Book Peek! Billings Better Bookstore & Brasserie
Clan Destine Press is thrilled to announce the release of our newest historical novel — and offer you a sneak book peek into the story, with writer Fin J Ross as your guide!
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Set in Melbourne in the 19th Century Billings Better Bookstore and Brasserie by Fin J Ross is the story of young Fidelia Knight whose thirst for knowledge changes the lives of everyone she meets. Orphaned in mysterious circumstances on the voyage from England, Fidelia arrives in the colony in 1874, alone except for her treasured companion, Samuel Johnson – well, half of him.Fidelia hides out each night in Bourke-street’s renowned Coles Book Arcade. She loves words, you see, and wants to know them all.
What she overhears there, however, sparks the first of many ideas that begin with secretly helping Jasper Goodwin, the hopelessly underqualified manager of the soon-to-be-opened Billings Better Bookstore.
Fidelia’s passion for words and learning is contagious and she soon becomes a tutor to two orphan boys and two illiterate women, encouraging them unlock their creativity. Nothing daunts this diminutive genius – except the mystery of what really happened to her parents on the voyage from England.
If you love words – like Fidelia does – you will love
