ADVANCE INFORMATION SHEET

Bamboo Island by Ann Bennett

March 28 2016, Monsoon Books, Historical Fiction, WWII, SE Asia

A powerful story of an emotionally haunted woman living with the ghost of a past that WWII stole from her. Ann Bennett's epic Bamboo trilogy is inspired by the author's research into her father's experiences in Asia as a British POW during WWII.

Malaya in 1962: Juliet Crosby, a plantation owner's wife, has lived a reclusive life on her husband's rubber estate since the Second World War robbed her of everyone she loved. When a young woman from Indonesia appears in her life it disrupts Juliet's lonely existence and stirs up unsettling memories. Together they embark on a journey to uncover secrets buried for more than 20 years. Juliet is forced to remember and relive her pre-war marriage, her experiences during WWII - hiding from the Japanese in Singapore before being captured, imprisoned with other internees in Changi Prison - and the loss of those she once held dear.

Bamboo Island is volume two in an impressive Southeast Asian WWII trilogy written by Ann Bennett in memory of her father, Richard Bennett. He was in the Indian Army, fought in the Malaya campaign, and was taken prisoner at the Fall of Singapore, survived Changi, the Thai-Burma railway, and the sinking of a POW transport ship off the Philippines. Each book stands totally alone, but read together (in any order) build to create a compelling narrative about a brutal and shocking period of wartime history. The series starts with the incredibly powerful Bamboo Heart (2015) that hooks you immediately and leaves you feeling emotionally exhausted due to the raw depravity experienced by British POWs on Burma's Death Railway. Bamboo Road is the third book in the trilogy due for release in 2017. It is set in 1942 Thailand, following Sirinya a Thai woman, and her family who risk their lives to resist the Japanese occupation and help prisoners of war building the Thai-Burma railway.

About the Author

Ann Bennett was born in Pury End, a small village in Northamptonshire, the youngest of six girls. She attended Northampton High School for Girls and read Law at Girton College, Cambridge. She went on to study at the College of Law in London, and qualified and practised as a solicitor. Ann worked in the City and also in Legal Aid firms until her first son was born in 1992. Ann has written passionately all her life and before Bamboo Heart was published, had completed numerous short stories and three full-length novels that have never seen the light of day. In 2011 she became a keen contributor to YouWriteOn (a peer review site for writers) and feedback from other writers helped her finish The Pomelo Tree, the book that eventually became Bamboo Heart.

Ann's father inspired her interest in South East Asia and WWII. He had been a POW on the Thailand Burma Railway, and the idea for Bamboo Heart and a Southeast Asian WWII trilogy came from researching his wartime experiences. The research took Ann to Asia (details including photographs here), and she has returned many times since. She now lives in Farnham, Surrey with her husband and three sons. She works in London as a lawyer.

The Essential Details

Genre:Historical fiction

ISBN:9814625175

eISBN:978-9814625173

Publisher:Monsoon Books

Format:Paperback and Kindle

Available on Amazon & all good book shops

Price:£8.99

Release Date:March 28^th2016

Media enquiries:helenlewis@literallypr.com

Online press folder:http://bit.ly/1ntcSyN

Advance review copies of Bamboo Island (PDF and paperback) and copies of Bamboo Heart (2014 release) are available upon request, as well as interviews, editorial commissions and competition prizes.