Showing results by narrator "Georgina Jane" in All Categories

Bangka Strait, Indonesia, 1942. Allied ships are evacuating thousands in flight from Singapore, the island having fallen to Japanese Imperial forces. Facing terrifying assaults by fighter planes, one ship, the Vyner Brooke, is badly bombed and sinks. Its survivors swim or paddle for hours to the nearest land, a beach on Bangka Island, parched, many dreadfully injured One of the survivors is Australian Army nurse Dorothy 'Bud' Elmes, the great-aunt of Georgina Banks. Bud makes it to the island, where she, colleagues and a matron tend to the wounded as a plan is formulated.

Fig Fitzsherbert is good at a lot of things: making lists, playing the piano, advanced mathematics. But it's never quite enough for her high-flying mother, who every New Year's Day sets Fig an impossible resolution. So one year, Fig decides to set her own challenge instead: she's going to swim her way round the world. There's just one tiny problem... Fig can't swim. Taking it one length at a time, Fig embarks on the adventure of a lifetime.