On tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club, A Painter in Penang (Penang series Book 3) by Clare Flynn #HistoricalFiction #APainterinPenang #CoffeePotBookClub @clarefly @maryanneyarde

 

I am once again on tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club. Today it is the greatest of pleasure to introduce you to Historical Fiction author, Clare Flynn.

Sixteen-year-old Jasmine Barrington hates everything about living in Kenya and longs to return to the island of Penang in British colonial Malaya where she was born. Expulsion from her Nairobi convent school offers a welcome escape – the chance to stay with her parents’ friends, Mary and Reggie Hyde-Underwood on their Penang rubber estate.

But this is 1948 and communist insurgents are embarking on a reign of terror in what becomes the Malayan Emergency. Jasmine goes through testing experiences – confronting heartache, a shocking past secret and danger. Throughout it all, the one constant in her life is her passion for painting.

From the international best-selling and award-winning author of The Pearl of Penang, this is a dramatic coming of age story, set against the backdrop of a tropical paradise torn apart by civil war.

My Review 

The premise of this book sounded really enticing and I have never read a historical fiction book set in Penang before, nor do I know a great deal about the Malayan Emergency. I have to admit, I was a little nervous as I ventured into unknown waters, but I need not have worried, for the author seemed to be very mindful that her readers may not know that much about this period of history in this country, and because of this I never felt the need to do a quick Google search to try to “keep up” with the historical events in this story.

The story itself was exquisitely told, and the innocence of Jasmine compared to the darker side of events that occur in this novel was handled with a great deal of skill on the author’s part. I have to be careful because I don’t want to give away any spoilers but it is suffice to say that Jasmine has to make some very difficult decisions.

A Painter in Penang is certainly a book that can keep a reader up all night - that was certainly what happened with me.

Buy this Book

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Clare Flynn

Clare Flynn is the author of twelve historical novels and a collection of short stories. A former International Marketing Director and strategic management consultant, she is now a full-time writer. 

Having lived and worked in London, Paris, Brussels, Milan and Sydney, home is now on the coast, in Sussex, England, where she can watch the sea from her windows. An avid traveller, her books are often set in exotic locations.

Clare is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of The Society of Authors, Novelists Inc (NINC), ALLi, the Historical Novel Society and the Romantic Novelists Association, where she serves on the committee as the Member Services Officer. When not writing, she loves to read, quilt, paint and play the piano. She continues to travel as widely and as far as possible all over the world.

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