Alli Sinclair’s books are recommended for readers of Kate Quinn and Judy Nunn and that tells you a lot about the sort of stories they are – dual timeline family stories unravelling long buried secrets. 

Her latest book, The Codebreakers, takes that scenario one step further. It deals with national as well as personal secrets and tells the story of the cypher-breaking Australian women who staffed Central Bureau Intelligence – the equivalent of Bletchley Park in London.

Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and in Binge Reading today Alli talks about her passion for stories about strong women defying society’s expectations, and her exciting new film projects with an LA based collaborator.

We’ve got three eBook copies of The Codebreakers to give away to three lucky readers in our Loving You romance promo. Enter the draw on our website www.thejoysofbingereading.com or on our Facebook Binge Reading page.

Enter the draw to win a copy of The Codebreakers.

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Don’t forget to check out Alli’s answers to the five quickfire questions in our Patreon exclusive content on the Binge Reading on Patreon page. As regular listeners will know, we very recently launched Binge Reading on Patreon for those of you who like to hear exclusive fun content about our authors and the show, for a small contribution to costs – as little as a cup of coffee a month.

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Your contribution to Patreon helps defray my costs in hosting and producing the show, but the time I devote to researching and recording the podcasts is still all free. Check it out on www.patreon.com/thejoysofbingereading and join in the Behind-The-Scenes fun.

Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:

The long road Alli had to her first publicationAlli's collaboration with a Los Angeles film makerHow the pandemic spoiled a wonderful writer's programmeA Romeo and Juliet story in Queensland cane fieldsThe book at the top of her list for years nowWhat she'd do differently second time around

Where to find Alli Sinclair: 

Website:  https://allisinclairauthor.wordpress.com/

Facebook: @allisinclairauthor

Instagram: @alli_sinclair

What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.

But now, here’s Alli.

Jenny Wheeler: Hello there Alli, and welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us.

Alli Sinclair: Hi Jenny. Thank you so much for having me along.

Introducing author Alli Sinclair

Author Alli Sinclair - Dual time line stories with lots of secrets

Jenny Wheeler: The Codebreakers, which is your latest novel, is like an Australian version of the Bletchley Park story. It's the story of the work of the women who worked in the so-called Central Bureau in Australia during the Second World War. I had never even realized that this bureau existed. How did you come across the story?

Alli Sinclair: I had written a book called Burning Fields which came out in 2018, and I had my main character working for the Australian Women's Army service in Brisbane. I didn't really touch much on that because the story was set post-war, but I liked the idea of exploring what it was like for women working for the war effort in Australia.

I jumped on the old Google and put in Women World War Two, Australian Women's Army Service Australia, and this very tiny article popped up about Central Bureau. It mentioned that it was Australia’s elite signals intelligence organization and had been kept a secret for decades.

I had never heard of this. The research went crazy and it took me quite a while to uncover the information, but as soon as I discovered this story, there was no way I was letting go.

Jenny Wheeler: That's absolutely right. The researching of it must have been pretty difficult because we're coming to the point where although there could be written memoirs,