Australian Independent Bookseller

All the best books from your local independent bookseller

The True Story of Maddie Bright

The True Story of Maddie Bright

by Mary-Rose MacColl

The bestselling author of In Falling Snow returns with a spellbinding tale of friendship, love and loyalty

Format
Paperback
Category
Fiction
Publisher
Allen & Unwin
Publish Date
April 2019

A thoughtful, multi-layered tale that probes the stories we tell ourselves about family and friendship, power and control. MacColl's writing deftly - yet gently - explores the nature of courage and kept me guessing to the very end.' - Kirsty Manning, author of the bestselling The Jade Lily

In 1920, seventeen-year-old Maddie Bright gratefully accepts a job as a serving girl on the royal tour of Australia by Edward, Prince of Wales. Maddie's talents soon earn her the respect of Helen Burns, the prince's vivacious press secretary, and Rupert Waters, his most loyal man, and Maddie is in awe of Edward himself, the 'people's' prince.

What starts as a desire to help her family, devastated by the recent war, becomes for Maddie a chance to work on something that matters. When the unthinkable happens, it is swift and life changing.

Decades later, Maddie Bright is living in a ramshackle house in Paddington, Brisbane. She has Ed, her drunken and devoted neighbour, to talk to, the television news to shout at, and door-knocker religions to join. But when London journalist Victoria Byrd gets the sniff of a story that might lead to the true identity of a famously reclusive writer, Maddie's version of her own story may change.

1920, 1981 and 1997: the strands twist across the seas and over two continents to build a compelling story of love and fame, motherhood and friendship. Set at key moments in the lives of two of the most loved and hated figures of the twentieth century, in Maddie Bright, a reader will find a friend and, by novel's close, that friend's true and moving story.

Other titles you should consider ...

The Glass House

Anne Buist

A Calamity of Souls

David Baldacci

Bone Lands

Pip Fioretti

Not all products are available in all stores.