Allison & Busby – Press Release
Tapestry of War by Jane MacKenzie
Amidst the horrors of the Second World War, love and friendship bring two strangers together across conflict-ravaged continents
In Alexandria, Fran finds her life turned upside down as Rommel’s forces advance on the idyllic shores of Egypt. In place of the luxury and stability that she is used to, she finds herself having to deal with loss, heartache and political uncertainty.
Meanwhile, on the Firth of Clyde, Catriona works day in, day out nursing injured servicemen. As the war rages on, the two women’s lives become entwined – bringing love and friendship to both.
A perfect read for fans of Victoria Hislop and Santa Montefiore
£12.99 TRADE PAPERBACK WITH FLAPS 19th APRIL 2018 ISBN: 9780749022990
Jane MacKenzie has spent much of her adult life travelling the world, teaching English and French everywhere from the Gambia to Papua New Guinea to Bahrain, and recently working for two years at CERN in Geneva. She now splits her time between her self-built house in Collioure, France, and the Highlands of Scotland, where she has made her family home. She is the author of the best-selling Daughters of Catalonia.


Women are the stronger sex, isn't that what we hear? This is definitely so many times over. Especially the war or pre war times when they had to take on all sorts of tasks including men's jobs.
The opening chapter slowly drew me in.
"It was just after dawn when Fran saw the body. She had set out from home in the pitch black as soon as she heard the all clear sounded."
She discovered this man was bleeding out a lot. She did the only thing she could and used clothing to pull the wound tight.
Fran had to overcome a lot during world war two.
Fran is a journalist and shes used to covering stories, but during these times people come into her life making an impact.
There is death, misery and despair, but this is also strength that shines through.
We also meet Catriona lives in Scotland who is fighting the war around her. She has her career, a rehabilitation nurse, but alongside that she has a Father, a lonely Father who wants no more than for her to stay at home and keep him company, how is she to juggle both?
These a characters that the author breathes life into and the reader soon becomes part of.
I enjoyed the sincerity within these pages, the way that life and the people came across throughout such a tragic time. Things I can't even imagine.
If you love historical fiction you will love this


Jane MacKenzie has lived an exceptionally adventurous life, working in such far-flung corners of the world as the Gambia, Bahrain, and Papua New Guinea, and Switzerland and France nearer to home.
She is as much at home teaching in an African village as organising the research budgets of Nobel scientists, and is a natural linguist, picking up languages wherever she has lived, to complement the fluent French from her first degree in French Language and Literature.
She is an entrepreneur, an international expert in education, and latterly helped transform the UK Government’s Office at CERN in Geneva during two years as its Head. In her fifties Jane turned to writing novels, for a new challenge, and to fulfil a long-held dream.
Jane splits her time now between her homes in the Scottish Highlands, and in her beloved Catalan village in France, the region where her three novels have been set.
Jane is widowed with grown up children
janemackenzie.co.uk @JaneFMackenzie
The author is available for interview.
• Inspired by the author’s family: during WWII, her father-in-law disguised himself to rescue Allied servicemen in the Greek islands, and met his future wife in Alexandria.
• Jane lives in the Scottish Highlands, and captures the spirit of the area in the book.