In The Company Of Strangers

By Liz Byrski

Ruby is left half of her old friend's lavender farm after she dies, requesting Ruby work with her nephew Declan, who has inherited the other half, to try and get the business up and running again. Ruby leaves her London home and business and travels to Western Australia to meet her new business partner.

Declan hears from his old friend and employs her to help out. The three of them have to learn to work together with the staff at the farm. Each of them has their own baggage to deal with as well as their new responsibilities.

"I have read and enjoyed most of Liz Byrski's fiction and I think this is her best yet. Wonderful characters that you learn about through the book are thrown together and find they are better people for the experience. Liz adds further dimension to the story by seamlessly including issues such as mental illness and fundraising for birthing kits in developing countries. A warm and moving book that often brought tears to my eyes". Annie, Project Officer, TBBC.

"I found this book an engaging read. The principal characters are Ruby and Catherine, childhood friends whose closeness helped them to survive the horrors of forced emigration and convent life. However events in later life have left them estranged, and Ruby's emotional journey to acceptance of this is touchingly told, set against the background of a lavender farm in Western Australia". Maggie, paediatrician/mother.

"This is the first book by Liz Bryski that I have read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found the way that she dealt with the way each of the characters' past impacted on how they lived in the present and their relationships, very real and moving. For me, a powerful reminder of how freeing it can be to forgive yourself, others and your past and to accept from others what is really on offer and to embrace that. Liz dealt sensitively and with empathy issues of mental illness". Rebekah, laywer.

Author

 

Liz Byrski was born and brought up in England and has lived in Western Australia since 1981. She is the author of a number of non-fiction books, and has worked as a staff and freelance journalist, a broadcaster with ABC Radio and an adviser to a minister in the WA Government. Liz now lectures in professional writing at Curtin University. She is also the author of Gang of Four, Food, Sex and Money, Belly Dancing for Beginners, Trip of a Lifetime, Bad Behaviour and Last Chance Cafe. Her essay on ageing, Getting on: Some Thoughts on Ageing, an adaptation of her PhD, is available from Momentum.

 

Liz Byrski's website

 

Publisher