Oil And Silk

About the Book

Refugees from rural poverty, Beth, gets work as fashion renovator in a city department store and Jill becomes a machinist in a dress factory.

Jim without qualifications and failing his final school examination cannot get an apprenticeship. Artistically inclined, he earns money, not enough to live on, from leatherwork, taught to him by his grandfather.

Finally, he finds employment at the Amos Funeral home on six months trial; here he meets Aborigine Lionel Rose-White. Patrick Amos and daughter Claire teach the young men the trade.

Being keen on motorbikes, Jim meets Daisey and his bike group at a service station and asks to join. From their gleaming, glistening monsters they refuse, as they survey his old much loved, much used bike.

Neighbour Lynn offers Jim free lessons in her fashion design class, where he meets Annie, only child of workaholic well to-do parents, Lilley a Pacific Islander and Li Ling from a wealthy Hong Kong business family.

Family and students form a partnership in a street stall at a Sunday Craft Market. This is their entrée into the world of fashion.

About the Author

Fourth generation Australian, Kathleen Joyce Will (nee Waldron) was born in Parramatta NSW, Australia. After marriage, the family farmed in the Bingara District of NSW. However, after surviving two severe droughts, they crossed the border and settled in Queensland.

Education: obtained mainly from small country schools in NSW and attended James Cook University Queensland.

Mother of three children and grandmother of five the author has always been interested in writing, however never had the time until now. She published her first novel "In Gilded Tombs" in 2006 and Broken Petals in 2007.