Joan Turnour Shares ‘A Colourful Tapestry’ of Life
NOOSA, Australia (PRWEB) June 06, 2017 -- In England, back in 1952, very large posters advertising life in Australia had been everywhere. From the sides of buses, from town hall walls, beautiful young people from a tropical background featured in these posters beamed at Joan Turnour promising a new life in the land of milk and honey. Larger than life, their eyes followed her as she passed by as though it is extending a personal invitation to her.
In “A Colourful Tapestry” (published by Xlibris AU), Turnour shares her life in Malta in the 1930s, when Britannia ruled the waves and her father was part of the Grand Fleet. She describes the start of World War II and life in an English village under the threat of invasion. But memories of the Mediterranean stay with her, and in 1952, seduced by posters with a tropical background and the promise of a new life in the land of milk and honey, Turnour migrates to Australia as a Ten Pound Pom.
Working as a secretary, a housemaid and a waitress, Turnour finally settles in outback Darwin where she meets Jack, an inveterate pioneer, and her real adventures begin. She describes the challenges of farming in the Northern territory, accompanying her husband on aid projects in Indonesia and the Philippines as well as raising their four children. She also describes the challenge of cultural differences, of learning a new language and of home schooling the younger two children while the older children were at boarding school in Australia.
An excerpt from the book reads:
I had shared so much with Jack over sixty years. At times
life was a challenge: living in a tin shed, driving over buffalo plains
to deliver spare parts, managing the farm while he was away on a
Churchill Fellowship. But this gave me the confidence to join him in
Indonesia, and live in the countryside, and learn the language.
“A Colourful Tapestry”
By Joan Turnour
Hardcover | 6 x 9in | 306 pages | ISBN 9781524521943
Softcover | 6 x 9in | 306 pages | ISBN 9781524521936
E-Book | 306 pages | ISBN 9781524522049
Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble
About the Author
Joan Turnour was born in 1931 when King George V was on the throne and Britannia ruled the waves. In 1952, posters of beautiful young people in a tropical background persuaded her to migrate to Australia. After two years, she sets off to work around Australia and her adventures began in Darwin when she met Jack who is in charge of seed production for the Humpty Doo rice project. Five months later, on the 20th of December 1956, they got married. In 1958, they bought 20 square miles of undeveloped land and pioneered their own property. Their four children were born in the Darwin hospital. In the 1970s, her husband joined an overseas consulting firm and they lived up country in Indonesia. Over the next 25 years, they lived in both Indonesia and the Philippines until his retirement in Brisbane in 1997.
Xlibris Publishing Australia, an Author Solutions, LLC imprint, is a self-publishing services provider dedicated to serving Australian authors. By focusing on the needs of creative writers and artists and adopting the latest print-on-demand publishing technology and strategies, we provide expert publishing services with direct and personal access to quality publication in hardcover, trade paperback, custom leather-bound and full-color formats. To date, Xlibris has helped to publish more than 60,000 titles.For more information, visit xlibrispublishing.com.au or call 1800 455 039 to receive a free publishing guide. Follow us @XlibrisAus on Twitter for the latest news.
Marketing Services, Xlibris, 1-800-455-039, [email protected]
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