I wrote this book because one day, as we were listening to 4MBS, Brisbane’s favourite classical music station, we heard a commentary on the singer.
My husband said, ‘She’s been through 2 world wars, and has helped the resistance fighters in Italy against the Nazis. Why don’t you write about her?’
I immediately did some research on the singer, and her story appealed to me, so we visited her birthplace, Harwood Island, in NSW, to glean some information on her. On obtaining the address of the singer’s aunt, we wrote to her and gained some valuable information. I also acquired the address of the singer’s daughter in Italy and gathered more material for my book.
We then flew to Hobart, Tasmania, where the librarians were most helpful, and gave us copies of newspaper cuttings about the singer. Finally, I looked up old copies of ‘Newsweek’ magazine, where an interesting story began to unfold.
I incorporated all this information and began writing.
The result is my literary novel, ‘The Soprano’, soon to be published by Armour Books.
This is not the cover of the book.
hazelmbarker 
Congratulations Hazel, on the publication of this book. I don’t recall seeing any writing about her involvement in resistence fighting- did this come after you left our group? Where do we get a copy of this book?
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