Bring your pearls, girls: Fiona McIntosh comes to Sydney
BEST-selling Australian author Fiona McIntosh’s latest book, The Pearl Thief, begins in Prague on the cusp of World War II and travels through the Tuileries of Paris, London’s west end, and Yorkshire in 1963.
Penrith
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BEST-selling Australian author Fiona McIntosh brings her 36th novelto Sydney next month.
The Pearl Thief begins in Prague on the cusp of World War II, where Kindertransports are taking Czech children away from their families and to safety.
It then moves into 1963 where readers meet Severine Kassel, who has been asked by the Louvre to assist the British Museum with curating its antique jewellery.
A meticulous researcher, McIntosh spent 18 months pouring over libraries, museums, towns and cities to map out the novel.
“You’ve got to do loads of due diligence, and learn, learn, learn every part of the landscape of your story,” she said.
McIntosh, as always, takes readers travelling; this time to the Tuileries of Paris, London’s west end, and Yorkshire in 1963.
“For this book, it begins in London in the British Museum so that’s where I began too,” she said.
It was at the British Museum years ago that McIntosh first saw the piece of ancient jewellery that would later become the novel’s fictional Byzantine pearls.
Except the jewellery she had seen were not pearls at all.
“What I thought I saw years and years ago was not what I believed I had seen,” she said.
“And I had the poor British Museum management running around trying to find this piece that I thought I had seen.”
The Pearl Thief is out in the wild and the first official review is in @PenguinBooksAus @booktopia https://t.co/j4lZPQTzBY pic.twitter.com/4ttNWpPNEk
— Fiona McIntosh (@FMcIntosh) October 26, 2018
The Pearl Thief is different to her previous historical fiction; McIntosh describes it as “a very dark adventure”.
“I used to write fantasy and those were pretty dark, but when I started writing historical fiction they were dramas about all sorts of things, but this is a very dark drama and it’s not as romantic as the other books,” she said.
The Pearl Thief was released on October 29 and McIntosh will embark on a national tour in November, with Penrith, Sutherland and the CBD chosen as the locations for her NSW events.
“We’ve got all sorts of fun things going, like ‘wear your pearls girls’ — everyone’s being invited to put on their pearls,” she said.
McIntosh will begin her NSW book tour at Penrith Library on November 15, followed by the Hyatt Regency in Sydney on November 16 and the Sutherland Library on November 17.