Violet Town Launch

Set against the uncertainty of wartime England, Violet Town is a sweeping historical debut exploring ambition, identity, class, first love and loss.

Bryony McGuinness resides in Melbourne's South-Eastern suburbs with her fiancé, David and furball-son, Archer. The second eldest of six, she took to writing from a very young age, and it was in Year 8, when she was daydreaming in the classroom, that the early stages of Violet Town were born, paving the way for what would become an ever-evolving project spanning two decades. In her spare time, Bryony enjoys reading and travel.

In 2025 she combined her passions to explore the sites and hometowns of Dickens, Austen, Carroll, Shakespeare and the Brontë sisters. Having lived abroad in her mid-twenties, and travelled the world, she has drawn from ample inspiration and life experience to arrive at her debut novel, Violet Town .

Gabrielle Mace is an independent literacy consultant, former Head of Library, and founder of ProReading Solutions. She works with schools to strengthen literacy ecosystems through reading culture, inquiry, and evidence-informed practice. Gabrielle is the creator of The Student Detective, a narrative-based inquiry pedagogy designed to engage students in purposeful reading, interpretation, and evidence-based reasoning. She is passionate about helping school libraries become visible drivers of whole-school literacy change. Drinks and nibblies provided.