Love tale has history and mystery

FORMER Townsville English teacher Barbara Hannay has crafted a successful career in writing novels set in rural and outback Australia.

Her 40-plus books have sold more than 12 million copies worldwide, and that should put her in the league of Australia’s most successful authors.

Indeed she is prolific, conjuring up new stories before the ink is dry on the books flowing from the printing presses, despite the distractions that must be found on the farm she and her former newspaper editor husband Elliot share with chickens, pigs and an untidy but productive garden on a misty hillside in Far North Queensland.

Her last book, Moonlight Plains, blended past and present, starting with two Ameri- Title: The Secret Years Author: Barbara Hannay Publisher: Michael Joseph/Penguin RRP: $32.99

can airmen surviving a crashlanding on a western property and meeting 19-year- old Kitty, who had been sent into the Outback by her parents who feared a Japanese invasion.

The book was short-listed for the 2015 Ruby – the premier award for romance writers in Australia.

Hannay continues her love affair with the past in The Secret Years, a story of heartbreak, heroism and homecoming spanning countries and generations.

A cattleman wins the heart of a high society darling in London.

Years later, Lucy Hunter stumbles upon her grandfather’s war memorabilia, including a faded photograph of a stunning young woman and a collection of letters – and unleashes a cascade of secrets and challenges.