
So when Hollywood on Tour collides with the innocent young local seamstresses of the Hollywood School of Dressmaking, the consequences of these ten hectic days are both hilarious and tragic.
Real life turns out to be much more complicated than the twists and turns of the plot of this pioneering Talkie.
A heady combination of seat-of-the-pants movie making and Art Deco flapper fashions results in a novel, which is an entertainingly fresh colonial take on the stylish age of Gatsby.
Available at selected bookshops www.realnzbooks.co.nz
and fishpond.co.nz
Also as an ebook at Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0179EKC9S
Lynley Dear
'Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it'
P.J. O'Rourke
About Lynley
Lynley Dear is the author of three children's books, two collections of poetry and two volumes of local history. Her poetry column, Scanning the South, appeared in the Southland Times for 15 years and she has written over thirty articles for them on local history. She is the archivist and creator/ curator of the Southland Boys' High School museum in Invercargill. Ithaca was her first novel and her second, Poppy Boys, was published in April 2010 and republished in 2015.
The Hollywood School of Dressmaking, was published in October 2015. Her most recent novel A Stitch in Time published November 2017.