Ask the Author: Poppy Gee
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Poppy Gee
There were so many ideas I had for this book and the challenge was trying to weave them all into the one story. I grew up in Tasmania and I love the wild forests and pretty farmland peppered with tiny English-style villages. Indeed, there is a remote waterfall called Vanishing Falls that disappears into subterranean creeks. For the characters, I started with Joelle, a beautiful woman whose brain works differently than other people's, who is living her fairytale ending after a rocky start in life; then I thought of Celia, a woman who is admired and popular but might not be as perfect as she seems; and then, Kim, a gentle soul who tires of being taken for granted by the world. Some of the storylines stem from true stories - the valuable Tasmanian landscape paintings by colonial artist John Glover which disappeared in the 1830s following a London exhibition - at times people in Tasmania claim they have found one, sometimes this is disputed; Jack Lily, a man who has everything but can't resist his unsavoury appetites was inspired by a news story I read years ago; and Brian, who wonders about his heritage and ancestry, stems from my own grandfather who wondered about his paternal family. But most of all was the idea that everyone in the village has a secret, and these are somehow connected, and when one of these is revealed, all other secrets begin to unravel.
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