Boyd spent several years as a creative director in advertising, winning many awards in New York, Cannes, London, Los Angeles and Sydney. Boyd now writes historical fiction. Amber Road is his fourth novel, following Children of the Dust, Ludo and Errol, Fidel and the Cuban Rebel Girls. He lives in Sydney.
Boyd is Parramatta Library’s Author of the Month for March 2013.
Come and see Boyd talk about his new book Amber Road on Thursday 28th March 2013 at 1.00pm in the Darug Room on the top floor of Parramatta Library.
The talk is FREE Bookings are essential please call 9806 5159 to make a booking.
It’s 1941 and as an empire is swept away, a young woman’s world is ripped apart…..
In spite of the shape of her eyes and the origin of her ancestors, 17-year-old VictoriaKhoo thinks of herself as an English rose among Chinese thorns.
With her head buried in the pages of Mrs Humphry’s Manners for Women and Jane Austen, Victoria’s carefree days are spent practising the proper etiquette of a modernEnglish lady and fantasising about marrying her Mr Darcy, Sebastian Boustead – scion of a great British merchant family.
Not even Sebastian’s arrival from London with his new fiancée, Elizabeth Nightingale, can dampen her dreams of becoming mistress of his imposing mansion on Amber Road.
She has no time for talks of military tactics and navy bases – that is until the war reaches Asia and ‘Fortress Singapore’ abruptly surrenders to the Japanese. As the inhabitants are deserted by Britain, Victoria is forced to protect both her family and her rival, Elizabeth, from the cruelty of the occupation.
“Every girl is beautiful at seventeen, her father said, and the soldiers obviously agreed.”
Victoria’s old life has vanished overnight but despite the war, she blossoms into a unique and charming young woman – traits not lost on soldiers of either side, including Joe Spencer, the charismatic Australian who both charms and infuriates her at every turn…
But how far will she go to save the people she loves and fulfill her destiny on Amber Road?
A sweeping historical saga on the scale of Gone With The Wind, Amber Road is a beautiful coming of age novel set in Singapore against the cataclysmic final months of World War II.