Fresh from the recent launch of his much-anticipated novel, The Opal Dragonfly, Julian Leatherdale will make a special guest appearance at Springwood Library on Saturday, April 7.
The best-selling author will take the audience on an inside journey of his book, how he undertakes his historical research and what motivates him to write.
The Opal Dragonfly, inspired by Elizabeth Bay House and the grand villas of Sydney’s Woolloomooloo Hill in colonial Sydney, tells the bittersweet story of an ambitious family’s fall from grace and a brave young woman’s struggle to find her true self.
Set in September, 1851 in a Sydney full secrets and gossip, a wave of ill fortune threatens to swallow up the family of seventeen-year-old Isobel Macleod and their stately Sydney home, Rosemount Hall.
Isobel is determined to save her beloved father but when she dares to trespass in a forbidden male world, she will be plunged into social disgrace.
Is Isobel to blame for her family’s fate or does the cause lie further in the past and a mysterious ‘unlucky’ dragonfly brooch she has inherited?
In a novel of exciting and unpredicted twists, Isobel’s hopes for her future depend on a charming bohemian who encourages her hidden passion to become an artist risking permanent exile from her family home.
This is a tale of legacies, love and intrigue that will be fully explored in this fascinating author talk.
Inside The Opal Dragonfly with Julian Leatherdale will be held at Springwood Library on Saturday, April 7 from 2-3.30pm. Cost is $10 and bookings are essential via https://library.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/ or at library branches.
RELATED CONTENT: People and places: Julian Leatherdale book launch