Three Cedar Trees
About this audiobook
What happens to the trees happens to the boys....
Three cedar trees grow beside the Applecross homestead in New Zealand’s South Island. Precious trees, carried from Scotland across the world as seedlings. A poignant reminder of home. As they mature, so too do Freddie, the eldest son of Sophia Mackenzie, and Ben and Ed, twin sons of Nancy Lawton.
To Atewhai, the wise old Maori woman, the growth of the saplings into mature trees is matched by the passage of the boys into manhood. Will Sophia and Nancy allow their sons to strike out into the world, or will they hold them back with their roots set firmly in the farm soil?
And, when one of the precious cedar trees is damaged in a storm, does it foretell of tragedy involving one of the boys? Atewhai certainly thinks so……
Join us as our settlers embrace the late 1860s, a period of rapid change in New Zealand. Railways, improved roads and better communications are beginning to open up this remote and spectacular corner of the world to visitors. Some fall in love and find it hard to leave the basin, while others are torn between love and a desire to be involved in this exciting period of progress. Who will stay, and who will leave for ever?
Three Cedar Trees is the 4th book in The Applecross Saga.
About the author
Amanda Giorgis is the creator of the fictional Applecross sheep station in New Zealand's beautiful Mackenzie Basin. Here you will meet Sophia, who settled in New Zealand with her husband, George in the early 1850s. After George's tragic death, Sophia marries James Mackenzie and the couple build their home together in the Basin. James is not a character of fiction, though the stories that are woven around Applecross are not necessarily how things turned out in real life for the man who was convicted of sheep rustling and later pardoned for his crimes. The truth is, nobody knows what really became of him.
Amanda likes to weave well-researched, true historical facts into her stories while building credible and likeable characters amongst the ordinary folk of rural New Zealand in the late 1800s. She would love you to join her in their adventures, triumphs and tragedies.
Oh, and did we mention dogs? The collies who worked so hard on high country farms feature in our stories too. Meet Friday, James' favourite collie and all her descendants. They deserve their fame too!
Amanda was born in Somerset, England. She emigrated to New Zealand in 2008 and now writes while looking out onto the flat plains with snow-capped mountains beyond. It is a place where it is easy to find inspiration for stories of early pioneers, who made this unique place their home.
She shares her home with her husband, Terry and three rescued huntaway dogs, Nemo, Jess and Ted, some chickens, who are more ornamental than productive, ten acres of wild garden and the dark skies of the Southern Hemisphere.
When not writing, Amanda rings church bells and enjoys photography, gardening and finding out about her family history. On lazy days, when not reading a book, she gets the knitting needles out.
