{"id":2582,"date":"2022-05-01T07:06:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-30T21:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onthecoastpublications.com.au\/onthecoastover55\/?p=2582"},"modified":"2022-03-09T00:06:50","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T13:06:50","slug":"the-reading-corner-april-in-paris-1921","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onthecoastpublications.com.au\/onthecoastover55\/the-reading-corner-april-in-paris-1921\/","title":{"rendered":"The reading corner – APRIL IN PARIS, 1921"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Jessica Anscombe<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

April in Paris, 1921 – Author Tessa Lunney<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The white living room where I\u2019m stretched out reading, on the Australian Central Coast in 2022 is a world away from the studio apartment where the glamourous Kiki Button resides. But in April in Paris, 1921, author Tessa Lunney\u2019s rich and generous description transports me immediately. As I sit, sipping a champagne \u2013 the refreshment this book almost demands \u2013 my own surrounds fall away and I\u2019m in Paris, peering around Kiki\u2019s small, bohemian loft with its lone \u201csagging bed\u201d, while Kiki sits in the geranium\u2013filled windowsill, smoking a cigarette, looking out over Paris, and contemplating her assignments as Gossip Columnist, Detective and Spy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kiki Button has been living back in Australia for the past two years, after returning from Europe, where she was a wartime nurse. The year is 1921, in the aftermath of World War 1, and Kiki escapes her hometown in Australia, and the obligation to marry, and hurries back to Paris. On her return to Paris, she has secured what seems to be the perfect job. A reporter for a gossip column. Kiki can spend her evenings in Montparnasse, a bustling part of Paris brimming with cafes, bars, artists, writers and dreamers \u2013 the partying a salve for war wounds. Here she can drink and smoke and dance and talk about art and music \u2013 while collecting entertaining fodder for her column.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kiki\u2019s party lifestyle doesn\u2019t remain carefree for long. Soon she is contacted by a sly acquaintance. Although the war is over, it seems he isn\u2019t finished with Kiki yet. When he reveals he has something over her, Kiki has no choice but to follow his instructions and resume her role as spy. Throw in a special job for Pablo Picasso and the reader is taken on a wild ride, from one late\u2013night rendezvous to another where Kiki is being reporter, detective and spy \u2013 all at once \u2013 with drink in hand and dancing shoes on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunney writes with such passion that I could smell the baguettes and flowers and smoke and hear the paperboy, clinking glasses and bell tolls across the city. \u201cAll the smells that wafted in through the window, of fresh bread, old wine, unwashed beggar, burnt sugar, salt, fat. The view over the city stretched on and on, over chimney pots and attics, over the Luxembourg Gardens and the Sorbonne to my right, to my left over streetlamps and metal roofs to the Eiffel Tower.\u201d The spectrum of sights and smells, good and bad, work to form a beautifully vivid picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The characters are layered and thoughtful. Kiki Button is both playful and serious and her put\u2013together glamour and style wrestles with a whisper of dishevel lying just under the surface. She is strong and yearns for independence but also wants connection, something she struggles with when we are introduced to her long\u2013time friend and \u2018will they\/won\u2019t they\u2019 love interest Tom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you love historical fiction, if you love detective mysteries and if you fancy a trip to Paris in the 1920s April in Paris, 1921 and the second Kiki Button mystery, Autumn Leaves, 1922 are for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jessica Anscombe<\/strong> is a librarian and writer living on the Central Coast. She has a passion for literature and writes fiction and non\u2013fiction. Jessica was the winner of the Wyong Writers\u2019 2021 Short Story Competition and her winning story is to be published in an upcoming anthology. She has also been longlisted for the Furious Fiction prize and you can read her short stories here www.jessicaanscombe.com\/category\/fiction\/short\u2013stories\/<\/a> and follow her on instagram at www.instagram.com\/jessicaanscombe\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jessica Anscombe April in Paris, 1921 – Author Tessa Lunney The white living room where I\u2019m stretched out reading, on the Australian Central Coast in 2022 is a world…","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[75,76],"series":[115],"class_list":["post-2582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-article","tag-jessica-anscombe","series-coffee-with-a-coastie"],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/onthecoastpublications.com.au\/onthecoastover55\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/03\/april-in-paris.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/onthecoastpublications.com.au\/onthecoastover55\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/onthecoastpublications.com.au\/onthecoastover55\/feed\/podcast\/coffee-with-a-coastie","embedCode":"

The reading corner – APRIL IN PARIS, 1921<\/a><\/blockquote>