India Dark

In late 1909, 13-year-old Poesy Swift is presented with an irresistible opportunity to escape her oppressive life in Melbourne when she is recruited by Percival’s Lilliputian Opera Company to tour the world with a troupe of other youngsters.

Poesy discovers that life on tour is challenging, upsetting and mostly disappointing. As vested interests and conflicting personalities cause tensions to rise, deception, lies and violence come to dominate the lives of the travelling players.

A fictionalised account of a true series of events is told by two narrators who view the same set of circumstances in totally different ways. Exploring themes of truth and lies, innocence and experience, racism, imperialism and child exploitation, this has been mooted as particularly suitable for group reading at Key Stage 3/4.