Ann Bennett Books In Order

Publication Order of Bamboo Trilogy Books

Publication Order of Echoes of Empire Books

Publication Order of Rose Park Chronicles Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Ann Bennett
Author Ann Bennett was born in a tiny village in Northamptonshire, UK. She read Law at Cambridge and qualified and practiced as a solicitor.

During a career break, to have kids, she began writing. Her dad had been a prisoner of war on the Thailand-Burma Railway, and Ann got the idea for “Bamboo Heart” while researching his wartime experiences. The research took her to Southeast Asia, a place that she loves and has returned to several times.

The idea for “The Orphan House” came from researching her great-grandpa, named Brice Bennett, who was the headmaster of a county school for pauper kids in Wargrave, Berkshire.

“Bamboo Heart” won the award for fiction published in Asia, Asian Books Blog in the year 2015.

Ann’s debut novel, called “A Daughter’s Quest”, was released in the year 2013. Her work is from the sagas and historical fiction genres.

“A Daughter’s Quest” is the first novel in the “Bamboo Heart” series and was released in the year 2013. A World War Two novel of survival and love. One daughter’s journey of discovery and a soldier’s strength during the bleakest of times. When Laura Ellis, who is a successful city lawyer, comes back home to see her dying dad Tom, there’s a mysterious stranger watching the house. It leads her to go on a journey to learn their connection.

In order to do so, she must retrace her dad’s steps; right to the Bridge on the River Kwai: where Tom, as a prisoner of war of the Japanese, endured torture, disease, and never ending days as a slave. Then on to the gorgeous island Penang, to find out some secrets from the 1930s.

He made a promise to himself: to return back home. Not to the gray streets in London, where he used to live, however to Penang, where he was able to find love and paradise. While she searches for the truths that Tom refused to tell her, in the places that he once suffered, loved, and lived, she’s finally going to learn the story behind his survival, and learn her own path to happiness and love.

This is a powerful story that has been brilliantly told. Ann delivers an outstanding and compelling read that serves as a powerful reminder just what the prisoners of the Japanese actually suffered through.

“The Planter’s Wife” is the second novel in the “Bamboo Heart” series and was released in the year 2016. In 1938: Juliet and her sister Rose show up in Penang so they can stay with an aunt, after their dad’s death. Juliet soon falls under the spell of Gavin Crosby, the owner of a plantation, who despite all his good looks, charm, and wealth has been shunned by the local community. Juliet, who gets rushed into a marriage, is not ready for the devastating secrets that she uncovers on Gavin’s plantation, and the bad blood between Gavin and his brother.

However by the time 1941 rolls around the Japanese have occupied Singapore and Malaya sweeping away that world and changing her life for good.

For decades after the war that robbed her of everybody that she loved, she lives as a recluse back on the plantation. However in the year 1962, the sudden appearance of a young woman from an orphanage in Indonesia, named Mary, forces her to embark on a journey back into the past, and face up to the heartbreaking truths she’s kept buried for so very long.

This novel is a vivid account of a brutal period, and is a searing exploration of memory, trauma, and loss. Readers raced through the novel quickly, as they needed to learn Juliet’s secrets and were caught up in the story of passion, love, and cruelty. It’s a rather beautiful, haunting, and powerful read.

“The Homecoming” is the third novel in the “Bamboo Heart” series and was released in the year 2017. Sirinya, determined to settle some old scores from the war years, goes back to native Thailand, where she once risked everything so she could help out prisoners of war on the Death Railway. However her journey back into the past reveals some unexpected truths.

Thailand in 1942. Sirinya and her family are part of the Thai underground, who risk their own lives to resist the Japanese occupation and to aid the prisoners of war that build the Thai-Burma railway.

The events from these years have got consequences for the decades that follow. This novel tells Sirinya’s wartime tale and how during the seventies she goes back to Kanchanaburi after a long absence spent abroad, to find long buried secrets from during the war years.

Readers found this to be a thought provoking novel that is well worth the time it takes to read it.

“The Orphan House” is the first stand alone novel and was released in the year 2018. Baby born on September 5, 1934, with place of birth and parents are both unknown.

Sarah Jennings, in the present day, knows that there’s a place she can go to find a bit of peace and quiet during her tough divorce. However arriving at her beloved dad’s home in the country, she finds he’s unwell and hunched over the boxes of files, studying the records from Cedar Hall, which is the crumbling orphanage in the town. He tells her that hidden behind the overgrown ivy and those wrought iron gates are secrets about their family and wants her help.

Sarah talks to Connie Burroughs, the one person still alive that lived at Cedar Hall. Her questions take Connie from the comfort of her nursing home on back to a cold night in 1934, when she was a little girl and saw her dad carrying a newborn baby, all bundled in rags, and he said he’d found the baby near the busted front gate. The day that Connie started protecting his secrets.

Right when Sarah starts convincing Connie that the truth is able to set her free, she knows that unlocking the past could have some heartbreaking repercussions.

This is an uplifting and emotional reminder that incredible acts of bravery are able to change the course of history.

2 Responses to “Ann Bennett”

1. Sandra smith: 2 years ago

   I love your books so so much. I really need to know how to get list of every book you have done. I have read quiet a few and caught up with loads of them. I dont seem to be able to see if any were released since 2014 until now. If I can please ask you to let me know. I will be so grateful. I love the books that i have read so far. I always said if I could go back to time and live where I wanted. I would be right there with you. May God Bless you and Keep you,

   Reply
   • Graeme: 2 years ago

     I’m not sure what the issue is? There are books listed above going all the way up to 2022.

     Reply