An Afternoon with Alli Parker

A stirring story of love and hope, based on the incredible true story of Australia's first Japanese war bride and a love that changed a nation forever.

Gordon Parker is an eager eighteen-year-old Australian boy desperate to fight for his country, and Nobuko 'Cherry' Sakuramoto is a sixteen-year-old girl struggling to survive in Japan in the aftermath of World War II. But when they fall in love, they change the course of history.

When Gordon arrives in Japan, he expects ruthless samurai, angry Japanese men ready to kill Australians at every corner. Instead, he finds Cherry, terrified of ex-enemy soldiers, a survivor of the atomic bomb. Against all the rules and all the odds, they fall in love. But when Gordon discovers the White Australia Policy prevents Cherry coming home with him as his war bride, he does what any 20-year-old soldier would do. He vows to fight. Leaving Cherry alone and pregnant in post-war Japan, Gordon has to convince his family to accept his marriage and wage a desperate campaign against a xenophobic and war-scarred government to allow his wife and children to come home.

A sweeping story spanning seven years and two countries reeling from the aftermath of war, At the Foot of the Cherry Tree is a powerfully moving novel about faith, trust, and the power of a love that alters history - written by Gordon and Cherry's granddaughter, accomplished scriptwriter, Alli Parker.

Alli Parker is a Japanese-Australian author and screenwriter, with a background in script editing and script co-ordinating. Her debut historical fiction novel, At the Foot of the Cherry Tree, is a novelisation of the true story of Australia's first Japanese war bride and Alli's grandmother. She co-wrote episodes of crime drama series Jack Irish, romantic thriller series Secret Bridesmaids' Business and mystery telemovie series Ms Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries. Her credits as a script editor and co-ordinator include Irreverent, Jack Irish series 1, 2, & 3, Shantaram, Secret Bridesmaids' Business, Ms Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries, Ride Like A Girl, Sunshine, Please Like Me series 4 and Utopia series 1 & 2.

Catherine Milne has worked in publishing for many years, including with Penguin Books, Allen & Unwin, and since 2012 with HarperCollins, where she is now Head of Fiction. Her list is eclectic, but consistently award-winning and bestselling. From literary fiction to crossover/bookclub fiction and narrative non-fiction, she looks for books that seize her and make her feel something –it’s all about heart and soul, meaning and joy. In recent years, that’s been books like Julia Baird’s Phosphorescence, Trent Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe and All Our Shimmering Skies, Holly Ringland’s The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Stan Grant’s Talking to My Country, and Meg Mason’s Sorrow and Bliss.