ABOUT THE AUTHOR Joy Rhoades

Born in Queensland, Joy Rhoades had a bush childhood with her parents running the local tractor dealership and “a lot of time playing in dry creek beds, and climbing trees”. It gave Joy a love of books and stories and “a tendency to be blunt and the ability to change a tyre,” she says. Joy became a lawyer and moved to Sydney and then London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and New York. She wrote on the side and “hankered to write full time”. When Joy took time out to look after her kids, she worked on her debut novel, The Woolgrower’s Companion. The novel sparked a publishers’ bidding war which left Joy both “shocked and thrilled”. Joy currently lives with her family in London, where she is working on her next novel.